Is plant temporal beta diversity of field margins related to changes in management practices?

Field margins have considerable ecological significance in agriculture-dominated landscapes by supporting biodiversity and associated services. However, agricultural changes during mid-20th century led to their drastic loss with a serious threat for biodiversity. Using time-series data, we aimed to get better insights into processes underlying plant patterns of field margins through time by i) quantifying plant temporal beta diversity components, ii) assessing whether the observed changes in plant communities can be related to changes in management practices applied to field margins. During the springs of 1994, 1998 and 2001, we surveyed plant communities and management practices of the same 116 field margins in three contrasted landscapes. We estimated temporal beta diversity in plant communities and partitioned it into its two dissimilarity resultant components, accounting for replacement of species (i.e. turnover) and for the nested gain or loss of species (i.e. nestedness). We then tested whether the observed changes in plant communities between 1994 and 1998 and, between 1998 and 2001 were related to changes in management practices using linear models. Plant communities of field margins exhibited strong temporal beta diversity dominated by turnover. Temporal turnover in plant communities was partly related to changes in management practices, i.e., a decrease of grazing concomitant to an increase of herbicide spraying. However, relationships were not consistent between all landscape contexts nor time period, suggesting that other unmeasured deterministic or stochastic processes could be driving the observed plant patterns. Taken together, our results suggest that maintaining a wide diversity of field margins with contrasted management contribute to maintaining plant diversity at a landscape scale. They underline the value of investigating plant temporal diversity patterns using time-series data and thus, the need to develop long-term studies making it possible to understand ecological processes shaping plant communities in agricultural landscapes.     

A checklist for ecological management of landscapes for conservation

The management of landscapes for biological conservation and ecologically sustainable natural resource use are crucial global issues. Research for over two decades has resulted in a large literature, yet there is little consensus on the applicability or even the existence of general principles or broad considerations that could guide landscape conservation. We assess six major themes in the ecology and conservation of landscapes. We identify 13 important issues that need to be considered in developing approaches to landscape conservation. They include recognizing the importance of landscape mosaics (including the integration of terrestrial and aquatic areas), recognizing interactions between vegetation cover and vegetation configuration, using an appropriate landscape conceptual model, maintaining the capacity to recover from disturbance and managing landscapes in an adaptive framework. These considerations are influenced by landscape context, species assemblages and management goals and do not translate directly into on-the-ground management guidelines but they should be recognized by researchers and resource managers when developing guidelines for specific cases. Two crucial overarching issues are: (i) a clearly articulated vision for landscape conservation and (ii) quantifiable objectives that offer unambiguous signposts for measuring progress.     

Broad‐scale patterns in plant diversity vary between land uses in a variegated temperate Australian agricultural landscape

Plant diversity is threatened in many agricultural landscapes. Our understanding of patterns of plant diversity in these landscapes is mainly based on small‐scale (<1000 m²) observations of species richness. However, such observations are insufficient for detecting the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation composition. In a case‐study farm on the North‐West Slopes of New South Wales, Australia, we observed species richness at four scales (quadrat, patch, land use and landscape) across five land uses (grazed and ungrazed woodlands, native pastures, roadsides and crops). We applied two landscape ecological models to assess the contribution of these land uses to landscape species richness: (i) additive partitioning of diversity at multiple spatial scales, and (ii) a measure of habitat specificity – the effective number of species that a patch contributes to landscape species richness. Native pastures had less variation between patches than grazed and ungrazed woodlands, and hence were less species‐rich at the landscape scale, despite having similar richness to woodlands at the quadrat and patch scale. Habitat specificity was significantly higher for ungrazed woodland patches than all other land uses. Our results showed that in this landscape, ungrazed woodland patches had a higher contribution than the grazed land uses to landscape species richness. These results have implications for the conservation management of this landscape, and highlighted the need for greater consensus on the influence of different land uses on landscape patterns of plant diversity.     

