Tree richness shapes weevil diversity during early post-mining forest regeneration in Eastern Amazonia

Abstract

In post-mining landscapes of Amazonia, evaluating faunal responses during early successional stages is essential for understanding habitat restoration trajectories and for identifying sensitive bioindicators capable of tracking ecosystem recovery. Herbivorous beetles constitute a highly host-dependent group whose diversity, specialization, and spatial turnover can reveal how resource heterogeneity and vegetation structure shape community reassembly in regenerating ecosystems. The objective of this study was to assess whether a five-year period of natural regeneration provides sufficient structural and resource heterogeneity to support a weevil community (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) converging toward that of adjacent forest remnants. We sampled leaf-dwelling Curculionidae across seven natural regeneration sites and seven altered primary forest remnants using standardized arboreal arthropod beating methods. We recorded 482 individuals across 114 morphotypes, with forest remnants harboring greater richness, higher effective diversity, and distinct dominance–evenness patterns compared to natural regeneration sites. Tree richness was the main predictor of weevil abundance, species richness, and diversity of common taxa. Both habitats exhibited high species turnover among sampling units, yet multivariate analyses revealed clear compositional differences between forest and regenerating areas. Our findings indicate that five years of natural regeneration is insufficient for re-establishing a Curculionidae community structurally or compositionally comparable to forest remnants. These results demonstrate that the recovery of weevil assemblages remains strongly limited by reduced host-plant heterogeneity and suggest that enrichment planting of key tree species may accelerate restoration trajectories.

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