Flying wildlife may mask the loss of ecological functions due to terrestrial habitat fragmentation.

Autor: Zuluaga S; Fundación Proyecto Águila Crestada-Colombia, Calle 9 #1b-55bis, 176007 Villamaría, Caldas, Colombia; Colaboratorio de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Conservación, INCITAP-CONICET/FCEyN-UNLPam, Mendoza 109, 6300 Santa Rosa, LP, Argentina. Electronic address: santiago.zuluaga@proyectoaguilacrestada.org., Speziale KL; Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, INIBIOMA, Universidad Nacional del Comahue - CONICET, Pasaje Gutierrez 1125, 8400, Bariloche, RN, Argentina., Lambertucci SA; Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, INIBIOMA, Universidad Nacional del Comahue - CONICET, Pasaje Gutierrez 1125, 8400, Bariloche, RN, Argentina. Electronic address: https://grinbic.com.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2022 Jan 10; Vol. 803, pp. 150034. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Aug 31.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150034
Abstrakt: Land use change alters wildlife critical animal behaviours such as movement, becoming the main driver threatening wildlife ecological functions (WEF) and nature's contribution to people (NCP) provided by terrestrial species. Despite the negative impacts of current rates of terrestrial fragmentation on WEF, many ecological processes can be still occurring through aerial habitats. Here, we propose and discuss that the movement capabilities of aerial species, as well their functional redundancy with non-flying wildlife, are the mechanisms by which some ecological processes can be still occurring. We show examples of how the movements of aerial wildlife may be masking the loss of important functions and contributions by compensating for the lost ecosystem functions previously provided by terrestrial wildlife. We also highlight the implications of losing aerial wildlife in areas where that functional redundancy was already lost due to the impacts of land use change on terrestrial wildlife. We suggest to consider flying wildlife as a biological insurance against the loss of WEF and NCP due to terrestrial fragmentation and proposed some aeroconservation measures.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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