What is it about?
We used structured equation models to investigate the relationship between small mammal species, functional and phylogenetic diversity with forest size, forest cover and the occurrence of medium and large mammals.
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Why is it important?
Our results indicate that occurrence of medium and large sized mammals (probably acting as predators, or competitors of small mammals) and forest patch size help to retain species and functional diversity in small mammal communities.Identifying how phylogenetic and functional diversity change in function of human pressures allows us to better understand the contribution of extant lineages to ecosystem functioning in tropical forests.
Perspectives
Given the unprecedented rates of defaunation globally, the insights from our ndings may serve as a warning for cascading e ects about the loss of large mammals on the biodiversity of hyper-diverse groups such as small mammals.
Dr Ricardo S Bovendorp
Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz - UESC
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Defaunation and fragmentation erode small mammal diversity dimensions in tropical forests, Ecography, August 2018, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ecog.03504.
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