Seed dispersal in both space and time is necessary for plant diversity maintenance in fragmented landscapes

Metacommunity theory emphasizes that seed dispersal not only limits but equally maintains plant diversity, though the latter receives little empirical attention. Discerning the temporal and spatial components of seed dispersal and understanding how their interaction shapes fragmented communities and maintains their diversity may be pivotal to further our ecological understanding of spatial and temporal seed dispersal and its implications for landscape‐scale conservation management. To investigate the relative importance of spatial and temporal seed dispersal and their roles in maintaining plant diversity, the herb layer and seed bank of grassland communities were inventoried in 77 sites across abandoned and intact rotational grazing networks in a 100 km² fragmented grassland landscape in the Stockholm archipelago (Baltic Sea, Sweden). Besides analysing alpha‐ and beta‐diversity patterns, nestedness analyses connect deterministic community changes and diversity losses with dispersal‐related life‐history traits and habitat specialization to identify the mechanism driving community changes and maintaining local diversity. The loss of rotational grazing networks caused community diversity declines via non‐random extinctions of spatially and temporally poor dispersers, particularly among grassland specialists. Temporal seed dispersal halted further community disassembly, maintaining diversity in the abandoned grazing networks. Spatial dispersal within the intact grazing networks was found to be an overriding, homogenizing agent conserving diversity in both the herb layer and seed bank. This empirical evidence establishes how spatial and temporal seed dispersal interact to maintain diversity in fragmented landscapes. Poorly connected grasslands appear limited by spatial dispersal, yet are maintained by temporal seed dispersal. In fragmented landscapes where grazing networks are rarely present, temporal rather than spatial seed dispersal may be more important in maintaining species diversity, since effective spatial dispersal may be significantly diminished. The grazing network's efficacy at boosting spatial dispersal and upholding community diversity presents a powerful management tool to conserve local and regional species diversity.     

A novel application of the Price equation reveals that landscape diversity promotes the response of bees to regionally rare plant species

Bees are ecosystem service providers that are globally threatened by losses of plant diversity. However, effects of multi‐species floral displays on bees in agro‐ecosystems with variable landscape context remain poorly understood, hindering pollinator conservation tactics. We addressed this knowledge gap through a novel application of the modified Price equation to evaluate responses of bees to diverse floral communities on 36 farms in Washington, USA, over 3 years. We found that floral richness, not floral identity, was the best predictor of floral visits by bees. However, the benefits of regionally rare floral species (i.e. plants found at relatively few sites) were only fully realised when farms were embedded in diverse landscapes. Our analysis used the modified Price equation to demonstrate that plant diversity, rather than specific plant species, promotes pollinator visitation, and that diverse landscapes promote the response of pollinators to regionally rare plant species.     

Effects of landscape structure and land-use intensity on similarity of plant and animal communities

Aim Species richness in itself is not always sufficient to evaluate land management strategies for nature conservation. The exchange of species between local communities may be affected by landscape structure and land‐use intensity. Thus, species turnover, and its inverse, community similarity, may be useful measures of landscape integrity from a diversity perspective. Location A European transect from France to Estonia. Methods We measured the similarity of plant, bird, wild bee, true bug, carabid beetle, hoverfly and spider communities sampled along gradients in landscape composition (e.g. total availability of semi‐natural habitat), landscape configuration (e.g. fragmentation) and land‐use intensity (e.g. pesticide loads). Results Total availability of semi‐natural habitats had little effect on community similarity, except for bird communities, which were more homogeneous in more natural landscapes. Bee communities, in contrast, were less similar in landscapes with higher percentages of semi‐natural habitats. Increased landscape fragmentation decreased similarity of true bug communities, while plant communities showed a nonlinear, U‐shaped response. More intense land use, specifically increased pesticide burden, led to a homogenization of bee, bug and spider communities within sites. In these cases, habitat fragmentation interacted with pesticide load. Hoverfly and carabid beetle community similarity was differentially affected by higher pesticide levels: for carabid beetles similarity decreased, while for hoverflies we observed a U‐shaped relationship. Main conclusions Our study demonstrates the effects of landscape composition, configuration and land‐use intensity on the similarity of communities. It indicates reduced exchange of species between communities in landscapes dominated by agricultural activities. Taxonomic groups differed in their responses to environmental drivers and using but one group as an indicator for ‘biodiversity’ as such would thus not be advisable.     

农田景观和管理方式对稻田系统植物多样性的复合影响

农田生物多样性对于维持农田生态系统服务功能和农业可持续发展具有重要意义.为揭示农田景观特征和管理方式对农田生态系统植物群落和物种多样性的影响,以有机稻田(ON)、常规化防稻田(天然林脚下,CN)、常规化防稻田(距天然林>10km,CF)系统为研究对象,调查了田内、田埂和沟渠生境的植物物种组成和多样性特征,并对三种类型稻...     

Using unclassified continuous remote sensing data to improve distribution models of red-listed plant species

Remote sensing (RS) data may play an important role in the development of cost-effective means for modelling, mapping, planning and conserving biodiversity. Specifically, at the landscape scale, spatial models for the occurrences of species of conservation concern may be improved by the inclusion of RS-based predictors, to help managers to better meet different conservation challenges. In this study, we examine whether predicted distributions of 28 red-listed plant species in north-eastern Finland at the resolution of 25 ha are improved when advanced RS-variables are included as unclassified continuous predictor variables, in addition to more commonly used climate and topography variables. Using generalized additive models (GAMs), we studied whether the spatial predictions of the distribution of red-listed plant species in boreal landscapes are improved by incorporating advanced RS (normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference soil index and Tasseled Cap transformations) information into species-environment models. Models were fitted using three different sets of explanatory variables: (1) climate-topography only; (2) remote sensing only; and (3) combined climate-topography and remote sensing variables, and evaluated by four-fold cross-validation with the area under the curve (AUC) statistics. The inclusion of RS variables improved both the explanatory power (on average 8.1 % improvement) and cross-validation performance (2.5 %) of the models. Hybrid models produced ecologically more reliable distribution maps than models using only climate-topography variables, especially for mire and shore species. In conclusion, Landsat ETM+ data integrated with climate and topographical information has the potential to improve biodiversity and rarity assessments in northern landscapes, especially in predictive studies covering extensive and remote areas.     

Ecosystem engineering affects ecosystem functioning in high-Andean landscapes

Ecosystem engineers are organisms that change the distribution of materials and energy in the abiotic environment, usually creating and maintaining new habitat patches in the landscape. Such changes in habitat conditions have been widely documented to affect the distributions and performances of other species but up to now no studies have addressed how such effects can impact the biotically driven physicochemical processes associated with these landscapes, or ecosystem functions. Based on the widely accepted positive relationship between species diversity and ecosystem functions, we propose that the effects of ecosystem engineers on other species could have an impact on ecosystem functions via two mutually inclusive mechanisms: (1) by adding new species into landscapes, hence increasing species diversity; and (2) by improving the performances of species already present in the landscape. To test these hypotheses, we focused on the effects of a high-Andean ecosystem engineer, the cushion plant Azorella monantha, by comparing the accumulation of plant biomass and nitrogen fixed in plant tissues as species richness increases in landscapes with and without the engineer species. Our results show that both ecosystem functions increased with species richness in both landscape types, but landscapes including A. monantha cushions reached higher outcomes of plant biomass and nitrogen fixed in plant tissues than landscapes without cushions. Moreover, our results indicate that such positive effects on ecosystem functions could be mediated by the two mechanisms proposed above. Then, given the conspicuousness of ecosystem engineering in nature and its strong influence on species diversity, and given the well-known relationship between species diversity and ecosystem function, we suggest that the application of the conceptual framework proposed herein to other ecosystems would help to advance our understanding of the forces driving ecosystem functioning. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Global patterns of plant diversity

Summary Using 94 data sets from across the globe, we explored patterns of mean community species richness, landscape species richness, mean similarity among communities and mosaic diversity. Climate affected community species richness primarily through productivity while other climatic factors were secondary. Climatic equability affected species richness only in temperate regions where richness was greatest at high levels of temperature variability and low levels of precipitation variability. Landscape species richness correlated positively with community species richness. A global gradient in mean similarity existed but was uncorrelated with community species richness. Mean similarity was least and mosaic diversity was greatest between 25 and 30° latitude. The most diverse landscapes (low mean similarity) correlated with warm temperatures, high elevations, large areas and large seasonal temperature fluctuations. The most complex landscapes (high mosaic diversity) correlated with large areas, high productivity and warm winters. We compared diversity measures among continents and found only one significant difference: Australian landscapes have greater mosaic diversity than African landscapes. Based on our analyses we propose two hypotheses: (1) for plants, biotic interactions are more important in structuring landscapes in warmer climates and (2) longer isolated landscapes have more clearly differentiated ecological subunits.     

The conservation value of cacao agroforestry for bird functional diversity in tropical agricultural landscapes

Cacao agroforestry have been considered as biodiversity‐friendly farming practices by maintaining habitats for a high diversity of species in tropical landscapes. However, little information is available to evaluate whether this agrosystem can maintain functional diversity, given that agricultural changes can affect the functional components, but not the taxonomic one (e.g., species richness). Thus, considering functional traits improve the understanding of the agricultural impacts on biodiversity. Here, we measured functional diversity (functional richness‐FD, functional evenness‐FEve, and functional divergence‐Rao) and taxonomic diversity (species richness and Simpson index) to evaluate changes of bird diversity in cacao agroforestry in comparison with nearby mature forests (old‐growth forests) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We used data from two landscapes with constraining areas of mature forest (49% Una and 4.8% Ilhéus) and cacao agroforestry cover (6% and 82%, respectively). To remove any bias of species richness and to evaluate assembly processes (functional overdispersion or clustering), all functional indices were adjusted using null models. Our analyses considered the entire community, as well as separately for forest specialists, habitat generalists, and birds that contribute to seed dispersal (frugivores/granivores) or invertebrate removal (insectivores). Our findings showed that small cacao agroforestry in the forested landscape sustains functional diversity (FD and FEve) as diverse as nearby forests when considering the entire community, forest specialist, and habitat generalists. However, we observed declines for frugivores/granivores and insectivores (FD and Rao). These responses of bird communities differed from those observed by taxonomic diversity, suggesting that even species‐rich communities in agroforestry may capture lower functional diversity. Furthermore, communities in both landscapes showed either functional clustering or neutral processes as the main driver of functional assembly. Functional clustering may indicate that local conditions and resources were changed or lost, while neutral assemblies may reveal high functional redundancy at the landscape scale. In Ilhéus, the neutral assembly predominance suggests an effect of functional homogenization between habitats. Thus, the conservation value of cacao agroforestry to harbor species‐rich communities and ecosystem functions relies on smallholder production with reduced farm management in a forested landscape. Finally, we emphasize that seed dispersers and insectivores should be the priority conservation targets in cacao systems.     

Urban riparian systems function as corridors for both native and invasive plant species

