Impacts of Anthropogenic Land-Use Change on Populations of The
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Impacts of anthropogenic land-use change on populations of the Endangered Patagonian cypress Fitzroya cupressoides in southern Chile: implications for its conservation J AMES R ODRÍGUEZ-ECHEVERRY,CRISTIAN E CHEVERRÍA and L AURA N AHUELHUAL Abstract Land-use change can have negative effects on Introduction threatened species by modifying their habitat and popu- lation dynamics. The habitat of the Endangered and-use change can lead to habitat loss and fragmen- Patagonian cypress Fitzroya cupressoides (Mol.) Johnst. Ltation, and these are two of the greatest threats to forest (Cupressaceae), a conifer endemic to the temperate forests ecosystems (Noss, ; Baillie et al., ). Land-use of southern Chile and Argentina, has been transformed by change modifies connectivity, and patch density and area land-use change and overexploitation. The impact of land- of forest (Lindenmayer & Fischer, ). These changes use change on the spatial pattern of F. cupressoides habitat can influence ecological attributes at the species and com- from to was evaluated at the landscape level, using munity levels, such as species richness and individual den- satellite images. Additionally, eight × m plots were es- sity (Laurance et al., ; Bustamante et al., ; tablished in four populations to assess their status. In each Simonetti et al., ). Habitat loss and fragmentation can ’ plot the density of F. cupressoides and the species richness of affect species survival by reducing the quality and quantity the associated plant communities were recorded and ana- of habitat available (Tomimatsu & Ohara, ), both of ’ lysed, together with spatial patterns at the population and which can alter the dynamics of a species population. community levels. The loss of potential F. cupressoides habi- Such alteration could lead to local and global extinction of tat was % from to (–% for the four popu- the most vulnerable species (Bennett, ). lations). The density of F. cupressoides was lowest in smaller The impact of land-use change on threatened species habitat patches, where the number of plant species was warrants investigation (Turner, ; Lindenmayer & higher and the matrix dominated by anthropogenic land- Fischer, ) to facilitate understanding of the way in use. Land-use change was associated with a loss of potential which it can alter the composition and spatial configuration habitat for F. cupressoides, and differences in the spatial pat- of the unique habitats on which threatened species depend, terns of habitat influenced the composition of remaining the influence of such alterations on species composition, the populations and communities. A landscape approach is re- influence of the matrix, and the minimum buffer zone commended as a conservation planning strategy for F. needed for management of the remaining interior habitats cupressoides. (Oliveira et al., ). Multi-scale studies (landscape, habi- tat and species) could provide valuable information for the Keywords Anthropogenic processes, Chilean larch tree, conservation of threatened species (Vergara & Simonetti, Fitzroya cupressoides, habitat assessment, landscape change, ). Patagonian cypress, spatial patterns Chilean temperate forest, which has been designated a To view supplementary material for this article, please visit hotspot for biodiversity conservation because of its high http://dx.doi.org/S level of endemism (Myers et al., ), has experienced significant degradation, fragmentation and loss since as a result of land-use change (Echeverría et al., ). Consequently there have been significant changes in rich- ness of plant (Echeverría et al., ) and bird species (Vergara & Simonetti, ) and the spatial distribution JAMES RODRÍGUEZ-ECHEVERRY (Corresponding author) and CRISTIAN ECHEVERRÍA of threatened species (Altamirano et al., ). Departamento de Manejo de Bosques y Medio Ambiente, Facultad de The Patagonian cypress Fitzroya cupressoides, an en- Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Chile E-mail [email protected] demic and monotypic conifer of the temperate forests of southern Chile and Argentina, is categorized as LAURA NAHUELHUAL Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Instituto de Economía Agraria, Universidad Austral de Chile, Chile Endangered on the IUCN Red List (Premoli et al., ). Received May . Revision requested September . Individuals can live for , years, making it the second Accepted October . First published online March . longest-lived species and thus of high scientific value (Lara Oryx, 2015, 49(3), 447–452 © 2015 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605314000945 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.8, on 25 Sep 2021 at 05:22:25, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605314000945 448 J. Rodríguez-Echeverry et al. & Villalba, ). Since the arrival of Europeans in the south use was categorized as native forest, shrubland, wetland, of Chile in F. cupressoides has been overexploited for its grassland, forest plantations of exotic species or other uses beautiful and decay-resistant wood. In Chile the species is (bare soil, urban areas and water bodies). Changes in spatial found in the Coastal Range, the Andean Range and the patterns of the forest landscape were assessed by determin- Central Depression (Fraver et al., ). The species is ing the total area and number of patches of native forest, known from sites in the Central Depression, five contain- using FRAGSTATS v. (McGarigal et al., ) and the ing small remnant populations and eight supporting scat- Spatial Analyst extension for ArcGIS v. .. (ESRI, tered trees and saplings in a landscape transformed by Redlands, USA). human activities such as logging for firewood and expansion Four of the five known F. cupressoides populations in the of pastureland for cattle grazing (Fraver et al., ). Genetic Central Depression were included in the study; the fifth studies indicate that the F. cupressoides populations in the population was not assessed because access to information Central Depression are the most genetically distinct of the about it was limited. Spatially explicit information on the lo- remaining populations in Chile and Argentina (Premoli cations of populations was provided by Corporación et al., ), and represent ancient populations from the gla- Nacional Forestal. cial era, from which the other populations are derived The habitat of F. cupressoides in the Central (Premoli et al., ). Depression is characterized by poorly drained acidic Studies have focused on the reproductive biology, ecol- soils (pH of .)knownasñadis (Fig. ;FAO- ogy and distribution of F. cupressoides (Armesto et al., UNESCO, ), which means seasonal swamp in the in- ; Donoso et al., ; Fraver et al., ) but none have digenous Mapudungun language. These soils have a quantified the impact of land-use change on the spatial pat- depth of – cm, abundant humus, moss beds and terns of the species’ habitat and examined the effect of habi- coarse woody debris. The habitat of F. cupressoides is tat fragmentation and loss on population composition. This also characterized by a cold oceanic temperate climate, type of information is necessary to assess the current status with annual mean temperature and rainfall of .°C of F. cupressoides populations, which may have been signifi- and , mm, respectively, and by the presence of the fol- cantly altered in Chile. lowing species of plants: Amomyrtus luma, Drimys win- We assessed the impact of land-use change on the spatial teri, Laureliopsis philippiana, Saxegothaea conspicua and pattern of the forest landscape and the habitat of F. cupres- Weinmannia trichosperma (IUCN, ). soides in the Central Depression in southern Chile, and A previous study in the same area revealed a relationship related changes in spatial pattern to the composition of between F. cupressoides habitat and the interior of small four remaining populations. We hypothesize that human- patches of native forest (Fraver et al., ), which had a induced land-use change has substantially fragmented core area of , ha and a buffer zone of $ m. Fraver the remaining F. cupressoides habitat, resulting in re- et al. () reported that in the patches of native forest duced population density and variation in community where edge effects (altered species composition, community composition. structure and microclimate) occurred within m of the patch edge, F. cupressoides populations were not present and only a few scattered F. cupressoides were recorded. Study area Following the approach of Fraver et al. ( ) we defined the potential habitat of F. cupressoides as an area of native The study area (, km ) was defined by the distribution of forest , ha with a buffer zone of $ m. four remaining populations of F. cupressoides in the Central Areas of potential habitat for F. cupressoides were ident- Depression, Chile (Fraver et al., ), and by Landsat satel- ified by analysing the core area and buffer zone of native for- lite images used to determine land-use change (Fig. ). The est patches, using the Land Change Modeler for Ecological area, characterized by a cold oceanic climate, has a maxi- Sustainability extension of IDRISI Andes (Clark Labs, mum elevation of m, mean temperature of .°C and Worcester, USA), which generated maps of potential habitat annual rainfall of , mm. The landscape in this area is for the years and . Changes in spatial patterns of dominated by patches of broad-leaved evergreen native for- potential habitat were evaluated