Effects of disturbances by forest elephants on diversity of trees and insects in tropical rainforests on Mount Cameroon

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F20%3A43901708" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/20:43901708 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/60077344:_____/20:00535669 RIV/67985939:_____/20:00535669 RIV/00216208:11310/20:10421041

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-78659-7.pdf" target="_blank" >https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-78659-7.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78659-7" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41598-020-78659-7</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Effects of disturbances by forest elephants on diversity of trees and insects in tropical rainforests on Mount Cameroon

Original language description

Natural disturbances are essential for tropical forests biodiversity. In the Afrotropics, megaherbivores have played a key role before their recent decline. Contrastingly to savanna elephants, forest elephants&apos; impact on ecosystems remains poorly studied. Few decades ago, forests on Mount Cameroon were divided by lava flows, not being crossed by a local population of forest elephants until now. We assessed communities of trees, butterflies and two guilds of moths in the disturbed and undisturbed forests split by the longest lava flow. We surveyed 32 plots, recording 2025 trees of 97 species, and 7853 insects of 437 species. The disturbed forests differed in reduced tree density, height, and high canopy cover, and in increased DBH. Forest elephants&apos; selective browsing and foraging also decreased tree species richness and altered their composition. The elephant disturbance increased butterfly species richness and had various effects on species richness and composition of the insect groups. These changes were likely caused by disturbance-driven alterations of habitats and species composition of trees. Moreover, the abandonment of forests by elephants led to local declines of range-restricted butterflies. The recent declines of forest elephants across the Afrotropics probably caused similar changes in forest biodiversity and should be reflected by conservation actions.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Scientific Reports

ISSN

2045-2322

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

10

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

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UT code for WoS article

000609190100016

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85097493770