Mesopredators in forest edges

Luskin, Matthew Scott; Arnold, Lindsey; Sovie, Adia; Amir, Zachary; Chua, Marcus Aik Hwee; Dehaudt, Bastien; Dunn, Ashlea; Nursamsi, Ilyas; Moore, Jonathan H.; Mendes, Calebe P.

doi:10.1002/wll2.12023

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 81 publications

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“…For example, clouded leopards shift from nocturnal in intact forests towards peak activity near dawn within disturbed forests (0600 h; Supplementary Table 19), likely adapting to an altered prey base, and indeed their overlap with some pigs, macaques, and the great argus pheasants increase in disturbed areas (Supplementary Table 22) [42][43][44] . Likewise, leopard cats' shift from crepuscular to nocturnality has previously been reported to hunt nocturnal rodent crop pests in disturbed forest edges [45][46][47][48] . The increase in diurnal activity of medium-sized carnivores may be tracking more medium-sized omnivores in disturbed areas, or these animals may be responding to competitive release and niche partitioning to avoid larger competitors, which have a reduction in diurnality in disturbed areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Effects of human disturbances on wildlife behaviour and consequences for predator-prey overlap in Southeast Asia

Lee,

Amir,

Moore

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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Some animal species shift their activity towards increased nocturnality in disturbed habitats to avoid predominantly diurnal humans. This may alter diel overlap among species, a precondition to most predation and competition interactions that structure food webs. Here, using camera trap data from 10 tropical forest landscapes, we find that hyperdiverse Southeast Asian wildlife communities shift their peak activity from early mornings in intact habitats towards dawn and dusk in disturbed habitats (increased crepuscularity). Our results indicate that anthropogenic disturbances drive opposing behavioural adaptations based on rarity, size and feeding guild, with more nocturnality among the 59 rarer specialists’ species, more diurnality for medium-sized generalists, and less diurnality for larger hunted species. Species turnover also played a role in underpinning community- and guild-level responses, with disturbances associated with markedly more detections of diurnal generalists and their medium-sized diurnal predators. However, overlap among predator-prey or competitor guilds does not vary with disturbance, suggesting that net species interactions may be conserved.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Effects of human disturbances on wildlife behaviour and consequences for predator-prey overlap in Southeast Asia

Lee,

Amir,

Moore

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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A multi‐scale synthesis of mousedeer habitat associations in Southeast Asia reveals declining abundance but few extirpations in fragments and edges

Mendes,

Liu,

Amir

et al. 2023

Austral Ecology

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Habitat loss and fragmentation profoundly impact Southeast Asian rainforest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. While many larger herbivores are hunted and area‐demanding apex predators are lost from degraded forests (logged forests, forest fragments and forest edges), smaller herbivore species may be comparatively resilient or even benefit from a release from competition and predation in degraded forests. Mousedeer (or chevrotains) in the Tragulus genus are some of the world's smallest ungulates (1.5–4.5 kg) and are widespread in Southeast Asia. We evaluated mousedeer habitat associations at three spatial scales. At the regional scale, presence‐only species distribution modelling suggested mousedeer are negatively associated with aridity and elevation. At the landscape scale, variation capture rates among 186 published camera trapping studies suggested mousedeer are negatively associated with forest degradation and elevation. At the local scale (within landscapes), mousedeer abundance sampled with 1218 cameras at 10 landscapes and analysed with hierarchical abundance modelling suggested mousedeer are negatively associated with humans and elevation. Mousedeer diel activity patterns shifted towards increased nocturnality in degraded forests, possibly to avoid interactions with diurnal humans. Taken together, mousedeer prefer wet lowland forests and they persist – but decline – in degraded habitats and near humans. One exception was degraded forest fragments of Singapore where mousedeer are very abundant, likely due to the absence of hunting and predators. Our results emphasize that small herbivores persisting in fragmented rainforests decline relative to intact forests and thus are unlikely to be experiencing significant release from competition or predation. They also differ from small omnivorous generalists who experience beneficial foraging opportunities at edges. In degraded forests where larger wildlife has been lost, even low densities of small herbivores may perpetuate important ecological interactions such as herbivory, seed dispersal, or as prey for remaining predators.

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Defaunation impacts on the carbon balance of tropical forests

Brodie,

Bello,

Emer

et al. 2024

Conservation Biology

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The urgent need to mitigate and adapt to climate change necessitates a comprehensive understanding of carbon cycling dynamics. Traditionally, global carbon cycle models have focused on vegetation, but recent research suggests that animals can play a significant role in carbon dynamics under some circumstances, potentially enhancing the effectiveness of nature‐based solutions to mitigate climate change. However, links between animals, plants, and carbon remain unclear. We explored the complex interactions between defaunation and ecosystem carbon in Earth's most biodiverse and carbon‐rich biome, tropical rainforests. Defaunation can change patterns of seed dispersal, granivory, and herbivory in ways that alter tree species composition and, therefore, forest carbon above‐ and belowground. Most studies we reviewed show that defaunation reduces carbon storage 0−26% in the Neo‐ and Afrotropics, primarily via population declines in large‐seeded, animal‐dispersed trees. However, Asian forests are not predicted to experience changes because their high‐carbon trees are wind dispersed. Extrapolating these local effects to entire ecosystems implies losses of ∼1.6 Pg CO2 equivalent across the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and 4−9.2 Pg across the Amazon over 100 years and of ∼14.7−26.3 Pg across the Congo basin over 250 years. In addition to being hard to quantify with precision, the effects of defaunation on ecosystem carbon are highly context dependent; outcomes varied based on the balance between antagonist and mutualist species interactions, abiotic conditions, human pressure, and numerous other factors. A combination of experiments, large‐scale comparative studies, and mechanistic models could help disentangle the effects of defaunation from other anthropogenic forces in the face of the incredible complexity of tropical forest systems. Overall, our synthesis emphasizes the importance of—and inconsistent results when—integrating animal dynamics into carbon cycle models, which is crucial for developing climate change mitigation strategies and effective policies.

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Mesopredators in forest edges

Cited by 3 publications

References 81 publications

Effects of human disturbances on wildlife behaviour and consequences for predator-prey overlap in Southeast Asia

Effects of human disturbances on wildlife behaviour and consequences for predator-prey overlap in Southeast Asia

A multi‐scale synthesis of mousedeer habitat associations in Southeast Asia reveals declining abundance but few extirpations in fragments and edges

Defaunation impacts on the carbon balance of tropical forests

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