1. In recent years, there has been a fast development of models that adjust for imperfect detection. These models have revolutionized the analysis of field data, and their use has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of sampling design and data quality. There are, however, several practical limitations associated with the use of detectability models which restrict their relevance to tropical conservation science.2. We outline the main advantages of detectability models, before examining their limitations associated with their applicability to the analysis of tropical communities, rare species and large-scale data sets. Finally, we discuss whether detection probability needs to be controlled before and/or after data collection.3. Models that adjust for imperfect detection allow ecologists to assess data quality by estimating uncertainty and to obtain adjusted ecological estimates of populations and communities. Importantly, these models have allowed informed decisions to be made about the conservation and management of target species.4. Data requirements for obtaining unadjusted estimates are substantially lower than for detectability-adjusted estimates, which require relatively high detection/recapture probabilities and a number of repeated surveys at each location. These requirements can be difficult to meet in large-scale environmental studies where high levels of spatial replication are needed, or in the tropics where communities are composed of many naturally rare species. However, while imperfect detection can only be adjusted statistically, covariates of detection probability can also be controlled through study design. Using three study cases where we controlled for covariates of detection probability through sampling design, we show that the variation in unadjusted ecological estimates from nearly 100 species was qualitatively the same as that obtained from adjusted estimates. Finally, we discuss that the decision as to whether one should control for covariates of detection probability through study design or statistical analyses should be dependent on study objectives.5. Synthesis and applications. Models that adjust for imperfect detection are an important part of an ecologist's toolkit, but they should not be uniformly adopted in all studies. Ecologists should never let the constraints of models dictate which questions should be pursued or how the data should be analysed, and detectability models are no exception. We argue for pluralism in scientific methods, particularly where cost-effective applied ecological science is needed to inform conservation policy at a range of different scales and in many different systems.

Although both niche‐based and neutral processes are involved in community assembly, most models on the effects of habitat loss are stochastic, assuming neutral communities mainly affected by ecological drift and random extinction. Given that habitat loss is considered the most important driver of the current biodiversity crisis, unraveling the processes underlying the effects of habitat loss is critical from both a theoretical and an applied perspective. Here we unveil the importance of niche‐based and neutral processes to species extinction and community assembly across a gradient of habitat loss, challenging the predictions of neutral models. We draw on a large dataset containing the distribution of 3653 individuals of 42 species, representing 35% of the small mammal species of the Atlantic Forest hotspot, obtained in 68 sites across three continuously‐forested landscapes and three adjacent 10 000‐ha fragmented landscapes differing in the amount of remaining forest (50%, 30% and 10%). By applying a null‐model approach, we investigated β‐diversity patterns by detecting deviations of observed community similarity from the similarity between randomly assembled communities. Species extinction following habitat loss was decidedly non‐random, in contrast to the notion that fragmented communities are mainly driven by ecological drift. Instead, habitat loss led to a strong biotic homogenization. Moreover, species composition changed abruptly at the same level of landscape‐scale habitat loss that has already been associated with a drastic decline in species richness. Habitat loss, as other anthropogenic disturbances, can thus be seen as a strong ecological filter that increases (rather than decreases) the importance of deterministic processes in community assembly. As such, critical advances for the development of conservation science lie on the incorporation of the relevant niche traits associated with extinction proneness into models of habitat loss. The results also underscore the fundamental importance of pro‐active measures to prevent human‐modified landscapes surpassing critical ecological thresholds.

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Background: The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is highly endangered and only about 7% of the original forest remains, most of which consists of fragments of secondary forest. Small mammals in the Atlantic Forest have differential responses to this process of fragmentation and conversion of forest into anthropogenic habitats, and have varying abilities to occupy the surrounding altered habitats. We investigated the influence of vegetation structure on the micro-scale distribution of five small mammal species in six secondary forest remnants in a landscape of fragmented Atlantic Forest. We tested whether the occurrence of small mammal species is influenced by vegetation structure, aiming to ascertain whether species with different degrees of vulnerability to forest fragmentation (not vulnerable: A. montensis, O. nigripes and G. microtarsus; vulnerable: M. incanus and D. sublineatus; classification of vulnerability was based on the results of previous studies) are associated with distinct vegetation characteristics.

Effects of fragmentation on parasite burden (nematodes) of generalist and specialist small mammal species in secondary forest fragments of the coastal Atlantic Forest, Brazil Abstract Parasites are considered to play an important role in the regulation of wild animal populations. We investigated parasite burden of gastrointestinal nematodes and body condition in specialist and generalist small mammal species in secondary forest fragments in the highly endangered coastal Atlantic Forest. We hypothesized that body condition decreases with increasing parasite load and that parasite burden increases with increasing fragmentation in specialist species but not in generalist species as a consequence of differing responses to fragmentation effects. Investigated species were Akodon montensis, Oligoryzomys nigripes, and Delomys sublineatus (rodents) and the marsupials Marmosops incanus and Gracilinanus microtarsus. Prevalence of parasites was high in all species except for the arboreal G. microtarsus, presumably because of decreased infection probability. No correlation was found between body condition and parasite load in any of the species. Contrary to our expectations, body condition of the specialists D. sublineatus and M. incanus increased in both species with increasing fragmentation. In D. sublineatus, parasite burden increased and body condition decreased in fragments with relatively high density probably due to increased contact rates and facilitation of infection with nematodes. In all generalist species, low or no correlation between parasite burden and fragmentation was detected, suggesting little effect of fragmentation on population health.