Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Distance to range edge determines sensitivity to deforestation

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 3, pages 886–891 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 11 June 2019

This article has been updated

Abstract

It is generally assumed that deforestation affects a species consistently across space, however populations near their geographic range edge may exist at their niche limits and therefore be more sensitive to disturbance. We found that both within and across Atlantic Forest bird species, populations are more sensitive to deforestation when near their range edge. In fact, the negative effects of deforestation on bird occurrences switched to positive in the range core (>829 km), in line with Ellenberg’s rule. We show that the proportion of populations at their range core and edge varies across Brazil, suggesting deforestation effects on communities, and hence the most appropriate conservation action, also vary geographically.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Intraspecific sensitivity to habitat loss is determined by the distance to range edge.
Fig. 2: Model predictions of the probability of species incidence from forest cover and distance from range edge.
Fig. 3: The effects of deforestation on birds are variable across the Atlantic Forest.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Bird occurrence datasets and derived datasets are available from https://osf.io/4pbzt/. We do not have rights to redistribute the underlying forest cover (SOS Mata Atlântica, Instituto Florestal) and range polygon (BirdLife) data, but these datasets are available for use under licence.

Code availability

Code used to perform the analysis is available from https://osf.io/4pbzt/.

Change history

  • 11 June 2019

    An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

References

  1. Barnosky, A. D. et al. Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature 471, 51–57 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hockey, P. A. R. & Curtis, O. E. Use of basic biological information for rapid prediction of the response of species to habitat loss. Conserv. Biol. 23, 64–71 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Henle, K., Davies, K. F., Kleyer, M., Margules, C. R. & Settele, J. Predictors of species sensitivity to fragmentation. Biodivers. Conserv. 13, 207–251 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bregman, T. P., Şekercioğlu, Ç. H. & Tobias, J. A. Global patterns and predictors of bird species responses to forest fragmentation: implications for ecosystem function and conservation. Biol. Conserv. 169, 372–383 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Watson, J. E. M., Whittaker, R. J. & Freudenberger, D. Bird community responses to habitat fragmentation: how consistent are they across landscapes? J. Biogeogr. 32, 1353–1370 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hatfield, J. H., Orme, C. D. L., Tobias, J. A. & Banks-Leite, C. Trait-based indicators of bird species sensitivity to habitat loss are effective within but not across data sets. Ecol. Appl. 28, 28–34 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Slatyer, R. A., Hirst, M. & Sexton, J. P. Niche breadth predicts geographical range size: a general ecological pattern. Ecol. Lett. 16, 1104–1114 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hargreaves, A. L., Samis, K. E. & Eckert, C. G. Are species’ range limits simply niche limits writ large? A review of transplant experiments beyond the range. Am. Nat. 183, 157–173 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Lee-Yaw, J. A. et al. A synthesis of transplant experiments and ecological niche models suggests that range limits are often niche limits. Ecol. Lett. 19, 710–722 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. dos Anjos, L., Holt, R. D. & Robinson, S. K. Position in the distributional range and sensitivity to forest fragmentation in birds: a case history from the Atlantic forest, Brazil. Bird Conserv. Int. 20, 392–399 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Uezu, A. & Metzger, J. P. Vanishing bird species in the Atlantic Forest: relative importance of landscape configuration, forest structure and species characteristics. Biodivers. Conserv. 20, 3627–3643 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Doherty, P. F. J. F., Boulinier, T. & Nichols, J. D. Local extinction and turnover rates at the edge and interior of species’ ranges. Ann. Zool. Fenn. 40, 145–153 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Pérez-Tris, J., Carbonell, R. & Tellería, J. L. Abundance distribution, morphological variation and juvenile condition of robins, Erithacus rubecula (L.), in their Mediterranean range boundary. J. Biogeogr. 27, 879–888 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Julliard, R., Clavel, J., Devictor, V., Jiguet, F. F. & Couvet, D. Spatial segregation of specialists and generalists in bird communities. Ecol. Lett. 9, 1237–1244 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Mace, G. M. et al. Quantification of extinction risk: IUCN’s system for classifying threatened species. Conserv. Biol. 22, 1424–1442 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Goerck, J. M. Patterns of rarity in the birds of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. Conserv. Biol. 11, 112–118 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Orme, C. D. L. et al. Global patterns of geographic range size in birds. PLoS Biol. 4, e208 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Banks-Leite, C. et al. Using ecological thresholds to evaluate the costs and benefits of set-asides in a biodiversity hotspot. Science. 345, 1041–1045 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Lindell, C. A. et al. Edge responses of tropical and temperate birds. Wilson J. Ornithol. 119, 205–220 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Des Roches, S. et al. The ecological importance of intraspecific variation. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 2, 57–64 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Hynes, H. B. N. The Biology of Polluted Waters (Liverpool Univ. Press, 1980).

