Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements

Tucker, Marlee A.; Böhning‐Gaese, Katrin; Fagan, William F.; Fryxell, John M.; Moorter, Bram Van; Alberts, Susan C.; Ali, Abdullahi H.; Allen, Andrew M.; Attias, Nina; Avgar, Tal; Bartlam‐Brooks, Hattie L. A.; Buuveibaatar, Bayarbaatar; Belant, Jerrold L.; Bertassoni, Alessandra; Beyer, Dean E.; Bidner, Laura R.; Beest, Floris M. van; Blake, Stephen; Blaum, Niels; Bracis, Chloe; Brown, Danielle D.; Bruyn, P. J. Nico de; Cagnacci, Francesca; Calabrese, Justin M.; Camilo-Alves, Constança; Chamaillé‐Jammes, Simon; Chiaradia, André; Davidson, Sarah C.; Dennis, Todd E.; DeStefano, Stephen; Diefenbach, Duane R.; Douglas‐Hamilton, Iain; Fennessy, Julian; Fichtel, Claudia; Fiedler, Wolfgang; Fischer, Christina; Fischhoff, Ilya R.; Fleming, Christen H.; Ford, Adam T.; Fritz, Susanne A.; Gehr, Benedikt; Goheen, Jacob R.; Gurarie, Eliezer; Hebblewhite, Mark; Heurich, Marco; Hewison, A. J. Mark; Hof, Christian; Hurme, Edward; Isbell, Lynne A.; Janßen, René; Jeltsch, Florian; Kaczensky, Petra; Kane, Adam; Kappeler, Peter M.; Kauffman, Matthew J.; Kays, Roland; Kimuyu, Duncan M.; Koch, Flávia; Kranstauber, Bart; LaPoint, Scott D.; Leimgruber, Peter; Linnell, John D. C.; López‐López, Pascual; Markham, A. Catherine; Mattisson, Jenny; Medici, Emília Patrícia; Mellone, Ugo; Merrill, Evelyn H.; Mourão, Guilherme; Morato, Ronaldo Gonçalves; Morellet, Nicolas; Morrison, Thomas A.; Díaz‐Muñoz, Samuel L.; Mysterud, Atle; Dejid, Nandintsetseg; Nathan, Ran; Niamir, Aidin; Oddén, John; O’Hara, Robert B.; Oliveira‐Santos, Luiz Gustavo Rodrigues; Olson, Kirk A.; Patterson, Bruce D.; Paula, Rogério Cunha de; Pedrotti, Luca; Reineking, Björn; Rimmler, Martin; Rogers, Tracey L.; Rolandsen, Christer Moe; Rosenberry, Christopher S.; Rubenstein, Daniel I.; Safi, Kamran; Saı̈d, Sonia; Sapir, Nir; Sawyer, Hall; Schmidt, Niels Martin; Selva, Nuria; Sergiel, Agnieszka; Shiilegdamba, Enkhtuvshin; Silva, João Paulo; Singh, Navinder J.; Solberg, Erling Johan; Spiegel, Orr; Strand, Olav; Sundaresan, Siva R.; Ullmann, Wiebke; Voigt, Ulrich; Wall, Jake; Wattles, David W.; Wikelski, Martin; Wilmers, Christopher C.; Wilson, John W.; Wittemyer, George; Zięba, Filip; Zwijacz‐Kozica, Tomasz; Mueller, Thomas

doi:10.1126/science.aam9712

Cited by 925 publications

(786 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…The humanrelated factor was the only macroecological variable included in the best models for scavenger richness. All of these factors are known to affect vertebrates (e.g., Tucker et al, 2018), to predict extinction risk (Di Marco, Venter, Possingham, & Watson, 2018), and to negatively affect particular scavenger species, at least at the local scale (e.g., Bogoni et al, 2016;Lambertucci et al, 2009). HF combines information on human population density, harvest, livestock, land use, land change, and human accessibility.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, productivity, rainfall and temperature explained broad-scale vertebrate richness patterns (Hawkins et al, 2003). For example, human factors drive global avian species loss (Jetz, Wilcove & Dobson, 2007), affect macroecological patterns of seed-dispersal assemblages (Sebastián-González, Dalsgaard, Sandel, & Guimarães, 2015), and restrict local and regional movements of terrestrial mammal species (Tucker et al, 2018). Because of its pervasiveness, human impact may directly (e.g., by hunting, Benítez-López et al, 2017) and indirectly (e.g., by altering the habitat and amount of food available to species) affect the number of species in a community and their interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scavenging in the Anthropocene: Human impact drives vertebrate scavenger species richness at a global scale

Sebastián‐González

Barbosa

Pérez‐García

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Understanding the distribution of biodiversity across the Earth is one of the most challenging questions in biology. Much research has been directed at explaining the species latitudinal pattern showing that communities are richer in tropical areas; however, despite decades of research, a general consensus has not yet emerged. In addition, global biodiversity patterns are being rapidly altered by human activities. Here, we aim to describe large‐scale patterns of species richness and diversity in terrestrial vertebrate scavenger (carrion‐consuming) assemblages, which provide key ecosystem functions and services. We used a worldwide dataset comprising 43 sites, where vertebrate scavenger assemblages were identified using 2,485 carcasses monitored between 1991 and 2018. First, we evaluated how scavenger richness (number of species) and diversity (Shannon diversity index) varied among seasons (cold vs. warm, wet vs. dry). Then, we studied the potential effects of human impact and a set of macroecological variables related to climatic conditions on the scavenger assemblages. Vertebrate scavenger richness ranged from species‐poor to species rich assemblages (4–30 species). Both scavenger richness and diversity also showed some seasonal variation. However, in general, climatic variables did not drive latitudinal patterns, as scavenger richness and diversity were not affected by temperature or rainfall. Rainfall seasonality slightly increased the number of species in the community, but its effect was weak. Instead, the human impact index included in our study was the main predictor of scavenger richness. Scavenger assemblages in highly human‐impacted areas sustained the smallest number of scavenger species, suggesting human activity may be overriding other macroecological processes in shaping scavenger communities. Our results highlight the effect of human impact at a global scale. As species‐rich assemblages tend to be more functional, we warn about possible reductions in ecosystem functions and the services provided by scavengers in human‐dominated landscapes in the Anthropocene.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scavenging in the Anthropocene: Human impact drives vertebrate scavenger species richness at a global scale

