Disturbance‐driven variation in abundance–occupancy relationships over time in tropical forest fragments

A central problem in ecology is to understand spatial–temporal variation in abundance–occupancy relationship (AOR) and to identify the biological and anthropogenic drivers behind this variation. How AOR is influenced by ecological traits and anthropogenic disturbances is poorly understood. A data set of woody plants from eleven forest fragments around Kampala area, Uganda, recorded in 1990 and resampled in 2010 was used to analyse spatial variation in AORs at regional scales, variation between tree size classes and temporal change in these patterns. Slopes of the AORs for each forest were related to data on forest disturbances and effects of species traits on AOR at regional scales assessed. There were statistically significant positive interspecific AORs at regional scales. Over two decades, the strength of AOR and slopes increased at the regional scale. At local scale, slopes decreased, in correspondence with increasing disturbance. Species traits interacted with abundance to explain statistically significant variation in occupancy. Species successional status best explained occupancy variability. Incorporating species' traits and anthropogenic disturbance over time may lead to better understanding of the variation in interspecific AOR, and these results suggest that anthropogenic exploitation could be responsible for the changes in slope over time.