Quantifying the impacts of defaunation on natural forest regeneration in a global meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT: Intact forests provide diverse and irreplaceable ecosystem services that are critical to human well-being, such as carbon storage to mitigate climate change. However, the ecosystem functions that underpin these services are highly dependent on the woody vegetation-animal interactions occurring within forests. While vertebrate defaunation is of growing policy concern, the effects of vertebrate loss on natural forest regeneration have yet to be quantified globally. Here we conduct a meta-analysis to assess the direction and magnitude of defaunation impacts on forests. We demonstrate that real-world defaunation caused by hunting and habitat fragmentation leads to reduced forest regeneration, although manipulation experiments provide contrasting findings. The extirpation of primates and birds

SUBMITTER: Gardner CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6791894 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature