Forest conversion to oil palm compresses food chain length in tropical streams

In Southeast Asia, biodiversity-rich forests are being extensively logged and converted to oil palm monocultures. Although the impacts of these changes on biodiversity are largely well documented, we know addition to samples we collected in 201 little about how these large-scale impacts affect fresh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEcology (Durham) Vol. 102; no. 1; p. e03199
Main Authors Wilkinson, Clare L, Chua, Kenny W J, Fiala, Roswitha, Liew, Jia H, Kemp, Victoria, Hadi Fikri, Arman, Ewers, Robert M, Kratina, Pavel, Yeo, Darren C J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.01.2021
Subjects
Animals
Biodiversity
Ecosystem
Food Chain
Forests
Humans
Rivers
trophic ecology
niche size
autochthony
stable isotope analysis
food web
freshwater fish
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Summary:In Southeast Asia, biodiversity-rich forests are being extensively logged and converted to oil palm monocultures. Although the impacts of these changes on biodiversity are largely well documented, we know addition to samples we collected in 201 little about how these large-scale impacts affect freshwater trophic ecology. We used stable isotope analyses (SIA) to determine the impacts of land-use changes on the relative contribution of allochthonous and autochthonous basal resources in 19 stream food webs. We also applied compound-specific SIA and bulk-SIA to determine the trophic position of fish apex predators and meso-predators (invertivores and omnivores). There was no difference in the contribution of autochthonous resources in either consumer group (70-82%) among streams with different land-use type. There was no change in trophic position for meso-predators, but trophic position decreased significantly for apex predators in oil palm plantation streams compared to forest streams. This change in maximum food chain length was due to turnover in identity of the apex predator among land-use types. Disruption of aquatic trophic ecology, through reduction in food chain length and shift in basal resources, may cause significant changes in biodiversity as well as ecosystem functions and services. Understanding this change can help develop more focused priorities for mediating the negative impacts of human activities on freshwater ecosystems.
ISSN:1939-9170
DOI:10.1002/ecy.3199