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Strong Variation in Land‐Use Change Impacts on Tropical Avian Phylogenetic Diversity Between Ecoregions Highlights the Need to Sample Large Spatial Scales

Giovanny Pérez,Simon C. Mills,Jacob B. Socolar,Jose M Ochoa Quintero,R. P. Freckleton,T. Haugaasen,J. Gilroy,D. P. Edwards

Published 2026 in Global Change Biology

ABSTRACT

Forest conversion for agriculture is a major cause of tropical biodiversity loss, but its impacts vary with spatial scale. Higher species turnover in forests than in farmland means that land‐use change causes greater biodiversity loss at broader than at local scales, yet broad‐scale assessments are scarce. Phylogenetic diversity is increasingly prioritised in conservation to protect evolutionary history under global change, yet how deforestation‐driven changes in phylogenetic diversity scale spatially and accumulate in regions of high species turnover remains unclear. We compiled a large field database from across 13 biogeographically diverse regions affected by deforestation for cattle farming, covering most of Colombia, a megadiverse tropical country. Using occupancy models, we estimated bird communities for 1547 (936 observed plus 611 never‐observed) species across ecoregions and nationally in both forest and pasture habitats to quantify changes in phylogenetic diversity metrics and determine whether these impacts are dependent on spatial scale. We found an average loss of 2300 Myr of phylogenetic diversity at the country scale, with most species negatively affected across the phylogeny. Although single regional‐scale relative loss was on average comparable to broader scales, there was high variability between regional units. The latter was especially critical when evaluating metrics of evolutionary distinctiveness, which are key indicators for biodiversity conservation planning. Such underestimation of national‐scale impacts highlights the importance of sampling across multiple regions. Immediate conservation action is needed to safeguard evolutionarily unique species and prevent phylogenetic homogenisation driven by agricultural expansion across spatial scales—a threat often underestimated due to assessments limited to single biogeographic regions.

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