Island size predicts mammal diversity in insular environments, except for land‐bridge islands

• DOI: 10.1111/btp.13147
• Publication Date: 2022-08-19T03:54:13Z
• Authors: Gilson de Souza F...; Maíra Benchimol; Fernanda Melo Car...; Fabricio Beggiato...
• Keywords: Archipelago; Mammal

Abstract Insular environments are among the most endangered ecosystems as they face a myriad of anthropogenic stressors. Forest mammals perform wide range ecological services, with their persistence being vital for ecosystem functionality in both natural and artificial islands. Studies revealed that shrinkage island size usually leads to decay mammal species richness abundance patchy landscapes. However, species‐area (SARs) abundance‐area (AARs) relationships can differ insular environments: oceanic, fluvial, artificial, land‐bridge islands (i.e., connected mainland). Large dams create vast insularized landscapes after river impoundment, leading pervasive habitat loss potentially causing even worse biodiversity losses than other systems. We conducted an extensive literature search used meta‐analysis techniques quantify magnitude SAR AAR forest across different archipelago worldwide. After screening process, we ended up 26 studies comprising 55 effect sizes representing SARs AARs. Our global analysis unveiled positive relationship between area, increasing accordingly but not These results demonstrate that, except islands, still fair models predict diversity. could improve prediction under scenarios propose sound conservation strategies since rate at which communities have been lost is presently unknown.