Complex Variation in Afrotropical Mammal Communities With Human Impact
Abstrak
ABSTRACT The diversity and composition of mammal communities are strongly influenced by human activities, though these relationships may vary across broad scales. Understanding this variation is key to conservation, as it provides a baseline for planning and evaluating management interventions. We assessed variation in the structure and composition of Afrotropical medium and large mammal communities within and outside protected areas, and under varying human impact. We collected data at 512 locations from 22 study sites in 12 Afrotropical countries over 7 years and 3 months (2011–2018) with 164,474 camera trap days in total. Half of these sites are located inside protected areas and half in unprotected areas. The sites are comparable in that they all harbor at least one great ape species, indicating a minimum level of habitat similarity, though they experience varying degrees of human impact. We applied Bayesian Regression models to relate site protection status and the degree of human impact to mammal communities. Protected area status was positively associated with the proportion of all threatened species, independent of the degree of human impact. Similarly, species richness was associated with area protection but was more sensitive to human impact. For all other attributes of the mammal communities, the pattern was more complex. The influence of human impact partially overrides the positive effects of protected area status, resulting in comparable mammal communities being observed both within protected areas and in similarly remote locations outside these areas. We observed a common pattern for large carnivores, whose probability of occurrence declined significantly with increasing human impact, independent of site protection status. Mammal communities benefit from sustainability measures of socio‐economic context that minimize human impact. Our results support the notion that conservation of mammalian species can be achieved by reducing human impact through targeted conservation measures, adopting landscape‐level management strategies, fostering community engagement, and safeguarding remote habitats with high mammal diversity.
Topik & Kata Kunci
Penulis (44)
Deogratias Tuyisingize
Lars Kulik
Delagnon Assou
Diorne Zausa
Solange Kamga
Onella Mundi
Stefanie Heinicke
Inza Kone
Samedi Jean Pierre Mucyo
Tenekwetche Sop
Christophe Boesch
Colleen Stephens
Anthony Agbor
Samuel Angedakin
Emma Bailey
Mattia Bessone
Charlotte Coupland
Josephine Head
Tobias Deschner
Paula Dieguez
Villard Ebot Egbe
Anne‐Céline Granjon
Thurston Cleveland Hicks
Sorrel Jones
Ammie K. Kalan
Kevin E. Langergraber
Juan Lapuente
Kevin C. Lee
Laura K. Lynn
Nuria Maldonado
Maureen S. McCarthy
Amelia Meier
Lucy Jayne Ormsby
Alex K. Piel
Lilah Sciaky
Volker Sommer
Fiona A. Stewart
Erin G. Wessling
Jane Widness
Roman M. Wittig
Pauline Strohbach
Mimi Arandjelovic
Yntze van derHoek
Hjalmar S. Kühl
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2025
- Sumber Database
- DOAJ
- DOI
- 10.1002/ece3.71331
- Akses
- Open Access ✓