Does patch quality drive arboreal mammal assemblages in fragmented rainforests?

Cudney‐Valenzuela, Sabine J.; Arroyo‐Rodríguez, Víctor; Toledo‐Aceves, Tarin; Ardila, Francisco Mora; Andrade-Ponce, Gabriel P.; Mandujano, Salvador

doi:10.1016/j.pecon.2020.12.004

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Our study shows that landscape-scale deforestation in the Lacandona rainforest has negative indirect effects on arboreal mammals through the increase of canopy openness, stressing that conservation actions must not only be focused on the extent of remaining habitat but on its quality as well (Cudney-Valenzuela et al, 2021). Our results also align with recent evidence suggesting that more individuals and species of arboreal mammals can be found in more deforested landscapes due to a crowding effect (Cudney-Valenzuela et al, 2021;Gestich et al, 2022).…”

Section: Conservation Implicationssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Mammal surveys are detailed elsewhere (Cudney-Valenzuela et al, 2021;, but a brief overview is given here. As suggested by Fahrig (2013), sampling effort was not proportional to patch size, but standardized across landscapes with different proportions of forest cover to avoid potential confounding effects related to the so-called "sample-area effect."…”

Section: Sampling Of Arboreal Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tropical forest loss impoverishes arboreal mammal assemblages by increasing tree canopy openness

Cudney‐Valenzuela

Arroyo‐Rodríguez

Morante‐Filho

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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Landscape‐scale deforestation poses a major threat to global biodiversity, not only because it limits habitat availability, but also because it can drive the degradation of the remaining habitat. However, the multiple pathways by which deforestation directly and indirectly affects wildlife remain poorly understood, especially for elusive forest‐dependent species such as arboreal mammals. Using structural equation models, we assessed the direct and indirect effects of landscape forest loss on arboreal mammal assemblages in the Lacandona rainforest, Mexico. We placed camera traps in 100 canopy trees, and assessed the direct effect of forest cover and their indirect effects via changes in tree basal area and canopy openness on the abundance and diversity (i.e., species richness and exponential of Shannon entropy) of arboreal mammals. We found that forest loss had negative indirect effects on mammal richness through the increase of tree canopy openness. This could be related to the fact that canopy openness is usually inversely related to resource availability and canopy connectivity for arboreal mammals. Furthermore, independently of forest loss, the abundance and richness of arboreal mammals was positively related to tree basal area, which is typically higher in old‐growth forests. Thus, our findings suggest that arboreal mammals generally prefer old‐growth vegetation with relatively low canopy openness and high tree basal area. However, unexpectedly, forest loss was directly and positively related to the abundance and richness of mammals, probably due to a crowding effect, a reasonable possibility given the relatively short history (~40 years) of deforestation in the study region. Conversely, the Shannon diversity was not affected by the predictors we evaluated, suggesting that rare mammals (not the common species) are the ones most affected by these changes. All in all, our findings emphasize that conservation measures ought to focus on increasing forest cover in the landscape, and preventing the loss of large trees in the remaining forest patches.

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Section: Conservation Implicationssupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Sampling Of Arboreal Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical forest loss impoverishes arboreal mammal assemblages by increasing tree canopy openness

Cudney‐Valenzuela

Arroyo‐Rodríguez

Morante‐Filho

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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“…with different tree crops, living fences and isolated standing trees) that characterize this region, are considered biodiversity‐friendly landscape scenarios because they can promote the dispersal, establishment and persistence of OGS species (Arroyo‐Rodríguez et al., 2020; Garibaldi et al., 2020; Melo et al, 2013), even in very small patches (Arroyo‐Rodríguez et al., 2009; Hernández‐Ruedas et al., 2014). In fact, this region maintains diverse assemblages of seed dispersers, including large‐bodied birds (Carrara et al, 2015) and mammals (Arce‐Peña et al., 2019; Cudney‐Valenzuela et al., 2021; Garmendia et al., 2013). However, the relatively weak response of saplings to landscape structure in LDR could also be related to the relatively shorter period of time this region has been exposed to human activities, which can increase its extinction debt.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree recruitment failure in old‐growth forest patches across human‐modified rainforests

et al. 2021

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Land‐use change threatens biodiversity in tropical landscapes, but its impact on rainforest regeneration remains poorly known. In fact, the landscape‐scale patterns driving the diversity of regenerating plants within forest fragments have been rarely explored, and we are uncertain whether such drivers vary across regions with different land‐use change patterns. We assessed the effect of landscape composition (forest cover and matrix openness) and configuration (forest patch density) on species diversity of sapling assemblages (trees ≥30 cm height and <1 cm diameter) in old‐growth forest fragments from three Mexican rainforest regions with different disturbance levels (n = 20 landscapes per region). We separately assessed old‐growth forest specialists (OGS) and forest generalist (FG) species to test the hypotheses that: (a) OGS species show recruitment limitation (‘loser’ species), and can therefore be negatively impacted by landscape changes, especially by forest loss and matrix openness in more deforested regions; and (b) FG species can regenerate and even proliferate in more disturbed landscapes (‘winner’ species). We recorded ~24,000 plants from 415 species. Landscape composition showed stronger effects than landscape configuration. The diversity of OGS species generally decreased in more deforested landscapes dominated by open matrices, and FG species followed the opposite response, especially in the regions with high‐to‐intermediate degree of disturbance. Overall, forest fragmentation (patch density) showed weak or no effects on species diversity, especially after controlling for forest cover effects (i.e. fragmentation per se). In contrast to the fragmentation threshold hypothesis, the effect of fragmentation was independent of the regional context. Moreover, FG species were affected by landscape attributes operating at larger scales than OGS species. Synthesis. Our findings support our hypotheses, and suggest that forest loss and matrix openness, not fragmentation per se, can cause the recruitment failure of tree assemblages in highly deforested rainforests. This can be related to source and dispersal limitation in more deforested landscapes with treeless matrices. Therefore, to promote the regenerative potential (resilience) of forest patches in human‐modified tropical landscapes, conservation programs should focus on preventing forest loss (even the smallest forest patches) and improving matrix quality with treed elements, particularly in highly deforested tropical regions.

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“…In fact, patch size has been recognised as a powerful predictor of patterns of occurrence of medium‐sized and large mammal species in Neotropical forests (Michalski & Peres 2005, Garmendia et al 2013, Jorge et al 2013). These larger forest fragments can also have high structural vegetation complexity and therefore higher habitat quality, which has already been shown to be important for arboreal mammals (Cudney‐Valenzuela et al 2021). In addition, several species have large family group sizes, such as Nasua nasua that forms groups of about 30 individuals (Emmons & Feer 1997), and large groups may require large areas of habitat to persist.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial predictors and species’ traits: evaluating what really matters for medium‐sized and large mammals in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

et al. 2021

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fragments. Finally, generalist species also occurred in landscapes with low edge density and number of patches, but were more prevalent in landscapes with higher human population density. 5. We stress the importance of maintaining large forest fragments, considering the effects of landscape configuration on conservation strategies, and reducing anthropogenic disturbances to ensure a greater persistence of mammal species in the Atlantic Forest.

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Does patch quality drive arboreal mammal assemblages in fragmented rainforests?

Cited by 9 publications

References 46 publications

Tropical forest loss impoverishes arboreal mammal assemblages by increasing tree canopy openness

Tropical forest loss impoverishes arboreal mammal assemblages by increasing tree canopy openness

Tree recruitment failure in old‐growth forest patches across human‐modified rainforests

Spatial predictors and species’ traits: evaluating what really matters for medium‐sized and large mammals in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

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