Abstract
Abstract: Habitat loss and fragmentation are the main threats to the conservation of Cerrado biodiversity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the implications of habitat loss on the persistence of medium and large mammal species, considering the spatial and temporal changes (years 1985, 2000 and 2014) to the evaluated fragments. The study was carried out in 14 fragments (10.5 - 618 ha), located in Southeastern Goiás, Brazil. Records for 24 mammal species were obtained and revealed the two sites with the largest habitat amount in the landscape contained higher species richness than the remaining sites. The three mammal groups based on body mass (weight < 5 kg; weight between 5 and 20 kg; and weight > 20 kg) analyzed in this study showed different responses regarding landscape changes. For larger mammals (between 5 - 20 kg and > 20 kg), there was significant association between current species richness and the amount of habitat in 2014, while the species richness of smaller mammals did not significantly correlate with any of the variables assessed for any of the years. Therefore, the amount of habitat present within the current landscape was the most important variable regarding mammal species richness, especially for the larger species. The time lag was not evident at the time scale evaluated, and this delay in response may have occurred in a relatively short time (< 15 years). For the remaining fragments in the studied landscapes, most are too small to support populations of some larger mammal species and may also leave individuals more vulnerable to anthropogenic actions (e.g. hunting), whose effects may accelerate local extinctions.
Highlights
Natural preserved areas have decreased due to human activities and become restricted in tropical regions (Laurance et al 2014)
The region of Central Brazil is subject to intensive agricultural activities which contribute to natural habitat loss
The average size of habitat patch (HA) within buffers was gradually reduced [year 1985; year 2000; year 2014], while the average number of habitat patches (NP) increased from 2000 to 2014 [year 1985; year 2000; year 2014], and average Euclidean Distance of the nearest neighbors within the landscape (ENN_MN) increased from 1985 to 2000 and has small reduction [year 1985; year 2000; year 2014] (Figures 2 and 3). The changes in these variables reveal the progress of fragmentation during this period, with the average percentage of habitat area within buffers reduced from approximately 38% in 1985 to 32% in 2000 and 25% in 2014 (Figure 3)
Summary
Natural preserved areas have decreased due to human activities and become restricted in tropical regions (Laurance et al 2014). The Brazilian savanna (nationally known as the Cerrado biome) originally occupied approximately 2 million km of Central Brazil (approximately 23% of the country’s territory), with vegetation physiognomy that includes forests, savannas and grasslands (Ribeiro & Walter 1998). This biome was included as one of the planet’s 34 hotspots due to its highly endemic biodiversity and threatened status (Myers et al 2000, Mittermeier et al 2005). Over the past five decades, the Brazilian savanna has experienced a rapid reduction in original vegetation cover due to the expansion of the agricultural frontier in central Brazil
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