To offset the declining timber supply by shifting towards more sustainable forestry practices, industrial tree plantations are expanding in tropical production forests. The conversion of natural forests to tree plantation is generally associated with loss of biodiversity and shifts towards more generalist and disturbance tolerant communities, but effects of mixed-landuse landscapes integrating natural and plantation forests remain little understood. Using camera traps, we surveyed the medium-to-large bodied terrestrial wildlife community across two mixed-landuse forest management areas in Sarawak, Malaysia Borneo which include areas dedicated to logging of natural forests and adjacent planted Acacia forests. We analyzed data from a 25-wildlife species community using a Bayesian community occupancy model to assess species richness and species-specific occurrence responses to Acacia plantations at a broad scale, and to remote-sensed local habitat conditions within the different forest landuse types. All species were estimated to occur in both landuse types, but species-level percent area occupied and predicted average local species richness were slightly higher in the natural forest management areas compared to licensed planted forest management areas. Similarly, occupancy-based species diversity profiles and defaunation indices for both a full community and only threatened and endemic species suggested the diversity and occurrence were slightly higher in the natural forest management areas. At the local scale, forest quality was the most prominent predictor of species occurrence. These associations with forest quality varied among species but were predominantly positive. Our results highlight the ability of a mixed-landuse landscape with small-scale Acacia plantations embedded in natural forests to retain terrestrial wildlife communities while providing an alternate source of timber. Nonetheless, there was a tendency towards reduced biodiversity in planted forests, which would likely be more pronounced in plantations that are larger or embedded in a less natural matrix.

Mammalian communities inhabiting temperate grasslands are of conservation concern globally, especially in Central Asia, where livestock numbers have dramatically increased in recent decades, leading to overgrazing and land-use change. Yet, how this pervasive presence of livestock herds affects the community of wild mammals remains largely unstudied. We used systematic camera trapping at 216 sites across remote, mountainous areas of the Mongolian Altai Mountains to assess the spatial and temporal patterns of occurrence and the interspecific relationships within a mammalian community that includes different categories of livestock. By adopting a recently proposed multispecies occupancy model that incorporates interspecific correlation in occupancy, we found several statistically strong correlations in occupancy among species pairs, with the majority involving livestock. The sign of such associations was markedly species-dependent, with larger wild species of conservation concern, namely, snow leopard and Siberian ibex, avoiding livestock presence. As predicted, we found evidence of a positive correlation in occupancy between predators and their respective main prey. Contrary to our expectations, a number of intraguild species pairs also showed positive co-occurrence, with no evidence of spatiotemporal niche partitioning. Overall, our study suggests that livestock encroaching into protected areas influences the whole local community of wild mammals. Though pastoralism has coexisted with wildlife for millennia in central Asian grasslands, our findings suggest that policies and practices to decrease the pressure of livestock husbandry on wildlife are needed, with special attention on large species, such as the snow leopard and its wild prey, which seem to be particularly sensitive to this pervasive livestock presence.

In the Anthropocene, understanding the impacts of anthropogenic influence on biodiversity and behavior of vulnerable wildlife communities is increasingly relevant to effective conservation. However, comparative studies aimed at disentangling the concurrent effect of different types of human disturbance on multifaceted biodiversity and on activity patterns of mammals are surprisingly rare. We applied a multiregion community model to separately estimate the effects of cumulative human modification (e.g., settlement, agriculture, and transportation) and human presence (aggregated presence of dogs, people, and livestock) on species richness and functional composition of medium- and large-bodied mammals based on camera trap data collected across 45 subtropical montane forests. We divided the detected mammal species into three trophic guilds-carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores-and assessed the nocturnal shifts of each guild in response to anthropogenic activities. Overall, species richness tended to increase (β coefficient = 0.954) as human modification increased but richness decreased as human presence increased (β = -1.054). Human modification was associated with significantly lower functional diversity (mean nearest taxon distance [MNTD], β = -0.134; standardized effect sizes of MNTD, β = -0.397), community average body mass (β = -0.240), and proportion of carnivores (β = -0.580). Human presence was associated with a strongly reduced proportion of herbivores (β = -0.522), whereas proportion of omnivores significantly increased as human presence (β = 0.378) and habitat modification (β = 0.419) increased. In terms of activity patterns, omnivores (β = 12.103) and carnivores (β = 9.368) became more nocturnal in response to human modification. Our results suggest that human modification and human presence have differing effects on mammals and demonstrate that anthropogenic disturbances can lead to drastic loss of functional diversity and result in a shift to nocturnal behavior of mammals. Conservation planning should consider concurrent effects of different types of human disturbance on species richness, functional diversity, and behavior of wildlife communities.
Pérdidas en la Diversidad Funcional y Cambios en el Comportamiento Nocturno de los Mamíferos bajo la Perturbación Antropogénica Resumen En el Antropoceno, el conocimiento sobre la influencia antropogénica sobre la biodiversidad y el comportamiento de las comunidades vulnerables de fauna es cada vez más relevante para la conservación efectiva. Sin embargo, sorprende que los estudios comparativos dirigidos a desentrañar el efecto concurrente de los diferentes tipos de perturbación humana sobre la biodiversidad multifacética y sobre los patrones de actividad de los mamíferos son escasos. Aplicamos un modelo de comunidad multirregional para estimar de manera separada los efectos de la modificación humana (p. ej.: establecimientos, agricultura, transporte) y la presencia humana (presencia agregada de perros, gente y ganado) acumuladas sobre la riqueza de especies y la composición funcional de los mamíferos de tamaño mediano y grande con base en datos de fototrampas recolectados en 45 bosques montanos subtropicales. Dividimos las especies de mamíferos detectadas en tres gremios tróficos: carnívoros, herbívoros y omnívoros, y analizamos los cambios nocturnos de cada gremio como respuesta a las actividades antropogénicas. En general, la riqueza de especies tuvo una tendencia al incremento (coeficiente β = 0.954) conforme aumentaron las modificaciones humanas, pero la riqueza disminuyó conforme incrementó la presencia humana (β = −1.054). Las modificaciones humanas estuvieron asociadas con una diversidad funcional (distancia promedio al taxón más cercano [DPTC], β = −0.134; tamaños del efecto estandarizado de la DPTC, β = −0.397), masa corporal promedio de la comunidad (β = −0.240) y proporción de carnívoros (β = −0.580) significativamente más bajas. La presencia humana estuvo asociada con una proporción gravemente reducida de herbívoros (β = −0.522), mientras que la proporción de omnívoros incrementó significativamente conforme aumentaron la presencia humana (β = 0.378) y la modificación del hábitat (β = 0.419). En cuanto a los patrones de actividad, los omnívoros (β = 12.103) y los carnívoros (β = 9.368) se volvieron más nocturnos como respuesta a las modificaciones humanas. Nuestros resultados sugieren que las modificaciones humanas y la presencia de personas tienen efectos diferentes sobre los mamíferos y demuestran que las perturbaciones antropogénicas pueden llevar a pérdidas drásticas de la diversidad funcional y resultar en un cambio hacia el comportamiento nocturno en los mamíferos. La planeación de la conservación debería considerar los efectos concurrentes de los diferentes tipos de perturbaciones humanas sobre la riqueza de especies, la diversidad funcional y el comportamiento de las comunidades faunísticas.
在人类世, 理解人类活动对受胁野生动物群落结构及行为的影响与生物多样性的有效保护密切相关, 然而鲜有研究对比分析不同类型人类活动对哺乳动物物种和功能多样性的影响。本研究基于亚热带山地森林 45 个调查样地的红外相机监测数据, 采用多区域群落模型分析长期累积的人类改造 (居民点、农业和交通运输等) 和实时人类活动 (红外相机记录到的狗、人和牲畜) 对大中型哺乳动物物种多样性及功能组成的影响。研究将红外相机探测到的哺乳动物按食性 (功能) 分为食肉类、食草类和杂食类, 并分析人类活动对各类群夜行性变化的影响。结果表明: 整体物种多样性随人类改造的增加而上升 (β = 0.954), 但随实时人类活动的增加而下降 (β = −1.054); 群落功能多样性 (MNTD, β = −0.134; ses.MNTD, β = −0.397)、平均体重 (β = −0.240) 和食肉类占比 (β = −0.580) 均随人类改造的增加而显著下降;食草类占比随实时人类活动的增强而显著减少 (β = −0.522); 杂食类占比则随人类改造 (β = 0.378) 和实时人类活动 (β = 0.419) 的增加而显著增加; 行为节律分析结果表明, 人类改造显著增加杂食类 (β = 12.103) 和食肉类 (β = 9.368) 夜行性水平。研究证实, 人类改造和实时人类活动对哺乳动物群落结构及功能的影响存在差别; 人类活动会导致哺乳动物功能多样性急剧减少和夜行性行为显著改变。因此, 制定保护计划时应该综合考虑不同类型人类活动对野生动物物种多样性、功能多样性和行为的共同影响。.