Land-use change erodes trophic redundancy in tropical forest streams: Evidence from amino acid stable isotope analysis

Studies have shown that food chain length is governed by interactions between species richness, ecosystem size, and resource availability. While redundant trophic links may buffer impacts of species loss on food chain length, higher extinction risks associated with predators may result in bottom-heavy food webs with shorter food chains.

The lack of consensus in earlier empirical studies relating species richness and food chain length reflects the need to account robustly for the factors described above. In response to this, we conducted an empirical study to elucidate impacts of land-use change on food chain length in tropical forest streams of Southeast Asia.

Despite species losses associated with forest loss at our study areas, results from amino acid isotope analyses showed that food chain length was not linked to land use, ecosystem size or resource availability. Correspondingly, species losses did not have a significant effect on occurrence likelihoods of all trophic guilds e...