Are We Using the Most Appropriate Methodologies to Assess the Sensitivity of Rainforest Biodiversity to Habitat Disturbance?. (July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Whitworth, A.; Pillco Huarcaya, R.; Whittaker, L.; Braunholtz, L.
• Is Part Of: Tropical conservation science. Volume 11(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Subjects: methods -- biodiversity surveys -- tropical forest -- bait choice -- vertical strata -- paradigms -- Lepidoptera -- structural complexity; Rain forest conservation -- Periodicals; Rain forest ecology -- Periodicals; Rain forest conservation; Rain forest ecology; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 577.34
• DOI: 10.1177/1940082918788445
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1940-0829

Abstract

Accurately assessing how biodiversity responds in the Anthropocene is vital. To do so, a number of indicator taxa are commonly used to monitor human-impacted forests and the subsequent recovery of their biodiversity. This makes monitoring more economically feasible, yet only valuable if the responses observed truly reflect the status of biodiversity. Many challenges exist for getting this monitoring right, including choosing the most effective indicators and ultimately choosing the most appropriate methods to capture trends. We have reason to believe that the methods currently used to assess human-impacted tropical forest might be misrepresenting trends related to the degree of impact of disturbance to biodiversity and to the value of secondary forests for biodiversity conservation. Using recent case studies that assessed butterflies, we challenge the paradigm that fruit-baited butterfly traps are the best method for assessing human-impacted tropical forests, and that their use solely along the forest floor is underestimating the impacts to biodiversity in tropical forests. We suggest that alternative or additional methods could provide a more representative picture of the overall butterfly biodiversity responses to human-impacted tropical forests and that similar assessments of other groups and methods should be carried out.