Lees Alexander C, Moura Nárgila G, de Almeida Arlete Silva, Vieira Ima C G
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, PA, Brazil.
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, PA, Brazil; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Federal do Pará/ Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém-Pará, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2015 May 8;10(5):e0122432. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122432. eCollection 2015.
Expansion of oil palm plantations across the humid tropics has precipitated massive loss of tropical forest habitats and their associated speciose biotas. Oil palm plantation monocultures have been identified as an emerging threat to Amazonian biodiversity, but there are no quantitative studies exploring the impact of these plantations on the biome's biota. Understanding these impacts is extremely important given the rapid projected expansion of oil palm cultivation in the basin. Here we investigate the biodiversity value of oil palm plantations in comparison with other dominant regional land-uses in Eastern Amazonia. We carried out bird surveys in oil palm plantations of varying ages, primary and secondary forests, and cattle pastures. We found that oil palm plantations retained impoverished avian communities with a similar species composition to pastures and agrarian land-uses and did not offer habitat for most forest-associated species, including restricted range species and species of conservation concern. On the other hand, the forests that the oil palm companies are legally obliged to protect hosted a relatively species-rich community including several globally-threatened bird species. We consider oil palm to be no less detrimental to regional biodiversity than other agricultural land-uses and that political pressure exerted by large landowners to allow oil palm to count as a substitute for native forest vegetation in private landholdings with forest restoration deficits would have dire consequences for regional biodiversity.
油棕种植园在潮湿热带地区的扩张，已导致热带森林栖息地及其相关的丰富生物群落大量丧失。油棕种植园单一栽培已被认定为对亚马逊生物多样性的一种新出现的威胁，但尚无定量研究探讨这些种植园对该生物群落的影响。鉴于预计该流域油棕种植将迅速扩张，了解这些影响极为重要。在此，我们将东亚马逊地区油棕种植园的生物多样性价值与其他主要区域土地利用方式进行比较。我们在不同树龄的油棕种植园、原始森林、次生林和牧场开展了鸟类调查。我们发现，油棕种植园保留的鸟类群落匮乏，其物种组成与牧场及农业用地类似，无法为大多数与森林相关的物种提供栖息地，包括分布范围受限的物种和受保护关注的物种。另一方面，油棕公司依法有义务保护的森林拥有相对物种丰富的群落，包括几种全球受威胁的鸟类物种。我们认为，油棕对区域生物多样性的危害不亚于其他农业用地利用方式，如果大土地所有者施加政治压力，允许油棕在森林恢复不足的私人土地上替代原生森林植被，将给区域生物多样性带来可怕后果。
