Chouangthavy Bounsanong, Fourcade Yoan
Entomology Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture National University of Laos Vientiane Laos.
Univ. Paris Est Creteil, Sorbonne Université, Univ Paris Cité, CNRS, IRD, INRAE Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement, IEES Créteil France.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Jul 4;13(7):e10258. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10258. eCollection 2023 Jul.
Rapid economic development can pose a threat to the biodiversity of tropical countries. In Laos, this is manifested by the conversion of natural forests into plantations, even though this area is one of the biodiversity hotspots of Southeast Asia. Beetle communities can be good indicators of the impact of anthropogenic pressure on natural ecosystems. In this study, we analyzed for the first time a large-scale inventory of Coleoptera to assess the ecological and anthropogenic drivers of beetle communities in Laos. We examined beetle communities (described at the family level) across the country, located in distinct habitat types, in order to understand the impact of the conversion of natural forest into plantations. We found that beetle abundance had declined in plantations compared to natural forests. At the same time, we observed fewer beetle families in plantations overall, but at the scale of sampling sites there was no difference in local richness compared to natural forests, suggesting a homogenization of beetle communities in anthropogenic habitats. Although results are certainly sensitive to our coarse classification of beetle specimens into families, the negative impact of the conversion of natural tropical forests into agriculture area can still be clearly demonstrated. Our findings highlight that it is possible to make use of unstructured large-scale inventories to explore how beetle communities responds to landscape changes induced by human activities. We suggest that sampling beetle communities can be used as an ecological indicator to monitor anthropogenic impacts on tropical ecosystems.
快速的经济发展可能对热带国家的生物多样性构成威胁。在老挝，这种威胁表现为天然林被改造成种植园，尽管该地区是东南亚生物多样性热点地区之一。甲虫群落可以很好地指示人为压力对自然生态系统的影响。在本研究中，我们首次分析了一项关于鞘翅目的大规模清查数据，以评估老挝甲虫群落的生态和人为驱动因素。我们调查了该国不同栖息地类型中的甲虫群落（按科级描述），以便了解天然林转变为种植园的影响。我们发现，与天然林相比，种植园中甲虫的数量有所下降。同时，我们总体上观察到种植园中甲虫的科数较少，但在采样点尺度上，与天然林相比，局部丰富度没有差异，这表明人为栖息地中甲虫群落出现了同质化。尽管我们将甲虫标本粗略地分类到科级，结果肯定会受到影响，但天然热带森林转变为农业区域的负面影响仍能得到清晰证明。我们的研究结果表明，利用非结构化的大规模清查数据来探索甲虫群落如何响应人类活动引起的景观变化是可行的。我们建议，对甲虫群落进行采样可作为一种生态指标，用于监测人为活动对热带生态系统的影响。
