Abstract
ABSTRACTWe investigated the relationships between vegetation area, edge length, and mammals in the urban woods of Daejeon Metropolitan City, South Korea. The vegetation patches included in this study varied from 2.1 to 501.0 ha in size. Surveys were conducted monthly between February and October 2015, with a survey route measuring 1 km in length and 10 m width established in each forest patch. Field signs of 14 species of mammals were recorded in the 33 chosen forest patches over the course of the study period, and the number of species in each patch varied from 2 to 11. Mammal species richness was positively correlated with vegetation area, and field sign frequency was positively correlated with vegetation area and negatively correlated with edge length. The field sign frequencies of large moles Mogera robusta, Siberian chipmunks Tamias sibiricus, leopard cats Prionailurus bengalensis, Korean hares Lepus coreanus, water deer Hydropotes inermis, and wild boars Sus scrofa were positively correlated with vegetation area. Moreover, that of large moles, leopard cats, Korean hares, and water deer were negatively correlated with edge length. Remnant vegetation area and edge length are the primary determinants of mammal species richness and field sign frequency in urban woods, highlighting the importance of vegetation patch size for mammal conservation in fragmented urban landscapes.
Highlights
Human activities have led to dramatic changes and disturbances to natural habitats in many regions of the world (Rosenblatt et al 1999), with habitat loss and fragmentation recognized to be a major threat to global biodiversity (Laurance and Bierregaard 1997; Pardini et al 2005)
Field signs of 14 mammal species were recorded over the course of the study period, with the number of species per patch varying from 2 to 11 in the 33 vegetation patches (Table 2)
Effective conservation of mammals requires a deeper understanding of the anthropogenic threats they face, which include expanding agriculture, urbanization, and road construction, among many others (McAlpine et al 2006)
Summary
Human activities have led to dramatic changes and disturbances to natural habitats in many regions of the world (Rosenblatt et al 1999), with habitat loss and fragmentation recognized to be a major threat to global biodiversity (Laurance and Bierregaard 1997; Pardini et al 2005). Habitat fragmentation decreases habitat size while increasing both patch edge length and distances between patches (Lee et al 2017). Habitat fragmentation has different influences on different species. Micro- and macro-climatic changes increase in plant mortality, regeneration of vegetation, increase of predation risk, and invasion by other species often occur in response to habitat fragmentation (Umapathy and Kumar 2000; Barrantes et al 2016). In urban woods, these changes would be expected to influence mammal species and their habitats
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