Spatial heterogeneity and habitat configuration overcome habitat composition influences on alpha and beta mammal diversity

Autor(es)

Regolin, Andre Luis ^[1] ; Ribeiro, Milton Cezar ^[1] ; Martello, Felipe ^[2] ; Melo, Geruza Leal ^[3] ; Sponchiado, Jonas ^[3] ; Campanha, Luis F. de Castro ^[4] ; Sugai, Larissa Sayuri Moreira ^[4] ; Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire ^[5] ; Caceres, Nilton Carlos ^[6]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Paulista UNESP, Spatial Ecol & Conservat Lab LEEC, Dept Biodivers, Inst Biosci, Campus Rio Claro, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ Fed Acre UFAC, Grad Degree Program Ecol & Nat Resources Manageme, Rio Branco - Brazil

^[3] Univ Fed Santa Maria UFSM, Lab Ecol & Biogeog, Santa Maria, RS - Brazil

^[4] Inst Biosci, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[5] Univ Stirling, Div Biol & Environm Sci, Fac Nat Sci, Stirling - Scotland

^[6] Univ Fed Santa Maria UFSM, Dept Ecol & Evolut, Santa Maria, RS - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Biotropica; v. 52, n. 5 MAY 2020.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

The effects of habitat fragmentation on different taxa and ecosystems are subject to intense debate, and disentangling them is of utmost importance to support conservation and management strategies. We evaluated the importance of landscape composition and configuration, and spatial heterogeneity to explain alpha- and beta-diversity of mammals across a gradient of percent woody cover and land use diversity. We expected species richness to be positively related to all predictive variables, with the strongest relationship with landscape composition and configuration, and spatial heterogeneity respectively. We also expected landscape to influence beta-diversity in the same order of importance expected for species richness, with a stronger influence on nestedness due to deterministic loss of species more sensitive to habitat disturbance. We analyzed landscape structure using: (a) landscape metrics based on thematic maps and (b) image texture of a vegetation index. We compared a set of univariate explanatory models of species richness using AIC, and evaluated how dissimilarities in landscape composition and configuration and spatial heterogeneity affect beta-diversity components using a Multiple Regression on distance Matrix. Contrary with our expectations, landscape configuration was the main driver of species richness, followed by spatial heterogeneity and last by landscape composition. Nestedness was explained, in order of importance, by spatial heterogeneity, landscape configuration, and landscape composition. Although conservation policies tend to focus mainly on habitat amount, we advocate that landscape management must include strategies to preserve and improve habitat quality and complexity in natural patches and the surrounding matrix, enabling landscapes to harbor high species diversity. in Portuguese is available with online material. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 15/25316-6 - Comunidades acústicas: Processos estruturantes e implicações para mecanismos de montagem de comunidades
• Beneficiário: Larissa Sayuri Moreira Sugai
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 17/15772-0 - A dimensão acústica das comunidades biológicas: Processos estruturantes Evolutivos e Ecológicos
• Beneficiário: Larissa Sayuri Moreira Sugai
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Exterior - Estágio de Pesquisa - Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 13/50421-2 - Novos métodos de amostragem e ferramentas estatísticas para pesquisa em biodiversidade: integrando ecologia de movimento com ecologia de população e comunidade
• Beneficiário: Milton Cezar Ribeiro
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular