Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests

Tropical forests hold most of Earth’s biodiversity and a higher concentration of threatened mammals than other biomes. As a result, some mammal species persist almost exclusively in protected areas, often within extensively transformed and heavily populated landscapes. Other species depend on remai...

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Main Authors: Ilaria, Greco, Lydia, Beaudrot, Chris, Sutherland, Simone, Tenan, Chia, Hsieh, Daniel, Gorczynski, Douglas, Sheil, Jedediah, Brodie, Mohammad Firoz, Ahmed, Jorge, Ahumada, Rajan, Amin, Megan, Baker-Watton, Ramie, Husneara Begum, Francesco, Bisi, Robert, Bitariho, Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PLOS 2025
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Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47586/1/Landscape-level%20human%20disturbance.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47586/
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002976
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002976
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spelling my.unimas.ir-475862025-02-14T07:15:35Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47586/ Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests Ilaria, Greco Lydia, Beaudrot Chris, Sutherland Simone, Tenan Chia, Hsieh Daniel, Gorczynski Douglas, Sheil Jedediah, Brodie Mohammad Firoz, Ahmed Jorge, Ahumada Rajan, Amin Megan, Baker-Watton Ramie, Husneara Begum Francesco, Bisi Robert, Bitariho Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan QL Zoology Tropical forests hold most of Earth’s biodiversity and a higher concentration of threatened mammals than other biomes. As a result, some mammal species persist almost exclusively in protected areas, often within extensively transformed and heavily populated landscapes. Other species depend on remaining remote forested areas with sparse human populations. However, it remains unclear how mammalian communities in tropical forests respond to anthropogenic pressures in the broader landscape in which they are embedded. As governments commit to increasing the extent of global protected areas to prevent further biodiversity loss, identifying the landscape-level conditions supporting wildlife has become essential. Here, we assessed the relationship between mammal communities and anthropogenic threats in the broader landscape. We simultaneously modeled species richness and community occupancy as complementary metrics of community structure, using a state-ofthe-art community model parameterized with a standardized pan-tropical data set of 239 mammal species from 37 forests across 3 continents. Forest loss and fragmentation within a 50-km buffer were associated with reduced occupancy in monitored communities, while species richness was unaffected by them. In contrast, landscape-scale human density was associated with reduced mammal richness but not occupancy, suggesting that sensitive species have been extirpated, while remaining taxa are relatively unaffected. Taken together, these results provide evidence of extinction filtering within tropical forests triggered by anthropogenic pressure occurring in the broader landscape. Therefore, existing and new reserves may not achieve the desired biodiversity outcomes without concurrent investment in addressing landscape-scale threats. PLOS 2025 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47586/1/Landscape-level%20human%20disturbance.pdf Ilaria, Greco and Lydia, Beaudrot and Chris, Sutherland and Simone, Tenan and Chia, Hsieh and Daniel, Gorczynski and Douglas, Sheil and Jedediah, Brodie and Mohammad Firoz, Ahmed and Jorge, Ahumada and Rajan, Amin and Megan, Baker-Watton and Ramie, Husneara Begum and Francesco, Bisi and Robert, Bitariho and Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan (2025) Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests. PLOS Biology, 23 (2). pp. 1-24. ISSN 1545-7885 https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002976 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002976
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://ir.unimas.my/
language English
topic QL Zoology
spellingShingle QL Zoology
Ilaria, Greco
Lydia, Beaudrot
Chris, Sutherland
Simone, Tenan
Chia, Hsieh
Daniel, Gorczynski
Douglas, Sheil
Jedediah, Brodie
Mohammad Firoz, Ahmed
Jorge, Ahumada
Rajan, Amin
Megan, Baker-Watton
Ramie, Husneara Begum
Francesco, Bisi
Robert, Bitariho
Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan
Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests
description Tropical forests hold most of Earth’s biodiversity and a higher concentration of threatened mammals than other biomes. As a result, some mammal species persist almost exclusively in protected areas, often within extensively transformed and heavily populated landscapes. Other species depend on remaining remote forested areas with sparse human populations. However, it remains unclear how mammalian communities in tropical forests respond to anthropogenic pressures in the broader landscape in which they are embedded. As governments commit to increasing the extent of global protected areas to prevent further biodiversity loss, identifying the landscape-level conditions supporting wildlife has become essential. Here, we assessed the relationship between mammal communities and anthropogenic threats in the broader landscape. We simultaneously modeled species richness and community occupancy as complementary metrics of community structure, using a state-ofthe-art community model parameterized with a standardized pan-tropical data set of 239 mammal species from 37 forests across 3 continents. Forest loss and fragmentation within a 50-km buffer were associated with reduced occupancy in monitored communities, while species richness was unaffected by them. In contrast, landscape-scale human density was associated with reduced mammal richness but not occupancy, suggesting that sensitive species have been extirpated, while remaining taxa are relatively unaffected. Taken together, these results provide evidence of extinction filtering within tropical forests triggered by anthropogenic pressure occurring in the broader landscape. Therefore, existing and new reserves may not achieve the desired biodiversity outcomes without concurrent investment in addressing landscape-scale threats.
format Article
author Ilaria, Greco
Lydia, Beaudrot
Chris, Sutherland
Simone, Tenan
Chia, Hsieh
Daniel, Gorczynski
Douglas, Sheil
Jedediah, Brodie
Mohammad Firoz, Ahmed
Jorge, Ahumada
Rajan, Amin
Megan, Baker-Watton
Ramie, Husneara Begum
Francesco, Bisi
Robert, Bitariho
Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan
author_facet Ilaria, Greco
Lydia, Beaudrot
Chris, Sutherland
Simone, Tenan
Chia, Hsieh
Daniel, Gorczynski
Douglas, Sheil
Jedediah, Brodie
Mohammad Firoz, Ahmed
Jorge, Ahumada
Rajan, Amin
Megan, Baker-Watton
Ramie, Husneara Begum
Francesco, Bisi
Robert, Bitariho
Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan
author_sort Ilaria, Greco
title Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests
title_short Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests
title_full Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests
title_fullStr Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests
title_full_unstemmed Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests
title_sort landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests
publisher PLOS
publishDate 2025
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47586/1/Landscape-level%20human%20disturbance.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47586/
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002976
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002976
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