Taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional responses of plant communities in different life-stages to forest cover loss

Abstract

Habitat loss is among one of the main causes of biodiversity decline worldwide. Therefore, assessing different dimensions of diversity such taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional is important for more effective conservation strategies. Also, important but scarce, is the comparison of different life-stages which can bring insights due to different time delay on species responses to anthropogenic changes. Herein we assessed the influence of landscape-scale forest cover loss on different diversity dimensions of adult and juvenile tree assemblages. Our results showed that richness, phylogenetic and functional diversity were highly correlated for both life-stages. Forest cover loss leads to a decline in species richness more sharply in juveniles than adults, but in general, it did not affect phylogenetic and functional diversity. The responses among life-stages differed only for richness and phylogenetic mean pairwise distance. The negative impacts of forest cover loss on richness were not mirrored by phylogenetic and functional diversity, although there are some differences among life-stages. Our findings suggest that for practical purposes species richness is a primary and effective biodiversity measure at the landscape-scale. Furthermore, the stronger effects on juvenile assemblages indicate recruitment limitation and an impoverished future plant community, highlighting the importance to include different life-stages into conservation actions.