The role of landscape characteristics of protected areas and their surroundings on mammal species richness, composition and functional traits in Cerrado

• Ano de defesa: 2025
• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Barbara Lima
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Agroecossistema; Agroecosystem; Conservação; Conservation; Homogeneização; Homogenization; Hotspot; Turnover
• Link de acesso: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/91/91131/tde-06112025-154514/

Biodiversity loss is accelerating globally due to human-induced land-use changes, particularly agricultural expansion and intensification. These pressures are especially pronounced in the Global South, where biodiversity hotspots like the Brazilian Cerrado face extensive habitat conversion and fragmentation. Such changes alter species richness, community composition, and functional diversity-key aspects of ecosystem functioning. Environmental filters and land-use heterogeneity influence the taxonomic and functional structure of communities, often favouring generalist species and driving functional homogenization in modified landscapes. Medium- and large-bodied mammals, which provide crucial ecosystem services, are especially vulnerable to these disturbances and serve as valuable indicators of ecological integrity. In this context, protected areas (PAs) play a central role in biodiversity conservation; however, their effectiveness depends not only on internal integrity but also on the surrounding landscape matrix. This dissertation evaluates the contribution of PA surroundings to the maintenance of mammal biodiversity and ecological functions in agricultural landscapes of the Cerrado. Specifically, it assesses how mammal species richness, species composition, and functional traits vary across a gradient from PA interiors to their surroundings and identifies the landscape features driving these patterns. The central hypothesis is that PAs surroundings have less species richness, lower compositional similarity compared to the interior of PAs and diversity of functional traits than PAs interior. Our findings highlight the critical role of native forest cover in shaping mammal diversity across agricultural landscapes. Species richness increased with proximity to protected areas, but its relationship was moderated by the amount of native forest in the landscape, when landscapes have more than 25% of native forest in surroundings the species richness is higher. Composition along first axis was influenced by both distance and edge density, though native forest remained the strongest predictor, while the second axis was explained by sugarcane and distance to PA edge. Among functional traits, energetic trophic level explained the species sensitivity to landscape changes along first compositional axis, with herbivores being more affected than carnivores and omnivores, the second compositional axis was explained by body mass, body mass, and energetic trophic level. However, all the effects are weak and non-significants. Despite limited differences in functional diversity, compositional shifts emphasize the importance of landscape gradients in sustaining ecological interactions. We conclude that both public and private protected areas, along with their surrounding native vegetation, are essential for conserving mammal biodiversity in the southern Cerrado. Strengthening landscape management through integrated governance mechanisms is key to preserving ecosystem integrity in agroecosystems. Future efforts should prioritize long-term monitoring and functional trait analyses to better understand ecological resilience in human-modified landscapes.