Riparian areas are often the only green areas left in urban and suburban landscapes, providing opportunities for conservation and connectivity of both aquatic and terrestrial organisms. While city planners and land managers often tout the importance of riparian networks for these uses, it is not well established if urban riparian plant communities are actually functioning as connected assemblages. Furthermore, urban riparian zones are well known to be highly invaded by non-native plant species and may be functioning to increase the spread of non-native species across the landscape. Here we examine connectivity of plant assemblages in riparian networks within an extensively urbanized landscape. We sampled riparian plant communities at 13 sites along three second-order streams of the Rahway River watershed, New Jersey. We also characterized propagule dispersal at each site by sampling litter packs on the river banks five times between March–October 2011 and identifying germinants from litter packs after cold stratification. Species turnover of both riparian and litter vegetation was more strongly associated with flow distance, particularly for native species, indicating that riverine systems are important for promoting connectivity of native plant assemblages in urban landscapes. However, non-native germinants significantly dominated propagule dispersal along the stream reaches, particularly early in the growing season, suggesting spread utilizing the river system and preemption may be an important mechanism for invasion success in this system. Our data show that management of invasive species should be planned and implemented at the watershed scale to reduce spread via the river system.     

Ecosystem engineers maintain a rare species of butterfly and increase plant diversity

We evaluated whether ecosystem engineers can accomplish two conservation goals simultaneously: (1) indirectly maintain populations of an endangered animal through habitat modification and (2) increase riparian plant diversity. We tested for effects of a prominent ecosystem engineer, the beaver Castor canadensis, on populations of St. Francis' satyr butterfly Neonympha mitchellii francisci and plant species richness and composition. We performed our test by surveying riparian vegetation communities in all stages of beaver‐influenced wetland succession. We found that beavers created wetland habitats that supported plant species not found elsewhere in riparian zones and increased plant species diversity across the landscape by creating a novel combination of patch types. Our results confirmed what others have found about engineering effects on plant diversity, but these results further demonstrated a case where ecosystem engineers indirectly maintain populations of rare animals by modifying the composition and diversity of plant communities within wetlands. Our research demonstrates how an ecosystem engineer can influence habitat availability and composition of plant communities important for an endangered insect, and maintain overall plant species diversity by increasing habitat heterogeneity.     

Landscape heterogeneity as an ecological filter of species traits

Landscape heterogeneity is a major driver of biodiversity in agricultural areas and represents an important parameter in conservation strategies. However, most landscape ecology studies measure gamma diversity of a single habitat type, despite the assessment of multiple habitats at a landscape scale being more appropriate. This study aimed to determine the effects of landscape composition and spatial configuration on life-history trait distribution in carabid beetle and herbaceous plant communities. Here, we assessed the gamma diversity of carabid beetles and plants by sampling three dominant habitats (woody habitats, grasslands and crops) across 20 landscapes in western France. RLQ and Fourth Corner three-table analyses were used to assess the association of dispersal, phenology, reproduction and trophic level traits with landscape characteristics. Landscape composition and configuration were both significant in explaining functional composition. Carabid beetles and plants showed similar response regarding phenology, i.e. open landscapes were associated with earlier breeding species. Carabid beetle dispersal traits exhibited the strongest relationship with landscape structure; for instance, large and apterous species preferentially inhabited woody landscapes, whereas small and macropterous species preferentially inhabited open landscapes. Heavy seeded plant species dominated in intensified agricultural landscapes (high % crops), possibly due to the removal of weeds (which are usually lightweight seeded species). The results of this study emphasise the roles of landscape composition and configuration as ecological filters and the importance of preserving a range of landscape types to maintain functional biodiversity at regional scales.     

A stronger influence of past rather than present landscape structure on present plant species richness of road-field boundaries

