Late-Holocene mammal fauna from southern Australia reveals rapid species declines post-European settlement: Implications for conservation biology

Abstract

The arrival in Australia of Europeans and the species they brought with them initiated a sharp decline in native mammalian biodiversity. Consequently, one-third of the original or pre-European terrestrial mammal fauna is now extinct or threatened with extinction. Although the distributional ranges of many Australian mammals have contracted markedly, modern distributions are frequently used as baselines for conservation management and understanding ecological requirements. However, these often poorly reflect pre-European distributions, particularly in areas where biodiversity declines were rapid and occurred soon after European arrival. Here we analyse two late Holocene mammalian assemblages from Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, and reconstruct the pre-European terrestrial non-volant mammal fauna. The region was previously estimated to have lost perhaps 30% of its original terrestrial non-volant mammal fauna, but our results indicate a loss of almost 50%. We provide the first local records of the murids Mastacomys fuscus, Pseudomys australis, P. gouldii, P. novaehollandiae and P. shortridgei, and confirm the past occurrence of the now-extinct Conilurus albipes. Our study contributes new knowledge of species biogeography and ecology and will help refine restoration targets.

Shifting faunal baselines through the Quaternary revealed by cave fossils of eastern Australia

“…post-European colonisation), but was never recorded alive prior to its local extirpation. If so, then ecological surveys used to determine the geographic range contraction of modern small-bodied mammals since European colonisation substantially underestimate the true historic geographic range of their occurrence, and the complete range of habitat tolerances of a given species (Fusco, McDowell & Prideaux, 2016).…”

“…Understanding past biogeographical patterns is essential for developing accurate projections of species distributions across the landscape now and into the future, information fundamental for conservation efforts under a rapidly changing climate (McGuire & Davis, 2014). As such, sampling of vertebrate records from different types of caves across a variety of regions is a crucial first step for conservation palaeobiology approaches (Fusco, McDowell & Prideaux, 2016).…”

Large mammal species richness and late Quaternary precipitation change in south‐western Australia

“…richness cannot be high), but as MAP increases, the effects of other variables that can also influence richness, especially nutrient availability (Bell, ; Olff et al , ), become important and allow for richness to take on a broader range of values. Variance may also be introduced by local extinctions in historical times, primarily due to landscape transformation and introduction of invasive species (Fusco et al ., ), resulting in lower richness in some modern communities than predicted by precipitation. The lack of a significant positive correlation between richness and geographical area may reflect habitat homogeneity within the National Parks, such that increasing area does not sample new habitats and new sets of species (Travouillon and Legendre, ).…”

Habitat selection by two sympatric rodent species in an alpine resort

“…The subspecies historically occupied a much wider range of drier habitat types (<700mm rainfall) at lower elevations (<100m); but it is now considered locally extinct in most of these (Menkhorst 1995;Bilney et al, 2010;Fusco et al, 2015) and locally abundant only in a few alpine regions (Menkhorst 1995;Seebeck & Menkhorst 2000;Green & Osborne 2003;Menkhorst et al, 2008).…”

“…Its distribution has declined significantly since European settlement (Seebeck 1971;Menkhorst 1995;Hocking & Driessen 2000;Bilney et al, 2010), with numerous sub-fossil deposits found in eastern and western Victoria, and some sub-fossil deposits found in South Australia, that lie well outside its current recognised distribution and habitat (Vic SAC 2012;Bilney pers. comm., cited in Vic SAC 2015;Fusco et al, 2015).…”