Extent, intensity and drivers of mammal defaunation: a continental-scale analysis across the Neotropics.

ABSTRACT: Neotropical mammal diversity is currently threatened by several chronic human-induced pressures. We compiled 1,029 contemporary mammal assemblages surveyed across the Neotropics to quantify the continental-scale extent and intensity of defaunation and understand their determinants based on environmental covariates. We calculated a local defaunation index for all assemblages-adjusted by a false-absence ratio-which was examined using structural equation models. We propose a hunting index based on socioenvironmental co-variables that either intensify or inhibit hunting, which we used as an additional predictor of defaunation. Mammal defaunation intensity across the Neotropics on average erased 56.5% of the local source fauna, with ungulates comprising the most ubiquitous losses. The extent of

SUBMITTER: Bogoni JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7492218 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature