Bat phylogenetic responses to regenerating Amazonian forests

1. Throughout the tropics, regenerating secondary forests occupy vast areas previously cleared for agriculture and cattle ranching. However, despite the importance of regenerating forests in mitigating the pervasive negative consequences of forest loss and fragmentation on forest-associated biodiversity, longitudinal studies on species’ phylogenetic responses to matrix regeneration are rare.

2. We surveyed bats in continuous primary forest, primary forest fragments and in the regenerating secondary forest matrix of a whole-ecosystem Amazonian fragmentation experiment, ~15 and ~30 years after forest clearance, to investigate how changes in matrix quality through forest recovery affect phylogenetic α- and β-diversity.

3. We found that temporal changes in phylogenetic α-richness were more marked in the secondary forest matrix than in forest fragments and continuous forest, evidencing a significant increase in total evolutionary history over time. However, when the effects of species ...