Through the eye of a butterfly: Assessing biodiversity impacts of cashew expansion in West Africa

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Sasha Vasconcelos
  • Patrícia Rodrigues
  • Luís Palma
  • Luís F. Mendes
  • Agostinho Palminha
  • Luís Catarino
  • Pedro Beja

The cultivation of perennial cash crops is fast expanding in the tropics, but for most crops and regions there is very limited understanding about their biodiversity impacts. This is the case of cashew nut cultivation, which is occupying ever larger areas, particularly in West Africa. Here we investigated the impacts of cashew cultivation on biodiversity using butterfly assemblages sampled across a gradient of cashew expansion in Guinea-Bissau (West Africa). The overall species richness and abundance of butterflies were only slightly lower in cashew orchards than in native woodland habitats, but whereas the former were dominated by generalist species, the latter showed a much higher richness and abundance of trophic and habitat specialists. The landscape context significantly affected butterfly assemblages, with reduced richness and abundance of generalist species recorded within woodland habitats in heterogeneous landscapes with low woodland cover. Increases in land cover by cashew cultivation were associated with reduced abundance of specialist species within woodland habitats, and reduced abundance of generalist species within cashew orchards. Overall, our study provides the first evidence that cashew expansion may have serious negative consequences for biodiversity in West Africa, suggesting that this is an unfolding conservation problem that needs to be fully evaluated. Retaining woodland patches within production landscapes might help reducing the negative impacts of cashew expansion on biodiversity.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftBiological Conservation
Jahrgang191
Seiten (von - bis)779-786
Anzahl der Seiten8
ISSN0006-3207
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 01.11.2015

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Different bodies
  2. Unexpected Expansion Behavior of Mg-Al Alloys During Isothermal Ageing
  3. "Wer sieht was?" und "Wer berührt wen?"
  4. Mixed Methods and Mixed Theories –
  5. Use of force
  6. Dynamics in a butterfly-plant-ant system
  7. Multiple plant diversity components drive consumer communities across ecosystems
  8. Ungleich mächtig
  9. Evidence for the age and timing of environmental change associated with a Lower Palaeolithic site within the Middle Pleistocene Reinsdorf sequence of the Schöningen coal mine, Germany
  10. α- and β-diversity in moth communities in salt marshes is driven by grazing management
  11. Sources of Individual Differences in L2 Narrative Production
  12. From the open road to the high seas?
  13. Informationsversorgung eines erweiterten Umweltcontrollings
  14. Virtuous Play - Promoting Moral Sensitivity with Digital Games
  15. Steering for sustainable development
  16. From competition to facilitation
  17. In vivo urinary compatibility of Mg-Sr-Ag alloy in swine model
  18. QALD-9-ES: A Spanish Dataset for Question Answering Systems
  19. Dani Bunten Wants to Play
  20. Resilience, Entrepreneurship and ICT
  21. Microstructure and corrosion behavior of Mg-Sn-Ca alloys after extrusion
  22. Raúl Prebisch & Hans W. Singer
  23. Multi-Level Governance in Universities: Strategy, Structure, Control
  24. Sprache, Flucht, Migration, Musik
  25. Deformation-induced dynamic precipitation during creep in magnesium-tin alloys
  26. Re-Introducing Walther Schücking
  27. Foundations of Management & Entrepreneurship
  28. Generative Probleme als transzendentaler Leitfaden?
  29. Aufbruch
  30. Career adaptability development in adolescence
  31. "Technisches Leben"
  32. Cooperative Internationalization of SMEs: Self-commitment as a Success Factor for International Entrepreneurship
  33. Towards more sustainable curricula
  34. Influence of Solution Heat Treatment on the Microstructure, Hardness and Stress Corrosion Behavior of Extruded Resoloy®
  35. Multitrophic effects of experimental changes in plant diversity on cavity-nesting bees, wasps, and their parasitoids
  36. Führungsstrukturen in KMU
  37. Unterrichtsqualität an Gemeinschaftsschulen
  38. The impact of digitisation and big data analysis on the sustainable development of tourism and its environmental impact
  39. Resultant (moral) luck: Post hoc decision evaluation as dependent on belief truth, belief justification, and outcome in moral and prudential situations
  40. Correction to
  41. Unterrichtsqualität an Hamburger Grundschulen
  42. Flüssige Technokratie