High abundance of an exotic amphipod indicates disturbance in tropical rainforests

• Previous studies in Africa have shown terrestrial amphipods as indicators of habitat disturbance.
• We investigated Talitroides topitotum as indicators for disturbance in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.
• Abundance of these amphipods was higher in disturbed sites within forest reserves.
• Other terrestrial amphipods show elevated abundance in highly disturbed sites worldwide.
• We suggest that these crustaceans can be used as global indicators of habitat disturbance.

Previous studies have proposed terrestrial amphipods as potential bioindicators of forest condition. In order to investigate the response of the exotic terrestrial amphipod Talitroides topitotum (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Talitridae) to anthropogenic disturbances and its potential as a bioindicator, we compared its abundance among three forest reserves in southeastern Brazil, under different types and intensities of disturbance. We observed significantly higher abundances in disturbed sites compared to undisturbed sites in two of the reserves sampled, corroborating previous studies. In the third reserve, in which both forest disturbance and the abundance of amphipods were much lower than in the other two reserves, there was no significant difference between the sampling sites. We also speculate about the potential use of terrestrial amphipods as global indicators of forest disturbance.