Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, 3800, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 31;13(1):1710. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-27946-0.
Loss of natural habitat due to land-use change is one of the major threats to biodiversity worldwide. It not only affects the diversity of local species communities (alpha diversity) but can also lead to large-scale homogenization of community composition (reduced beta diversity) and loss of regional diversity (gamma diversity), but these effects are still rarely investigated. We assessed the impact of land-use change on taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of amphibians in Rwanda, both on the local (community-level) and regional scale (country-wide). Alpha diversity in local communities was higher in farmland than in natural habitats; however, species turnover among farmland sites was much lower than among natural sites, resulting in highly homogenized communities and reduced taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic gamma diversity in farmland across Rwanda. Amphibians found in farmland were mostly disturbance-tolerant species that are widespread in eastern Africa and beyond. In contrast, most of the regionally endemic frog species that make this region a continent-wide hotspot of amphibian diversity were found only in the natural habitats. Ongoing habitat conversion might result in further homogenization of amphibian communities across sub-Saharan Africa and the loss of regional endemism, unique evolutionary lineages, and multifunctionality.
由于土地利用变化导致的自然栖息地丧失是全球生物多样性的主要威胁之一。它不仅影响当地物种群落的多样性（α多样性），还可能导致群落组成的大规模同质化（β多样性降低）和区域多样性（γ多样性）的丧失，但这些影响仍然很少被研究。我们评估了土地利用变化对卢旺达两栖动物分类学、功能和系统发育多样性的影响，包括在当地（群落水平）和区域（全国范围）尺度上。农田的局部群落多样性高于自然生境；然而，农田之间的物种更替要低得多，导致农田中的群落高度同质化，并且卢旺达的分类学、功能和系统发育γ多样性降低。在农田中发现的两栖动物大多是耐受干扰的物种，它们广泛分布于东非及其他地区。相比之下，该地区特有的青蛙物种大多只存在于自然栖息地，这些物种是该地区成为全球两栖动物多样性热点的原因。目前正在进行的生境转换可能会导致撒哈拉以南非洲地区的两栖动物群落进一步同质化，并导致区域特有性、独特的进化谱系和多功能性的丧失。
