Staff View: Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia

Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia

The Tonle Sap Lake and Floodplain (TSLF) supports many globally threatened species and its fishery has sustained Cambodia's people for millennia. The rate of habitat loss has accelerated in recent years due to political and economic conditions, and a warming climate and El Nino events that crea...

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Main Authors:	Mahood, Simon P., Poole, Colin M., Watson, James E. M., MacKenzie, Richard A., Sharma, Sahadev, Garnett, Stephen T.
Format:	Article
Published:	SPRINGER 2020
Subjects:	S Agriculture (General)
Online Access:	http://eprints.um.edu.my/36397/
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id	my.um.eprints.36397
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spelling	my.um.eprints.363972023-12-29T07:07:18Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/36397/ Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia Mahood, Simon P. Poole, Colin M. Watson, James E. M. MacKenzie, Richard A. Sharma, Sahadev Garnett, Stephen T. S Agriculture (General) The Tonle Sap Lake and Floodplain (TSLF) supports many globally threatened species and its fishery has sustained Cambodia's people for millennia. The rate of habitat loss has accelerated in recent years due to political and economic conditions, and a warming climate and El Nino events that created opportunities for people to burn scrubland at an elevated rate. Here, we use a point-based landcover assessment method to document the impacts of local-scale drivers, in particular agricultural intensification, on habitat trends between 1993 and 2018. The areal extent of scrubland and grassland in the TSLF declined from similar to 74% in 1993 to similar to 52% in 2018, as a result of intensification and expansion of rice cultivation. During that time period, grassland cover declined from similar to 3160 to similar to 519 km(2), whilst between 2008 and 2018, scrubland cover declined from similar to 8660 to similar to 6776 km(2). Habitat loss has had catastrophic implications for grassland-dependant species, such as Bengal Florican, and, we estimate that habitat changes in the TSLF may have caused carbon stocks to decline by 12% while fish productivity is also likely to have dropped, with significant implications for food security. To put this habitat loss in context, losses over the past 10 years have been nearly twice as large as published predictions of the amount likely to be lost between 2010 and 2040 due to hydropower. We suggest that the expansion and intensification of rice cultivation is the greatest current threat to habitats in the TSLF and deserves greater attention from policy makers and practitioners. SPRINGER 2020-10 Article PeerReviewed Mahood, Simon P. and Poole, Colin M. and Watson, James E. M. and MacKenzie, Richard A. and Sharma, Sahadev and Garnett, Stephen T. (2020) Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia. WETLANDS ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT, 28 (5). pp. 713-726. ISSN 09234861, DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-020-09740-1 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-020-09740-1>. 10.1007/s11273-020-09740-1
institution	Universiti Malaya
building	UM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaya
content_source	UM Research Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.um.edu.my/
topic	S Agriculture (General)
spellingShingle	S Agriculture (General) Mahood, Simon P. Poole, Colin M. Watson, James E. M. MacKenzie, Richard A. Sharma, Sahadev Garnett, Stephen T. Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia
description	The Tonle Sap Lake and Floodplain (TSLF) supports many globally threatened species and its fishery has sustained Cambodia's people for millennia. The rate of habitat loss has accelerated in recent years due to political and economic conditions, and a warming climate and El Nino events that created opportunities for people to burn scrubland at an elevated rate. Here, we use a point-based landcover assessment method to document the impacts of local-scale drivers, in particular agricultural intensification, on habitat trends between 1993 and 2018. The areal extent of scrubland and grassland in the TSLF declined from similar to 74% in 1993 to similar to 52% in 2018, as a result of intensification and expansion of rice cultivation. During that time period, grassland cover declined from similar to 3160 to similar to 519 km(2), whilst between 2008 and 2018, scrubland cover declined from similar to 8660 to similar to 6776 km(2). Habitat loss has had catastrophic implications for grassland-dependant species, such as Bengal Florican, and, we estimate that habitat changes in the TSLF may have caused carbon stocks to decline by 12% while fish productivity is also likely to have dropped, with significant implications for food security. To put this habitat loss in context, losses over the past 10 years have been nearly twice as large as published predictions of the amount likely to be lost between 2010 and 2040 due to hydropower. We suggest that the expansion and intensification of rice cultivation is the greatest current threat to habitats in the TSLF and deserves greater attention from policy makers and practitioners.
format	Article
author	Mahood, Simon P. Poole, Colin M. Watson, James E. M. MacKenzie, Richard A. Sharma, Sahadev Garnett, Stephen T.
author_facet	Mahood, Simon P. Poole, Colin M. Watson, James E. M. MacKenzie, Richard A. Sharma, Sahadev Garnett, Stephen T.
author_sort	Mahood, Simon P.
title	Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia
title_short	Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia
title_full	Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia
title_fullStr	Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia
title_full_unstemmed	Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia
title_sort	agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the tonle sap floodplain, cambodia
publisher	SPRINGER
publishDate	2020
url	http://eprints.um.edu.my/36397/
_version_	1787133818122010624
score	13.211869

Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia

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