Department of General Biology, Center for Biological and Health Sciences, State University of Montes Claros, Montes Claros, Brazil.
Graduate Program in Animal Biodiversity, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, 74690-900, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 12;14(1):21317. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-72479-9.
Palm swamp forests are wetland ecosystems typical of the Brazilian Cerrado, which in recent decades have undergone intense changes due to land use alterations and climate change. As a result of these disturbances, many palm swamps have been experiencing significant drying, which can also affect adjacent vegetation. In the present study, we evaluated whether the drying of palm swamps affects the structure of plant-herbivore networks located in adjacent savanna areas in Brazil. Our results show that savanna areas adjacent to dry zones of palm swamps have fewer interactions, fewer interacting species, and a less specialized topology, which corroborates our expectations. Our findings indicate that the drying of palm swamps also has propagated impacts on adjacent savanna vegetation, impairing more specialized interactions in these environments. On the other hand, contrary to expectations, plant-herbivore networks in dry zones displayed higher modularity, lower nestedness and lower robustness than those in wet zones, suggesting that in dry environments, species tend to compartmentalize their interactions, even with lower interaction specialization. This is the first study to investigate the impacts of environmental drying on the structure of plant-herbivore networks in tropical ecosystems, highlighting the complexity of these effects and their differential impact on specialized and generalized interactions. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for developing effective conservation and management strategies in the face of ongoing environmental changes.
掌状沼林是巴西塞拉多地区特有的湿地生态系统，近几十年来，由于土地利用方式的改变和气候变化，这些湿地生态系统发生了剧烈的变化。由于这些干扰，许多掌状沼林经历了严重的干燥，这也会影响到相邻的植被。在本研究中，我们评估了掌状沼林的干燥是否会影响位于巴西相邻热带稀树草原地区的植物-食草动物网络的结构。我们的结果表明，与掌状沼林干燥区相邻的热带稀树草原地区的相互作用较少，相互作用的物种较少，拓扑结构也不那么专门化，这与我们的预期相符。我们的研究结果表明，掌状沼林的干燥也会对相邻的热带稀树草原植被产生传播影响，损害这些环境中更专门化的相互作用。另一方面，与预期相反，干燥区的植物-食草动物网络的模块性、嵌套性和稳健性都高于湿润区，这表明在干燥环境中，物种倾向于将它们的相互作用划分成不同的部分，即使相互作用的专门化程度较低。这是第一项研究环境干燥对热带生态系统植物-食草动物网络结构影响的研究，突出了这些影响的复杂性及其对专门化和广义相互作用的不同影响。了解这些动态对于在持续的环境变化面前制定有效的保护和管理策略至关重要。
