BIODIVERSITY INVENTORIES, INDICATOR TAXA AND EFFECTS OF HABITAT MODIFICATION IN TROPICAL FOREST

Despite concern about the effects of tropical forest disturbance and c learance on biodiversity(1,2), data on impacts, particularly on invert ebrates, remain scarce(3-8). Here we report a taxonomically diverse in ventory on the impacts of tropical forest modification at one locality , We examined a gradient from near-primary, through old-growth seconda ry and plantation forests to complete clearance, for eight animal grou ps (birds, butterflies, flying beetles, canopy beetles, canopy ants, l eaf-litter ants, termites and soil nematodes) in the Mbalmayo Forest R eserve, south-central Cameroon. Although species richness generally de clined with increasing disturbance, no one group sen es as a good indi cator taxon(9-12) for changes in the species richness of other groups. Species replacement from site to site (turnover) along the gradient a lso differs between taxonomic groups, The proportion of 'morphospecies ' that cannot be assigned to named species and the number of 'scientis t-hours' required to process samples both increase dramatically for sm aller-bodied taxa, Data from these eight groups indicate the huge scal e of the biological effort required to provide inventories of tropical diversity, and to measure the impacts of tropical forest modification and clearance.