Sebastián‐González

Barbosa

Pérez‐García

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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“…Regardless of taxa, human disturbance tends to reduce animal movementsbehaviors that can broadly affect species persistence and ecosystem function (Tucker et al, 2018). Few regions of the globe remain unaffected by the exploration and production of the next fuel or electron.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term effects of energy development on winter distribution and residency of pronghorn in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Sawyer

Beckmann

Seidler

et al. 2019

Conservat Sci and Prac

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An increasing global demand for energy assures continued disturbance to previously undeveloped landscapes, but understanding broader impacts to wildlife remains elusive. Among groups of species most vulnerable to habitat disruption are those requiring large tracts of land. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) are an obligate to the open plains and basins that, similar to other transcontinental large herbivores, rely primarily on habitats where development of energy resources such as oil, natural gas, coal, wind, and solar are intensifying. To understand behavioral response to a burgeoning energy development project, we evaluated avoidance, displacement, and winter residency patterns of pronghorn in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem across a 15-year period using 171 collared individuals. Distance from natural gas well pads increased through time and was concurrent with declines in winter residency. Between 2005 and 2017, we found that (a) pronghorn avoidance of well pads likely increased by 408 m, (b) the overall displacement of pronghorn relative to well pads in the final year of study increased by 800 m, (c) the time pronghorn spent in the study area was reduced by 22% (nearly 1 month), and (d) the percentage of pronghorn leaving the study area increased by 57%. Such directional changes signal a strong behavioral response of an open-plain obligate to energy infrastructure, and together, these metrics indicate that pronghorn response to energy development involves both avoidance of infrastructure and partial abandonment of their traditional winter ranges. While comparable long-term data sets are generally unavailable for other functionally equivalent ungulate groups in similar ecological topographies of Asia, Africa, and South America, our study may serve as a reasonable surrogate and highlights that behavioral changes elicited from energy development which at first appear subtle can proliferate and may portend demographic consequences. K E Y W O R D SAntilocapra americana, avoidance, disturbance, indirect habitat loss, winter range

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“…Technological and modeling advances have made it possible to collect more finely resolved data on the movement paths of individuals and to use the density and distribution of speeds and turning angles along those movement paths to infer behavioral states (Phillips, Patterson, Leroy, Pilling, & Nicol, 2015). Improvements in technology have made it possible to acquire large and finely resolved datasets on individual movements (Tucker et al, 2018) that are otherwise difficult to observe. Longer steps and smaller angles can indicate transit through less favorable habitat (Maciel & Lutscher, 2013;Osbourn, Connette, & Semlitsch, 2014), as seen in elephants (Duffy, Dai, Shannon, Slotow, & Page, 2011) and caribou (Avgar, Mosser, Brown, & Fryxell, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

State‐space modeling reveals habitat perception of a small terrestrial mammal in a fragmented landscape

Gardiner

Hamer

Leos‐Barajas

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Habitat loss is a major cause of species loss and is expected to increase. Loss of habitat is often associated with fragmentation of remaining habitat. Whether species can persist in fragmented landscapes may depend on their movement behavior, which determines their capability to respond flexibility to changes in habitat structure and spatial distribution of patches. Movement is frequently generalized to describe a total area used, or segmented to highlight resource use, often overlooking finer‐scale individual behaviors. We applied hidden Markov models (HMM) to movement data from 26 eastern bettongs (Bettongia gaimardi) in fragmented landscapes. HMMs are able to identify distinct behavior states associated with different movement patterns and discover how these behaviors are associated with habitat features. Three distinct behavior states were identified and interpreted as denning, foraging, and fast‐traveling. The probability of occurrence of each state, and of transitions between them, was predicted by variation in tree‐canopy cover and understorey vegetation density. Denning was associated with woodland with low canopy cover but high vegetation density, foraging with high canopy cover but low vegetation density, and fast‐traveling with low canopy cover and low vegetation density. Bettongs did move outside woodland patches, often fast‐traveling through pasture and using smaller stands of trees as stepping stones between neighboring patches. Males were more likely to fast‐travel and venture outside woodlands patches, while females concentrated their movement within woodland patches. Synthesis and applications: Our work demonstrates the value of using animal movement to understand how animals respond to variation in habitat structure, including fragmentation. Analysis using HMMs was able to characterize distinct habitat types needed for foraging and denning, and identify landscape features that facilitate movement between patches. Future work should extend the use of individual movement analyses to guide management of fragmented habitat in ways that support persistence of species potentially threatened by habitat loss.

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Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements

Cited by 925 publications

References 84 publications

Scavenging in the Anthropocene: Human impact drives vertebrate scavenger species richness at a global scale

Scavenging in the Anthropocene: Human impact drives vertebrate scavenger species richness at a global scale

Long‐term effects of energy development on winter distribution and residency of pronghorn in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

State‐space modeling reveals habitat perception of a small terrestrial mammal in a fragmented landscape

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