Road verges provide a refuge for numerous plant species, especially in agroecosystems characterized for decades by a general decline in semi-natural habitats and edge density. Beyond the influence of present landscape structure on the local structure and composition of plant communities, past landscape structure could also have a substantial effect. Indeed, a temporal delay could especially be hypothesized between periods of landscape changes and biological responses of plant communities. We surveyed plant communities of three adjacent elements of 190 road-field boundaries in Central-Western France: the berm, the embankment and the field margin. We compared the effects of past (1980) and present (2011) surrounding agricultural landscape structure on the plant species richness of each element and on the Sørensen taxonomic compositional dissimilarity index between pairs of elements using linear models and a model averaging procedure. We characterized the landscape structure at both time periods within three circular buffers of 250, 500 and 1000 m radius around the centre of each sampled road-field boundary. In each buffer, we calculated the proportion of grasslands, the proportion of woodlands and the edge density. Despite a weak explanatory power of the landscape structure, species richness of each road-field element was better explained by past than present landscape structure. Species richness of berms, the element of the road-field boundary having the highest proportion of perennial species, was also the most influenced by past landscape structure. As an example, species richness of berms increased with the proportion of woodlands and the edge density when considering a buffer of 500 m radius. In contrast, compositional dissimilarity between pair of elements was neither affected by past nor present landscape structure. Our results suggest that the taxonomic diversity of plant communities of road-field boundaries have a time-lagged response to landscape changes, emphasising that currently implemented management programs represent high stakes for biodiversity conservation in future decades.     

A novel approach to understanding bird communities using informed diversity estimates at local and regional scales in northern California and southern Oregon

Assessment and preservation of biodiversity has been a central theme of conservation biology since the discipline's inception. However, when diversity estimates are based purely on measures of presence–absence, or even abundance, they do not directly assess in what way focal habitats support the life history needs of individual species making up biological communities. Here, we move beyond naïve measures of occurrence and introduce the concept of “informed diversity” indices which scale estimates of avian species richness and community assemblage by two critical phases of their life cycle: breeding and molt. We tested the validity of the “informed diversity” concept using bird capture data from multiple locations in northern California and southern Oregon to examine patterns of species richness among breeding, molting, and naïve (based solely on occurrence) bird communities at the landscape and local scales using linear regression, community similarity indices, and a Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA). At the landscape scale, we found a striking pattern of increased species richness for breeding, molting, and naïve bird communities further inland and at higher elevations throughout the study area. At the local scale, we found that some sites with species‐rich naïve communities were in fact species‐poor when informed by breeding status, indicating that naïve richness may mask more biologically meaningful patterns of diversity. We suggest that land managers use informed diversity estimates instead of naïve measures of diversity to identify ecologically valuable wildlife habitat.     

Effect of forest landscapes composition and configuration on bird community and its functional traits in a hotspot of biodiversity of Chile

Understanding the effect of landscape configuration on the bird species richness and their functional traits (dietary preferences) is important to link the conservation and restoration plans to the production of the crops. Our aims were: 1) to study the influence of forest types (native, mixed and plantations) on the bird species richness in two agroforestry landscapes (heterogeneous/homogeneous); 2) to assess the effect of size/density of forest patches in the birds’ functional traits; 3) to evaluate the effect of isolated trees on them, and 4) to discuss conservation and restoration measures for the birds’ functional traits in agroforestry landscapes. We used hierarchical occupancy models to evaluate the effect of different landscape metrics and detectability measures on bird communities. We recorded a total of 64 bird species. The estimated species richness was considerable higher in homogeneous landscape (31.7 ± 2.7) than heterogeneous (27.3 ± 2.5). Our results showed the bird assemblage had a positive trend with native forests, negative with mixed forests and neutral trend for plantations. The granivores and insectivore’s species showed significant preferences for homogeneous landscape, while omnivores had significant preferences for heterogeneous landscape. Carnivores/Piscivores and herbivores/frugivores species did not show preferences by any landscape type. The response of functional traits depended on different forests attributes. The isolated trees had a significant effect on the birds’ functional traits. In conclusion, it is necessary a deep knowledge about the relationship between the landscape configuration and the bird species richness/functional traits. These findings could help in the future with the conservation, restoration, and rewilding policies in this important hotspot of biodiversity, avoiding alterations in the ecosystem services.     

