Extent, intensity and drivers of mammal defaunation: a continental-scale analysis across the Neotropics

Neotropical mammal diversity is currently threatened by several chronic human-induced pressures. We compiled 1,029 contemporary mammal assemblages surveyed across the Neotropics to quantify the continental-scale extent and intensity of defaunation and understand their determinants based on environme...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2020-09, Vol.10 (1), p.14750, Article 14750
Main Authors: Bogoni, Juliano A., Peres, Carlos A., Ferraz, Katia M. P. M. B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/158/670
704/158/672
704/158/853
Animals
Biodiversity
Central America
Conservation of Natural Resources
Extinction, Biological
Forests
Human Activities
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Mammals - anatomy & histology
Mammals - physiology
multidisciplinary
Population Dynamics - statistics & numerical data
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
South America
Tropical Climate
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Summary:Neotropical mammal diversity is currently threatened by several chronic human-induced pressures. We compiled 1,029 contemporary mammal assemblages surveyed across the Neotropics to quantify the continental-scale extent and intensity of defaunation and understand their determinants based on environmental covariates. We calculated a local defaunation index for all assemblages—adjusted by a false-absence ratio—which was examined using structural equation models. We propose a hunting index based on socioenvironmental co-variables that either intensify or inhibit hunting, which we used as an additional predictor of defaunation. Mammal defaunation intensity across the Neotropics on average erased 56.5% of the local source fauna, with ungulates comprising the most ubiquitous losses. The extent of defaunation is widespread, but more incipient in hitherto relatively intact major biomes that are rapidly succumbing to encroaching deforestation frontiers. Assemblage-wide mammal body mass distribution was greatly reduced from a historical 95th-percentile of ~ 14 kg to only ~ 4 kg in modern assemblages. Defaunation and depletion of large-bodied species were primarily driven by hunting pressure and remaining habitat area. Our findings can inform guidelines to design transnational conservation policies to safeguard native vertebrates, and ensure that the “empty ecosystem” syndrome will be deterred from reaching much of the New World tropics.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-72010-w