While road network expansion connects human settlements between themselves, it also leads to deforestation and land use changes, reducing the connectivity between natural habitat patches, and increasing roadkill risk. More than 30% of registered mammal roadkills in Brazil are concentrated in four species: Cerdocyon thous (crab-eating fox); Euphractus sexcinctus (six-banded armadillo); Tamandua tetradactyla (collared anteater) and Myrmecophaga tridactyla (giant anteater), the latter being categorized as vulnerable by IUCN redlist. Our aim was to understand how these animals’ roadkills could be related to the land use proportions on landscapes all over the Brazilian territory, and investigate if the roadkill patterns differ among species. We collected secondary data on mammal roadkills (N = 2698) from several studies in different regions of Brazil. Using MapBiomas’ data on land use and land cover, we extracted landscape composition around each roadkill sample. Through the proportion of land use and land cover in the area of influence where the roadkill occurred, we built binomial GLM models and selected the best ones by Akaike Information Criteria. For crab-eating fox and the six-banded armadillo, the best models include matrix coverage resulting in increased roadkill risk, while both anteaters’ species have a habitat and a matrix component in their best models, with an interaction between the variables. These four species seem to be roadkilled in different landscape arrangements, but in all scenarios, anthropic areas had an important influence over the models. For habitat-dependent and more sensible species, such as Tamandua tetradactyla and Myrmecophaga tridactyla, the amount of matrix influencing the roadkill risk depends on habitat availability in the landscape. It changes the strength and direction of the effect according to the proportion of natural areas in the region, while with generalist species such as Cerdocyon thous and Euphractus sexcinctus, the quantity of human-modified coverage increases the risk.
Millions of animals are killed on roads annually due to collisions with vehicles, particularly medium–large mammals. Studies on mammal road-kill flourished in Brazil in the last decade and an assessment of research on road-kill impacts at a country level will help define science-based conservation strategies. In this study, we used the compiled scientific literature to provide the state of knowledge on medium and large-sized mammals killed by road traffic in Brazil, their conservation status, and an approximation of the road-kill magnitude. We reviewed a total of 62 scientific papers that reported road-kill data accounting for 11.817 individuals. Of the 102 species of medium–large mammals found in the IUCN list, more than half (n = 62; 61%) were recorded as road-kill on Brazilian roads. The Carnivora order comprises over a quarter (n = 23; 37%) of the total road-killed species. A total of 9 species (14.5%) were classified as threatened, with a further 10 (16%) as Near Threatened. Over half of the road-killed species (n = 33, 53%) showed declining population trends according to their IUCN conservation status. Our extrapolation of the results for the entire Brazilian paved road network showed that the number of medium–large road-killed mammals can reach almost 9 million yearly (maximum 8.7 million; mean 1.3 million), representing a biomass of more than 10000 tons. The highest roadkill rates were recorded for common generalists and least concern species, although there were also threatened and near threatened species within the top 15 highest road-kill rates. The declining population trends found for most species reflect serious conservation concerns, since there is a lack of information on the mortality effects at population levels. Our results suggest that medium–large mammals are severally affected by road mortality in Brazil. More investigations are needed at local and abundance population levels, in a way that allows the inclusion of road network as an important threat for target species impacted by road-kill in the national territory, in order to develop adequate plans to mitigate those impacts.
1. The benefits of green infrastructure on human well-being in urban areas are already well-established, with strong evidence of the positive effects of the amount and proximity to green areas. However, the understanding of how the spatial distribution and type of green areas affect health is still an open question.2. Here, through a land sharing and sparing framework, we explore how different spatial configurations of green and built-up areas and how different types of green areas can affect cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations in São Paulo city, Brazil.3. Sharing/sparing indicators were selected as the main explanatory factors in the control of all groups of diseases. Land sharing appeared as a favourable spatial condition to prevent cardiovascular hospitalization, while land sparing and arboreal vegetation were relevant to reduce hospitalization by lower respiratory diseases. 4. For upper respiratory diseases, forests seem to provide a disservice, once they were associated with increased rates of hospitalization by respiratory allergies causes.5. Considering that hospitalization rates and severity of cardiovascular diseases are substantially higher than those of upper respiratory ones, dense vegetation tends to provide more services than disservices. The land sharing configuration, which is characterized by green areas spread throughout the urban network (in streets, gardens, small squares or parks), should lead to higher exposure and use of the benefits of green areas, which may then explain the greater prevention of cardiovascular diseases.6. These novel results indicate that a more balanced distribution of green areas across built-up areas creates healthier urban spaces, and thus can be used as an urban planning strategy to leverage the health benefits provided by green infrastructure.7. Policy implications. Aiming to reduce hospitalizations by cardiovascular and pulmonary causes, urban planning should promote the spreading of green areas across the cities, in order to increase daily contact with natural attributes, giving preference to distribution over total quantity of green in urban landscape.
Background Several studies have investigated the association between green infrastructure and human health in cities and showed a positive relationship, as the amount or proximity to green spaces related with a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular diseases, in small geographical scales such as a few minutes walking to access those green areas. We aimed to investigate the effects of green spaces in the number of cardiovascular hospitalisations at an administrative scale (city districts), considering not only the quantity, but also the distribution of green spaces. We also aimed to predict the relative risk of cardiovascular hospitalisation related to the type and distribution of vegetation.Methods We used a land-sharing-sparing approach, accessed by vegetation indexes adapted to urban areas, to estimate the level of land sharing and sparing in each of the 96 districts of São Paulo (Brazil). We also used a vegetation cover map to access the quantity and type of green coverage in each district. We ran a binomial generalised linear model, considering the relative number of hospitalisations in each district in relation to the total population of exclusive users of the public health system. We then constructed models of those hospitalisation rates versus the type of vegetation and distribution (land-sharing-sparing metrics), controlled by social metrics.Findings We found that the best model selected by Akaike information criteria was the model considering total green coverage and land sharing (92% of total weight), with sharing having a bigger effect (β -0•82064, SD 0•05376) than coverage (β -0•15906, 0•04296) in the decrease of cardiovascular hospitalisation rates.Interpretation Our results show the importance of having neighbourhoods that share green spaces and households, potentially through street trees, green squares, parks, and small gardens, with distribution more important for cardiovascular health than simple coverage, perhaps because of a scenic view effect, encouragement of outdoor activities, and daily contact with those areas. Decision makers should consider strategies that increase the green coverage between households, promoting increased contact with green spaces as a potential incentive to experience green spaces and the prevention of cardiovascular hospitalisation.
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