Paul K. Kazaba, Lars Kulik, Ghislain B. Beukou Choumbou, Christelle B. Douhin Tiémoko, Funmilayo L. Oni, Serge A. Kamgang, Stefanie Heinicke, Inza Koné, Samedi Jean Pierre Mucyo, Tenekwetche Sop, Christophe Boesch, Colleen Stephens, Anthony Agbor, Samuel Angedakin, Emma Bailey, Mattia Bessone, Charlotte Coupland, Tobias Deschner, Paula Dieguez, Anne-Céline Granjon, Briana Harder, Josephine Head, Thurston Cleveland Hicks, Sorrel Jones, Parag Kadam, Ammie K. Kalan, Kevin E. Langergraber, Juan Lapuente, Kevin C. Lee, Laura K. Lynn, Nuria Maldonado, Maureen S. McCarthy, Amelia C. Meier, Lucy Jayne Ormsby, Alex Piel, Martha M. Robbins, Lilah Sciaky, Volker Sommer, Fiona A. Stewart, Jane Widness, Roman M. Wittig, Erin G. Wessling, Mimi Arandjelovic, Hjalmar Kühl, Yntze van der Hoek
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Ongoing ecosystem change and biodiversity decline across the Afrotropics call for tools to monitor the state of biodiversity or ecosystem elements across extensive spatial and temporal scales. We assessed relationships in the co-occurrence patterns between great apes and other medium to large-bodied mammals to evaluate whether ape abundance serves as a proxy for mammal diversity across broad spatial scales. We used camera trap footage recorded at 22 research sites, each known to harbor a population of chimpanzees, and some additionally a population of gorillas, across 12 sub-Saharan African countries. From ~350,000 1-min camera trap videos recorded between 2010 and 2016, we estimated mammalian community metrics, including species richness, Shannon diversity, and mean animal mass. We then fitted Bayesian Regression Models to assess potential relationships between ape detection rates (as proxy for ape abundance) and these metrics. We included site-level protection status, human footprint, and precipitation variance as control variables. We found that relationships between detection rates of great apes and other mammal species, as well as animal mass were largely positive. In contrast, relationships between ape detection rate and mammal species richness were less clear and differed according to site protection and human impact context. We found no clear association between ape detection rate and mammal diversity. Our findings suggest that chimpanzees hold potential as indicators of specific elements of mammalian communities, especially population-level and composition-related characteristics. Declines in chimpanzee populations may indicate associated declines of sympatric medium to large-bodied mammal species and highlight the need for improved conservation interventions.Changes in chimpanzee abundance likely precede extirpation of sympatric mammals.
期刊介绍:
Ecology and Evolution is the peer reviewed journal for rapid dissemination of research in all areas of ecology, evolution and conservation science. The journal gives priority to quality research reports, theoretical or empirical, that develop our understanding of organisms and their diversity, interactions between them, and the natural environment.
Ecology and Evolution gives prompt and equal consideration to papers reporting theoretical, experimental, applied and descriptive work in terrestrial and aquatic environments. The journal will consider submissions across taxa in areas including but not limited to micro and macro ecological and evolutionary processes, characteristics of and interactions between individuals, populations, communities and the environment, physiological responses to environmental change, population genetics and phylogenetics, relatedness and kin selection, life histories, systematics and taxonomy, conservation genetics, extinction, speciation, adaption, behaviour, biodiversity, species abundance, macroecology, population and ecosystem dynamics, and conservation policy.