The erosion of biodiversity and biomass in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot

Renato A. F. Lima (), Alexandre A. Oliveira, Gregory R. Pitta, André L. Gasper, Alexander C. Vibrans, Jérôme Chave, Hans Steege and Paulo I. Prado
Additional contact information
Renato A. F. Lima: Universidade de São Paulo
Alexandre A. Oliveira: Universidade de São Paulo
Gregory R. Pitta: Universidade de São Paulo
André L. Gasper: Universidade Regional de Blumenau
Alexander C. Vibrans: Universidade Regional de Blumenau
Jérôme Chave: Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, UMR 5174 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier
Hans Steege: Tropical Botany, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2
Paulo I. Prado: Universidade de São Paulo

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Tropical forests are being deforested worldwide, and the remaining fragments are suffering from biomass and biodiversity erosion. Quantifying this erosion is challenging because ground data on tropical biodiversity and biomass are often sparse. Here, we use an unprecedented dataset of 1819 field surveys covering the entire Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot. We show that 83−85% of the surveys presented losses in forest biomass and tree species richness, functional traits, and conservation value. On average, forest fragments have 25−32% less biomass, 23−31% fewer species, and 33, 36, and 42% fewer individuals of late-successional, large-seeded, and endemic species, respectively. Biodiversity and biomass erosion are lower inside strictly protected conservation units, particularly in large ones. We estimate that biomass erosion across the Atlantic Forest remnants is equivalent to the loss of 55−70 thousand km2 of forests or US$2.3−2.6 billion in carbon credits. These figures have direct implications on mechanisms of climate change mitigation.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20217-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20217-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20217-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().