Conservation biological control and enemy diversity on a landscape scale

Conservation biological control in agroecosystems requires a landscape management perspective, because most arthropod species experience their habitat at spatial scales beyond the plot level, and there is spillover of natural enemies across the crop–noncrop interface. The species pool in the surrounding landscape and the distance of crop from natural habitat are important for the conservation of enemy diversity and, in particular, the conservation of poorly-dispersing and specialized enemies. Hence, structurally complex landscapes with high habitat connectivity may enhance the probability of pest regulation. In contrast, generalist and highly vagile enemies may even profit from the high primary productivity of crops at a landscape scale and their abundance may partly compensate for losses in enemy diversity. Conservation biological control also needs a multitrophic perspective. For example, entomopathogenic fungi, plant pathogens and endophytes as well as below- and above-ground microorganisms are known to influence pest-enemy interactions in ways that vary across spatiotemporal scales. Enemy distribution in agricultural landscapes is determined by beta diversity among patches. The diversity needed for conservation biological control may occur where patch heterogeneity at larger spatial scales is high. However, enemy communities in managed systems are more similar across space and time than those in natural systems, emphasizing the importance of natural habitat for a spillover of diverse enemies. According to the insurance hypothesis, species richness can buffer against spatiotemporal disturbances, thereby insuring functioning in changing environments. Seemingly redundant enemy species may become important under global change. Complex landscapes characterized by highly connected crop–noncrop mosaics may be best for long-term conservation biological control and sustainable crop production, but experimental evidence for detailed recommendations to design the composition and configuration of agricultural landscapes that maintain a diversity of generalist and specialist natural enemies is still needed.     

Patterns and drivers of wild bee community assembly in a Mediterranean IUCN important plant area

Recent reports of pollinator declines have stirred interest in investigating the impacts of habitat exploitation on the conservation of pollinator and plant communities. An important prerequisite to tailor conservation action is to understand the drivers and patterns of species-rich communities, and how they change in space and time during a whole season. To account for this, we surveyed wild bees and flowering plants using standardized transects in 11 natural habitat fragments of an IUCN important plant area along the coast of Israel. We used phylogeny- and taxon-based methods of community structure analyses to study the assembly processes of bee communities, and investigated the effects of several landscape parameters on bee diversity using generalized linear models (GLMs). Our results illustrate that natural habitat sites comprised significantly higher species richness compared to disturbed habitat sites, and show that even the smallest habitat fragments harbored unique bee assemblages, with significant species replacement (turnover) found in both space and time. Our GLMs indicated that flower diversity, and semi-natural habitat within 500 m of habitat fragments were important drivers of bee diversity, but we found no evidence for a species—area relationship among sites. Finally, we document a case of phylogenetic overdispersion despite low species richness, which highlights the importance of accounting for phylogenetic diversity rather than only species richness to reach a more fine-grained understanding of pollinator diversity. This, in turn, is pivotal to developing conservation actions to protect these essential pollinators and their interaction with rare and endemic plant species in this highly threatened ecosystem.     

Diversity of locally useful tropical forest wild-plants as a function of species richness and informant culture

Different conservation values and perspectives can lead to divergent conservation objectives. Understanding such differences is crucial to developing more comprehensive and inclusive conservation approaches. Using plots, we assessed how numbers of useful species as reported by indigenous forest-dwelling people relate to plant species richness. We used 173 plots recording both trees and herbaceous vegetation and the knowledge of both Merap- and Punan-dominated communities in Malinau, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). We used general linear models (GLMs) to characterise the relationships. Useful species increase with species richness in all cases. The relationship varied across culture and community and was not always linear. The proportion of tree species reported as useful by Merap (primarily agriculturalist) informants was not constant but declined significantly as plot diversity increased; this was not the case for Punan (primarily hunter-gatherer) informants. There was no decline for the reported proportion of useful herbs as richness increases, as assessed by either ethnic group. Communities with less wealth and less schooling generally reported a higher proportion of the useful species. We interpret these results in terms of how landscape patterns of plant diversity are experienced. Understanding of these relationships can help us develop a more explicit approach to weighing and reconciling different conservation values and management objectives in changing forest landscapes.