Forest cover influences occurrence of mammalian carnivores within Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation reduces biodiversity and affects ecological processes that are fundamental for maintaining ecosystem services. We investigated how landscape structure-percent forest cover, patch density, percent cover by edge, perimeter-area ratio, and spatial heterogeneity-affects the diversity of mammalian carnivores at multiple extents within 22 Atlantic Forest landscapes. We hypothesized that 1) species richness of carnivores is positively related to forest cover; and 2) the occurrence of species will vary according to its sensitivity to forest loss and its preference for forest or open areas. Species richness, composition, and occurrence of mammalian carnivores were correlated with several landscape structure metrics. Due to a high correlation among the metrics, we adopted forest cover as the principal predictor variable. We compared a forest cover model to a null model using Akaike Information Criterion (AICc), and evaluated other fragmentation metrics using a redundancy analysis. Carnivore species richness was positively related to forest cover and negatively associated with other fragmentation metrics. However, the responses to landscape structure differed among species, possibly due to their differences in habitat use. Landscape configuration is an important factor influencing carnivore species composition. Forest cover can explain some, but not all, carnivore species occurrence. Our results reinforce the protection of forests as fundamental to the conservation of carnivore species and the ecological processes in which they participate.O processo de fragmentação de habitat reduz a biodiversidade e afeta processos ecológicos fundamentais para a manutenção de serviços ecossistêmicos. Nós investigamos como as métricas de estrutura da paisagem-cobertura florestal, densidade de manchas, cobertura porcentual de borda, relação perímetro-área e heterogeneidade espacial-afetam a diversidade de mamíferos carnívoros em múltiplas extensões em 22 paisagens da Mata Atlântica. Orientamo-nos pelas seguintes hipóteses: a) a riqueza de carnívoros é relacionada positivamente com a cobertura florestal; b) a ocorrência das espécies varia de acordo com a sua sensibilidade à perda de floresta e à preferência por florestas ou áreas abertas. Riqueza, composição e ocorrência de mamíferos carnívoros foram relacionadas com várias métricas da paisagem. Devido à alta correlação entre as métricas, adotamos a quantidade

Wish you were here: How defaunated is the Atlantic Forest biome of its medium- to large-bodied mammal fauna?

“…Based on the geographic coordinates of each site, expressed as a UTM projection (Datum WGS 84), we extracted data on the human development index (HDI: United Nations Development Program) within a 10-km buffer area (~31,060 ha) around each site using the mean area-weighed HDI and per capita income (USD) values for all neighboring municipal counties, on the basis of the Brazilian Atlas of Human Development [ 68 ]. These buffers were defined as five times the buffer area used to assess the effects of landscape cover on mammalian carnivores in the Atlantic Forest [ 69 ]. Next, based on the ‘SOS Mata Atlântica’ land cover maps [ 70 ], assuming the 2016 landscape cover as a proxy for all studies, we extracted the following land cover data for each 10-km buffer area: (1) native vegetation cover (NC): sum of all natural vegetation types; (2) largest fragment area (LF): largest remnant of natural vegetation; (3) anthropogenic habitat cover (AC): sum of all areas allocated to agriculture, livestock pastures and exotic tree plantations (e.g.…”

Co‐declining mammal–dung beetle faunas throughout the Atlantic Forest biome of South America

“…These 10-km buffers were defined as five times the buffer area used to assess the effects of landscape cover on mammalian carnivores in the Atlantic Forest (Regolin et al 2017). These 10-km buffers were defined as five times the buffer area used to assess the effects of landscape cover on mammalian carnivores in the Atlantic Forest (Regolin et al 2017).…”

Multi-Scale Landscape Influences on Genetic Diversity and Adaptive Traits in a Neotropical Savanna Tree

“…Changes in landscape structure, such as habitat amount, edge effect and heterogeneity, can affect essential ecological processes such as dispersal (Corlett, 2017;Bovo et al, 2018), seed predation (Mendes et al, 2016), and pollination (Hadley and Betts, 2011;Duarte et al, 2018), and consequently compromise population persistence (Santos et al, 2016;Regolin et al, 2017). Landscape changes may also affect population connectivity and genetic diversity in different taxa (e.g., Dixo et al, 2009;Carvalho et al, 2015;Jackson and Fahrig, 2016;Moraes et al, 2018;González-Fernández et al, 2019).…”