Anthropogenic actions shape biodiversity change and ecosystem functioning

Increasing rates of carbon emission, unsustainable development, and intense land cover change, led to an inevitable environmental degradation. While much of the lost biodiversity has not been described by scientists yet, we continue to lose new species at impressive rates. In this thesis, I compiled a large dataset for vertebrate assemblages in the Amazon forest, known for its extensive understudied biodiversity. The database englobes camera trap data from mammals, birds and reptile species and represents a small but important step further in the direction of filling the gap in biodiversity information for the Amazon forest. Using this dataset, I investigated the effects of human modifications on vertebrate communities in the Amazon, and the results show that, even within the gradient of low to moderate human modification, we can detect a decrease in the richness of vertebrate species. This raises a red flag for the vulnerability of species under our current scenario of changes in climate and land use. The functioning of the ecosystems involves complex processes and interactions of different species, and understanding the relationship between biodiversity change and the contribution of biodiversity to the provision of nature’s contribution to people (NCP) remains a challenge. In this thesis, I propose a macroecological framework that integrates biodiversity models and energy flux theory to link biodiversity, ecosystem function and NCP. This novel approach allows the incorporation of different aspects (such as species interactions and environmental data) to evaluate biodiversity-based NCP. Furthermore, in order to apply this framework to belowground ecosystems, I aggregated data and developed a biodiversity model to predict species abundance based on their body mass. Additionally, I also used the compiled database to explore the effects of environmental conditions on the community-abundance distribution of the communities.