Dataset Information

Woody species diversity and land-use change legacy: Dataset across Uruguay.

ABSTRACT: The presented datasets relate to the research article entitled "Beyond the boundaries: Do spatio-temporal trajectories of land-use change and cross boundary effects shape the diversity of woody species in Uruguayan native forests?" [Ramírez and Säumel 10.1016/j.agee.2021.107646]. The datasets include field survey data on woody species diversity from 32 permanent plots of native forests across the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (South America). Based on land-use maps created with Landsat images we analysed the changes of percentage of cover, the landscape shape index and aggregation index of the different land-use types (i.e., native forest, grassland, timber plantation and crops) in a buffer of 3 km from the central point of each plot. Datasets were produced using ArcGIS and different R and Fragstat packages. Data on woody species diversity, land-use change history inform landscape planning, land-use management, policy and governance and can be used for further meta-analysis with other local, regional or global data sets.

SUBMITTER: Saumel I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8603027 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Woody species diversity and land-use change legacy: Dataset across Uruguay.

Säumel Ina I Ramírez Leonardo R LR

Data in brief 20211107

The presented datasets relate to the research article entitled "Beyond the boundaries: Do spatio-temporal trajectories of land-use change and cross boundary effects shape the diversity of woody species in Uruguayan native forests?" [Ramírez and Säumel 10.1016/j.agee.2021.107646]. The datasets include field survey data on woody species diversity from 32 permanent plots of native forests across the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (South America). Based on land-use maps created with Landsat images we ...[more]

PMID: 34825024

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Project description:The increasing demand for cultivated lands driven by human population growth, escalating consumption and activities, combined with the vast area of uncultivated land, highlight the pressing need to better understand the biodiversity conservation implications of land use change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Land use change alters natural wildlife habitats with fundamental consequences for biodiversity. Consequently, species richness and diversity typically decline as land use changes from natural to disturbed. We assess how richness and diversity of avian species, grouped into feeding guilds, responded to land use changes, primarily expansion of settlements and cultivation at three sites in the Lake Victoria Basin in western Kenya, following tsetse control interventions. Each site consisted of a matched pair of spatially adjacent natural/semi-natural and settled/cultivated landscapes. Significant changes occurred in bird species richness and diversity in the disturbed relative to the natural landscape. Disturbed areas had fewer guilds and all guilds in disturbed areas also occurred in natural areas. Guilds had significantly more species in natural than in disturbed areas. The insectivore/granivore and insectivore/wax feeder guilds occurred only in natural areas. Whilst species diversity was far lower, a few species of estrildid finches were more common in the disturbed landscapes and were often observed on the scrubby edges of modified habitats. In contrast, the natural and less disturbed wooded areas had relatively fewer estrildid species and were completely devoid of several other species. In aggregate, land use changes significantly reduced bird species richness and diversity on the disturbed landscapes regardless of their breeding range size or foraging style (migratory or non-migratory) and posed greater risks to non-migratory species. Accordingly, land use planning should integrate conservation principles that preserve salient habitat qualities required by different bird species, such as adequate patch size and habitat connectivity, conserve viable bird populations and restore degraded habitats to alleviate adverse impacts of land use change on avian species richness and diversity.

Project description:Land use change modifies the environment at multiple spatial scales, and is a main driver of species declines and deterioration of ecosystem services. However, most of the research on the effects of land use change has focused on taxonomic diversity, while functional diversity, an important predictor of ecosystem services, is often neglected. We explored how local and landscape scale characteristics influence functional and taxonomic diversity of hummingbirds in the Andes Mountains in southern Ecuador. Data was collected in six landscapes along a land use gradient, from an almost intact landscape to one dominated by cattle pastures. We used point counts to sample hummingbirds from 2011 to 2012 to assessed how local factors (i.e., vegetation structure, flowering plants richness, nectar availability) and landscape factors (i.e., landscape heterogeneity, native vegetation cover) influenced taxonomic and functional diversity. Then, we analyzed environment - trait relationships (RLQ test) to explore how different hummingbird functional traits influenced species responses to these factors. Taxonomic and functional diversity of hummingbirds were positively associated with landscape heterogeneity but only functional diversity was positively related to native vegetation coverage. We found a weak response of taxonomic and functional diversity to land use change at the local scale. Environment-trait associations showed that body mass of hummingbirds likely influenced species sensitivity to land use change. In conclusion, landscape heterogeneity created by land use change can positively influence hummingbird taxonomic and functional diversity; however, a reduction of native vegetation cover could decrease functional diversity. Given that functional diversity can mediate ecosystem services, the conservation of native vegetation cover could play a key role in the maintenance of hummingbird pollination services in the tropical Andes. Moreover, there are particular functional traits, such as body mass, that increase a species sensitivity to land use change.

Dataset Information

Woody species diversity and land-use change legacy: Dataset across Uruguay.

Publications

Woody species diversity and land-use change legacy: Dataset across Uruguay.

Similar Datasets

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