Abstract
The global use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) in natural environments has accelerated rapidly over the last few decades, resulting in significant social and environmental consequences. As the demand, use, and promotion of light-duty ORVs like all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), motorcycles, four-wheel drive trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) increases in remote wilderness, the landscape is becoming fragmented into disorganized and destructive networks of trails and roads. Substantial ecological impacts to a wide range of ecosystem structures and functions will likely result from ORV activity. Applying a global systematic review, we examine 105 publications about plant, soil, and wildlife responses to ORV traffic in different habitats to help guide the direction of future research, monitoring programs, and mitigation efforts. Most studies investigated impacts to animals, followed by soils, then vegetative responses. Soil studies primarily focused on physical impacts to the soil (i.e., compaction, erosion, rut depth), but some studies suggest that soil chemical and biological properties may also be impacted by ORV traffic. The literature on plant responses to ORV activities primarily explored vegetation loss, although impacts on the plant community were also investigated. Animal studies investigated impacts of ORV use on invertebrates, mammals, birds, and to a lesser extent reptiles/amphibians, including population-level, community-level, and behavioral responses. Overall, research on environmental impacts of ORV traffic is biased to coastal and desert ecosystems in the northern hemisphere (primarily in the US), often does not address mechanisms that may produce ecological impacts (e.g., intensity of vehicular disturbance and ecosystem- or species-specific sensitivity to ORV activities), and frequently focused on short-term responses. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms that cause the different responses of soil, plant, and animals to ORVs over the long-term in a broad range of ecosystems to support real-time management and conservation efforts.
Highlights
Using a global systematic review, we investigate the current state of the literature on plant, soil, and wildlife responses to off-road vehicles (ORVs) traffic to help guide the direction of future research, monitoring programs, and mitigation efforts
Given the idiosyncratic nature of use-impact relationships of various habitats, we examine the potential sensitivity of habitats to ORV use, regarding soil quality, and plant community dynamics, as well as habitat resistance, the capacity of the system to withstand change following a disturbance, and resilience, the degree to which the system recovers to its initial composition
Publications (n = 105) were found from 16 different countries with the majority being conducted in the United States (n = 68, 64.8%) followed by Australia (n = 13, 12.4%), Canada (n = 4, 3.8%), South Africa (n = 4, 3.8%), Mongolia (n = 3, 2.9%), Kuwait (n = 2, 1.9%), and Saudi Arabia (n = 2, 1.9%; Figure 1)
Summary
Global use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) in natural environments has accelerated rapidly over the past few decades (Cordell et al, 2005; Navas Romero et al, 2019; Enríquez-de-Salamanca, 2021), and over this time, it has become increasingly evident that ORV use can result in significant social and environmental consequences (Monz et al, 2010; Crisfield et al, 2012; Besserer and Caron, 2013). Research has demonstrated that many factors influence the severity of disturbance caused by ORVs, including the type of vehicle used, frequency and intensity of use, operator techniques (e.g., acceleration, braking, and velocity), and sitespecific parameters (e.g., soil type, soil ice or moisture content, and topographical features) (Ahlstrand and Racine, 1993; Kutiel et al, 2000; Li and Sandu, 2007). It remains unclear how these factors may influence the flora and fauna in different habitats. Using a global systematic review, we investigate the current state of the literature on plant, soil, and wildlife responses to ORV traffic to help guide the direction of future research, monitoring programs, and mitigation efforts
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