LAUSR

Abstract Land use change brought about by population increase and growing pressure to produce food represents a major threat to tropical biodiversity both currently and in the future. Understanding how species respond to changes in land use could help us minimize biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes. This study analyzes the effects of different farming methods on the richness and diversity of drosophilids in previously forested areas that have been transformed over the past 20 years into a mosaic of forest fragments, successional vegetation and crop plantations. Field research was carried out in three different localities along the “Arc of Deforestation” in the state of Para, Brazil. Our results demonstrate that drosophilid species richness (as tested by the “jackknife” procedure) did not differ across the mosaic of different land use types, but species abundance distributions and compositions were clearly different between areas of intensive agriculture and forest systems. Forest cover and relative atmospheric humidity were the decisive variables in relation to species distribution. The various types of agricultural land use were dominated by non-native cosmopolitan species (mainly S. latifasciaformis and Z. indianus), associated with open areas. These results reflect structural and micro-climatic differences in the environment caused by the loss of forest cover. These results suggest that planning for more ecologically sustainable agricultural land use models is necessary, ensuring that forest areas are maintained to provide appropriate habitat for the permanence of native species.