Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements.

Marlee A Tucker ,Roland Kays ,Alessandra Bertassoni ,Stephen Blake ,André Chiaradia ,Duane R Diefenbach ,Kirk A Olson ,Danielle D Brown ,Kamran Safi ,Andrew M Allen ,Nicolas Morellet ,Filip Zięba ,Katrin Böhning–Gaese ,Nuria Selva ,Peter Leimgruber ,Nandintsetseg Dejid ,Christopher C Wilmers ,Nir Sapir ,David W Wattles ,Samuel L Díaz‐Muñoz ,Christer Moe Rolandsen ,João Paulo Silva ,Sonia Saı̈d ,Christina Fischer ,Tomasz Zwijacz‐Kozica ,P J Nico De Bruyn ,Aidin Niamir ,Martin Wikelski ,Adam T Ford ,Florian Jeltsch ,Susanne A Fritz ,Christen H Fleming ,George Wittemyer ,John D C Linnell ,Scott D Lapoint ,Björn Reineking ,Stephen Destefano ,Luiz Gustavo Rodrigues Oliveira‐Santos ,Nina Attias ,John M Fryxell ,René Janßen ,Jenny Mattisson ,Orr Spiegel ,Erling Johan Solberg ,Ilya R Fischhoff ,A J Mark Hewison ,Benedikt Gehr ,Bart Kranstauber ,Atle Mysterud ,Justin M Calabrese ,Francesca Cagnacci ,Dean E Beyer ,Ulrich Voigt ,John W Wilson ,Matthew J Kauffman ,Bruce D Patterson ,Mark Hebblewhite ,Emília Patrícia Medici ,Guilherme Mourão ,Chloe Bracis ,Niels Blaum ,Hall Sawyer ,Martin Rimmler ,Duncan M Kimuyu ,Simon Chamaillé‐Jammes ,Pascual López‐López ,Edward Hurme ,Olav Strand ,Adam Kane ,Floris M Van Beest ,Petra Kaczensky ,Bayarbaatar Buuveibaatar ,Daniel I Rubenstein ,Peter M Kappeler ,Christian Hof ,Thomas A Morrison ,Niels Martin Schmidt ,Siva R Sundaresan ,Ugo Mellone ,Tal Avgar ,Sarah C Davidson ,Tracey L Rogers ,Lynne A Isbell ,Susan C Alberts ,Agnieszka Sergiel ,Claudia Fichtel ,Jacob R Goheen ,Ran Nathan ,Abdullahi H Ali ,Jerrold L Belant ,William F Fagan ,Laura R Bidner ,Enkhtuvshin Shiilegdamba ,Luca Pedrotti ,Jake Wall ,Navinder J Singh ,A Catherine Markham ,Ronaldo Gonçalves Morato ,Eliezer Gurarie ,Julian Fennessy ,Marco Heurich ,Todd E Dennis ,Constança Camilo-Alves ,Robert B O’hara ,Evelyn H Merrill ,Wiebke Ullmann ,Hattie L A Bartlam‐Brooks ,John Oddén ,Bram Van Moorter ,Rogério Cunha De Paula ,Wolfgang Fiedler ,Flávia Koch ,Iain Douglas‐Hamilton ,Christopher S Rosenberry ,Thomas Mueller

doi:10.1126/science.aam9712

Abstract

Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of their movements in areas with a low human footprint. We attribute this reduction to behavioral changes of individual animals and to the exclusion of species with long-range movements from areas with higher human impact. Global loss of vagility alters a key ecological trait of animals that affects not only population persistence but also ecosystem processes such as predator-prey interactions, nutrient cycling, and disease transmission.

Highlights

W ith approximately 50 to 70% of Earth’s land surface currently modified for human activities [1], patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functions worldwide are changing [2]
Because an allometric scaling relationship shows that animals of greater body size usually move farther [12], and because diet may influence movements as a result of differences in foraging costs and availability of resource types [13, 14], we annotated the database with species averages for body size and dietary guild
The combination of different time scales and quantile allowed us to examine the effect of the human footprint on both the median (0.5 quantile) and long-distance (0.95 quantile) movements for within-day movements (e.g., 1-hour time scale) up to longer time displacements of more than 1 week (e.g., 10-day time scale)

Summary

Introduction

W ith approximately 50 to 70% of Earth’s land surface currently modified for human activities [1], patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functions worldwide are changing [2].

Results

Conclusion