  22. Banks-Leite, C., Ewers, R. M., Kapos, V., Martensen, A. C. & Metzger, J. P. Comparing species and measures of landscape structure as indicators of conservation importance. J. Appl. Ecol. 48, 706–714 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Péron, G. & Altwegg, R. The abundant centre syndrome and species distributions: insights from closely related species pairs in southern Africa. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 24, 215–225 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Bahn, V., J. O’Connor, R. & Krohn, W. B. Effect of dispersal at range edges on the structure of species ranges. Oikos 115, 89–96 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Crawley, M. J. Plant Ecology (Blackwell, 1997).

  26. Marini, M. A. & Garcia, F. I. Bird conservation in Brazil. Conserv. Biol. 19, 665–671 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Brooks, T. & Balmford, A. Atlantic forest extinctions. Nature 380, 115 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. SOS Mata Atlântica & Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais. Atlas dos Remanescentes florestais da Mata Atlântica no Período 2013–2014 (2015); http://www.spsma.org.br

  29. Instituto Florestal. Inventário florestal do Estado de São Paulo (2010); http://www.ambiente.sp.gov.br

  30. Pebesma, E. sf: Simple Features for R. R package v.0.5-3 https://cran.r-project.org/package=sf (2017).

  31. R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2017); http://www.R-project.org/

  32. Hatfield, J. H., Orme, C. D. L. & Banks-Leite, C. Using functional connectivity to predict potential meta-population sizes in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Perspect. Ecol. Conserv. 16, 215–220 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Boscolo, D. & Metzger, J. Is bird incidence in Atlantic forest fragments influenced by landscape patterns at multiple scales?. Landsc. Ecol. 24, 907–918 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. BirdLife International and NatureServe. Bird Species Distribution Maps of the World (2017); http://datazone.birdlife.org/

  35. Banks-Leite, C. et al. Assessing the utility of statistical adjustments for imperfect detection in tropical conservation science. J. Appl. Ecol. 51, 849–859 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Gauch, H. G. Multivariate Analysis In Community Ecology (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982).

  37. Banks-Leite, C. & Cintra, R. The heterogeneity of Amazonian treefall gaps and bird community composition. Ecotropica 14, 1–13 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Morante-Filho, J. C., Faria, D., Mariano-Neto, E. & Rhodes, J. Birds in anthropogenic landscapes: the responses of ecological groups to forest loss in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. PLoS ONE 10, e0128923 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Bates, D., Maechler, M. & Walker, S. Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J. Stat. Softw. 67, 1–48 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Lefcheck, J. S. piecewiseSEM: piecewise structural equation modelling in R for ecology, evolution, and systematics. Methods Ecol. Evol. 7, 573–579 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank R. D. Holt, C. Rahbek, M. J. Crawley and R. Ewers for comments on the study and manuscript. This paper represents a contribution to the Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment Initiative of Imperial College. We acknowledge the use of the Imperial College Research Computing Service (https://doi.org/10.14469/hpc/2232). This research was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant nos. NE/H016228/1, NE/K016393/1) and FAPESP (process no. 2012/51872-5).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: C. David L. Orme, Sarah Mayor.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK

    C. David L. Orme, Sarah Mayor, Jack H. Hatfield, Jason M. Tylianakis & Cristina Banks-Leite

  2. Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Irchel Campus, Zürich, Switzerland

    Sarah Mayor

  3. Laboratório de Ornitologia e Bioacústica, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, Brazil

    Luiz dos Anjos

  4. SAVE Brazil—Birdlife International Afiiliate, São Paulo, Brazil

    Pedro F. Develey

  5. Applied Conservation Ecology Lab, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Conservação da Biodiversidade, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Brazil

    José Carlos Morante-Filho

  6. Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana, Brazil

    José Carlos Morante-Filho

  7. School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Jason M. Tylianakis

  8. Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas, Nazaré Paulista, Brazil

    Alexandre Uezu

Authors
  1. C. David L. Orme
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sarah Mayor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luiz dos Anjos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Pedro F. Develey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jack H. Hatfield
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. José Carlos Morante-Filho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Jason M. Tylianakis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Alexandre Uezu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Cristina Banks-Leite
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

L.A., P.F.D., J.H.H., J.C.M., A.U. and C.B.L. collected the data. C.D.L.O., S.M., J.M.T. and C.B.L. analysed the data. C.D.L.O., S.M. and C.B.L. wrote the paper. All authors contributed to the text.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cristina Banks-Leite.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–4 and Supplementary Tables 1–3

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Data 1

List of species detected in each study and number of sites in which the species was detected.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Orme, C.D.L., Mayor, S., dos Anjos, L. et al. Distance to range edge determines sensitivity to deforestation. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 886–891 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0889-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0889-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing