Land‐use changes such as conversion of natural forest to rural and urban areas have been considered as main drivers of ecosystem functions decline, and a large variety of indicators has been used to investigate these effects. Here, we used a replicated litter‐bag experiment to investigate the effects of land‐use changes on the leaf‐litter breakdown process and leaf‐associated invertebrates along the forest–pasture–urban gradient located in a subtropical island (Florianópolis, SC, Brazil). We identified the invertebrates and measured the litter breakdown rates using the litter bags approach. Litter bags containing 3 g of dry leaf of Alchornea triplinervia were deployed on forest rural and urban streams. Principal component analysis, based on physico‐chemical variables which, confirmed a gradient of degradation from forest to urban streams with intermediate values in rural areas. In accordance, shredder richness and abundance were lower in rural and urban than in forest streams. The land‐use changes led also to the dominance of tolerant generalist taxa (Chironomidae and Oligochaeta) reducing the taxonomic and functional diversity in these sites. Leaf‐litter breakdown rates decreased from forest to rural and finally to urban areas and were associated with changes in pH, water velocity, dissolved oxygen and abundance of leaf‐shredding invertebrates, although global decomposition rates did not differ between rural and urban streams. Overall, this study showed that land‐use changes, namely to rural and urban areas, have a strong impact on tropical streams ecosystems, in both processes and communities composition and structure. Despite of being apparently a smaller transformation of landscape, rural land use is comparable to urbanisation in terms of impact in stream functioning. It is thus critical to carefully plan urban development and maintain forest areas in the island of Florianópolis in order to preserve its natural biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems functioning.

中文翻译：

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最近的土地利用变化影响了巴西亚热带岛屿的河流生态系统过程

土地用途的变化，例如天然林向农村和城市地区的转化，已经被认为是生态系统功能下降的主要驱动力，并且已经使用了各种各样的指标来研究这些影响。在这里，我们使用了一个重复的垃圾袋实验，研究了土地利用变化对亚热带岛屿（南卡罗来纳州弗洛里亚诺波利斯）沿森林—牧草—城市梯度的凋落物分解过程以及与叶片相关的无脊椎动物的影响。 ）。我们确定了无脊椎动物，并使用垃圾袋方法测量了垃圾分解率。垃圾袋，内含3 g干燥的Alchornea triplinervia叶被部署在农村和城市森林溪流上。基于理化变量的主成分分析证实了从森林到城市河流的退化梯度，在农村地区具有中间值。因此，农村和城市的碎纸机丰富度和丰度低于森林溪流。土地用途的变化还导致了宽容的多面类群的统治（Chironomidae和Oligochaeta），减少了这些地点的分类学和功能多样性。从森林到农村，最后到城市地区，凋落物分解速率下降，并且与pH值，水流速度，溶解氧和无切叶无脊椎动物的丰度相关，尽管全球分解速率在城乡之间没有差异。总体而言，这项研究表明，土地利用变化，对乡村和城市地区的热带溪流生态系统，无论是在过程还是在社区的构成和结构上，都具有重大影响。尽管景观变化显然较小，但就溪流功能的影响而言，农村土地利用可与城市化媲美。因此，至关重要的是仔细计划城市发展并维护弗洛里亚诺波利斯岛的森林面积，以保持其自然生物多样性和水生生态系统的功能。