Ecology. 2014 Apr;95(4):856-70. doi: 10.1890/12-2017.1.
The future of biodiversity and ecosystem services depends largely on the capacity of human-dominated ecosystems to support them, yet this capacity remains largely unknown. Using the framework of countryside biogeography, and working in the Las Cruces system of Coto Brus, Costa Rica, we assessed reptile and amphibian assemblages within four habitats that typify much of the Neotropics: sun coffee plantations (12 sites), pasture (12 sites), remnant forest elements (12 sites), and a larger, contiguous protected forest (3 sites in one forest). Through analysis of 1678 captures of 67 species, we draw four primary conclusions. First, we found that the majority of reptile (60%) and amphibian (70%) species in this study used an array of habitat types, including coffee plantations and actively grazed pastures. Second, we found that coffee plantations and pastures hosted rich, albeit different and less dense, reptile and amphibian biodiversity relative to the 326-ha Las Cruces Forest Reserve and neighboring forest elements. Third, we found that the small ribbons of "countryside forest elements" weaving through farmland collectively increased the effective size of a 326-ha local forest reserve 16-fold for reptiles and 14-fold for amphibians within our 236-km2 study area. Therefore, countryside forest elements, often too small for most remote sensing techniques to identify, are contributing -95% of the available habitat for forest-dependent reptiles and amphibians in our largely human-dominated study region. Fourth, we found large and pond-reproducing amphibians to prefer human-made habitats, whereas small, stream-reproducing, and directly developing species are more dependent on forest elements. Our investigation demonstrates that tropical farming landscapes can support substantial reptile and amphibian biodiversity. Our approach provides a framework for estimating the conservation value of the complex working landscapes that constitute roughly half of the global land surface, and which are experiencing intensification pressure worldwide.
生物多样性和生态系统服务的未来在很大程度上取决于以人类为主导的生态系统支持它们的能力，但这种能力在很大程度上仍然未知。我们使用乡村生物地理学框架，在哥斯达黎加拉斯克鲁塞斯系统的科托布鲁斯进行研究，评估了四种典型的新热带栖息地中的爬行动物和两栖动物组合：太阳咖啡种植园（12 个地点）、牧场（12 个地点）、残余森林元素（12 个地点）和更大的、连续的受保护森林（一个森林中的 3 个地点）。通过对 67 种 1678 次捕获的分析，我们得出了四个主要结论。首先，我们发现，在这项研究中，大多数爬行动物（60%）和两栖动物（70%）使用了一系列的栖息地类型，包括咖啡种植园和放牧的牧场。其次，我们发现，咖啡种植园和牧场拥有丰富的爬行动物和两栖动物生物多样性，尽管与 326 公顷的拉斯克鲁塞斯森林保护区和附近的森林元素相比，这些生物多样性的种类不同且密度较低。第三，我们发现，贯穿农田的小块“乡村森林元素”丝带共同将一个 326 公顷的当地森林保护区的有效面积增加了 16 倍，用于爬行动物，在我们 236 平方公里的研究区域内，用于两栖动物的有效面积增加了 14 倍。因此，在我们以人类为主导的研究区域，乡村森林元素虽然太小，无法被大多数遥感技术识别，但为依赖森林的爬行动物和两栖动物提供了 95%的可用栖息地。第四，我们发现大型和池塘繁殖的两栖动物更喜欢人为栖息地，而小型、溪流繁殖和直接发育的物种则更依赖于森林元素。我们的调查表明，热带农业景观可以支持大量的爬行动物和两栖动物的生物多样性。我们的方法为估计构成全球近一半陆地表面的复杂工作景观的保护价值提供了一个框架，而这些景观正受到全球范围内的强化压力。
