Abstract
Developed areas are thought to have low species diversity, low animal abundance, few native predators, and thus low resilience and ecological function. Working with citizen scientist volunteers to survey mammals at 1427 sites across two development gradients (wild-rural-exurban-suburban-urban) and four plot types (large forests, small forest fragments, open areas and residential yards) in the eastern US, we show that developed areas actually had significantly higher or statistically similar mammalian occupancy, relative abundance, richness and diversity compared to wild areas. However, although some animals can thrive in suburbia, conservation of wild areas and preservation of green space within cities are needed to protect sensitive species and to give all species the chance to adapt and persist in the Anthropocene.
Highlights
Global loss of biodiversity leads to disruption of ecosystem services around the world, threatening human well-being (Cardinale et al, 2012)
For some species, urbanization can offer abundant nutrient-rich food that is less ephemeral compared to wild areas (Bateman and Fleming, 2012; Wang et al, 2017)
We used the Landscape Fragmentation Tool v2.0 (Vogt et al, 2007) and the National Landcover Dataset (NLCD) (2006) land use dataset in ArcMap (Version 10.1) to create a landcover layer representing the percent of large core forest in a 5 km radius around camera locations which we considered best approximated the home range size of our target species (Bekoff, 1977; Fritzell and Haroldson, 1982; Lariviere and Pasitschniak-Arts, 1996; Lariviere and Walton, 1997)
Summary
Global loss of biodiversity leads to disruption of ecosystem services around the world, threatening human well-being (Cardinale et al, 2012). For some species, urbanization can offer abundant nutrient-rich food that is less ephemeral compared to wild areas (Bateman and Fleming, 2012; Wang et al, 2017) Whether this food is enough to counteract the negative effects of disturbance (i.e. higher road mortality, fragmentation) depends on a species’ ability to adapt to the stressors of urban living (Witte et al, 1982). Mammal species, especially those with large home ranges, are arguably most at risk from development, leading some to suggest that developed areas have a dearth of predators, and that prey species could benefit by using humans as a shield (Crooks, 2002; Ordenana et al, 2010). Previous studies have shown cities to be depauperate of bird life, supporting the traditional view that development and biodiversity cannot coexist (Keast, 1995; Strohbach et al, 2014)
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