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Amazonian deforestation and soil biodiversity.

Conservation Biology 2018 October 12
Clearance and perturbation of Amazonian forests are one of the greatest threats to tropical biodiversity conservation of our times. A better understanding of how soil communities respond to Amazonian deforestation is crucially needed to inform policy interventions that effectively protect biodiversity and the essential ecosystem services it provides. Here we assessed the impact of deforestation and ecosystem conversion to arable land on Amazonian soil biodiversity using a meta-analysis. We analysed 274 pairwise comparisons of soil biodiversity in Amazonian primary forests and sites under different stages of deforestation and land-use conversion - disturbed (wildfire and selective logging) and slash-and-burnt forests, pastures and cropping systems. Overall, 60% and 51% of responses of soil macrofauna and microbial community attributes (i.e. abundance, biomass, richness and diversity indexes) to deforestation were negative, respectively. We found few mesofauna (e.g. micro-arthropods) and microfauna (e.g. protozoa and nematodes) studies, and those groups could not be analyzed. Macrofauna abundance and biomass were more vulnerable to the displacement of forests by pastures than by agricultural fields, while microbes showed the opposite pattern. Effects of Amazonian deforestation on macrofauna were more detrimental at sites with mean annual precipitation higher than 1,900 mm, and higher losses of microbes occurred in highly acidic soils (pH < 4.5). Limited geographic coverage, omission of meso- and microfauna, and low taxonomic resolution were main factors impairing generalizations from the dataset. Furthermore, few studies have assessed the impacts of within-forest disturbance (wildfires and selective logging) on soil species in Amazonia, where logging operations rapidly expand across public lands and more frequent severe dry seasons are increasing the prevalence of wildfires. Future research is needed to tackle these knowledge gaps. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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