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Mammals as Key Species in the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services...
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Mammals as Key Species in the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainability, Biodiversity and Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2024) | Viewed by 10087

Special Issue Editors

Dr. William Douglas Carvalho

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Ecology, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Interests: ecology; zoology; conservation
Dr. Luciana de Moraes Costa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Ecology, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Interests: ecology; zoology; conservation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wild mammals are key species in the maintenance of regulating ecosystem services, such as seed dispersal, the suppression of insect pest populations, and pollination. They are also an important source of food in many parts of the world, being one of the groups most represented in subsistence hunting by indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs).  Many species also provide important cultural services, both via eco-tourism and owing to their spiritual and cultural significance to IPLCs. In this sense, the conservation and management of mammals is of great importance, especially in view of the different defaunation processes that different ecosystems have suffered. various research has highlighted the importance of mammals in natural environments and in anthropogenic landscapes, with habitat loss and predatory hunting being some of the main drivers of their defaunation across the globe. This Special Issue provides a platform to highlight how mammals are important for the maintenance and sustainability of ecosystems. In addition, this Special Issue seeks to understand how different human actions have interfered with this sustainability and how we can move forward to reduce defaunation and the consequent loss of ecosystem services promoted by mammals. Specifically, this Special Issue seeks studies carried out in natural or anthropogenic (e.g., urban and agricultural ecosystems) habitats which address the key knowledge gaps and questions regarding the role of mammals in the maintenance of ecosystem services and for biodiversity conservation, including:

  1. The importance of mammals as key species in the maintenance of ecosystems;
  2. Mammals as catalysts of ecosystem services (e.g., seed dispersal);
  3. How mammals can help make agricultural landscapes more sustainable;
  4. What are the main drivers of diversity and ecosystem services provided by mammals;
  5. What is the economic importance of mammals for ecosystem maintenance and sustainability in anthropogenic landscapes;
  6. How human impacts reduce the taxonomic and functional diversity of mammals;
  7. How protected areas, the sustainable use of ecosystems (e.g., use of non-forest products, organic production, agroecosystems), and community-based economies (e.g., community-based tourism) promote mammal conservation.

Specifically, studies that raise problems for the conservation and maintenance of ecosystem services promoted by mammals should point to tangible solutions to these problems.

Dr. William Douglas Carvalho
Dr. Luciana de Moraes Costa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • Mammalia
  • ecosystem services
  • functional diversity
  • protected areas
  • alien species

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 4260 KiB  
Article
Between Wires and Wings: What Are the Impacts of Power Transmission Lines on the Diversity of Insectivorous Bats?
by Fábio Falcão, Caio Vinícius de Mira-Mendes and Jorge Mario Herrera-Lopera
Sustainability 2024, 16(13), 5639; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135639 - 1 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1622
Abstract
Energy consumption in the world is growing every year, and there is an increasing demand on the energy system to meet the increase in consumption, resulting in the installation of new power transmission lines. The understanding of how power transmission lines affect biodiversity [...] Read more.
Energy consumption in the world is growing every year, and there is an increasing demand on the energy system to meet the increase in consumption, resulting in the installation of new power transmission lines. The understanding of how power transmission lines affect biodiversity is predominantly focused on birds, with limited information available on other organisms. In this study, we assessed the potential effect of power transmission lines on bat communities in a locality in the Cerrado biome in Brazil. More specifically, we used a paired sample design and acoustically sampled bats in locations near and far from the transmission lines. Our findings suggest that power transmission lines do not have a generally positive or negative effect on insectivorous bat communities in the study area. However, their presence seems to be associated with increased diversity in specific functional groups and changes in the activity patterns of some bat species and families. We believe that this information is of particular importance for establishing appropriate programs during the environmental licensing process, assisting in the development of projects in the different stages of construction as well as in monitoring programs during operation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mammals as Key Species in the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation)
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19 pages, 5367 KiB  
Article
Large Protected Areas Safeguard Mammalian Functional Diversity in Human-Modified Landscapes
by Larissa Fornitano, Jéssica Abonizio Gouvea, Rômulo Theodoro Costa, Marcelo Magioli and Rita Bianchi
Sustainability 2024, 16(13), 5419; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135419 - 26 Jun 2024
Viewed by 2650
Abstract
Habitat loss and fragmentation are pervasive processes driving the disappearance of populations and species in the Neotropical region. Since species loss may translate into functional loss, assessing changes in the composition of assemblages’ functional traits might improve our understanding of the ecological roles [...] Read more.
Habitat loss and fragmentation are pervasive processes driving the disappearance of populations and species in the Neotropical region. Since species loss may translate into functional loss, assessing changes in the composition of assemblages’ functional traits might improve our understanding of the ecological roles played by species and ecosystem functioning. Here, we investigate how landscape structure and composition impact the functional diversity of terrestrial mammals in 18 forest patches composing eight protected areas in Southern Brazil. We used functional diversity (FD) based on dietary, physical, and behavioral traits and species vulnerability to extinction. We determined which landscape variables (patch size, proportions of forest and sugarcane, and patch isolation) most influenced mammal FD values by using a both-direction stepwise model selection from a linear global model. Finally, we evaluated the role of trophic guilds in explaining the variation in the FD values using a Principal Component Analysis. Between 2012 and 2017, using camera traps, we recorded 26 native medium- and large-sized mammals throughout the protected areas, of which 6 are regionally threatened, and 5 domestic/exotic species. Richness among the forest patches varied from 4 to 24 species (9.05 ± 5.83), while the FD values varied from 1.29 to 6.59 (2.62 ± 1.51). FD variation was best explained by patch size, which exhibited a strong positive correlation (adjusted R2 = 0.55, slope = 0.67, p < 0.001). Insectivores and frugivores presented the highest correlation with patch size, explaining most of the variation in the FD values. Our findings strengthen the paramount role of large protected areas in maintaining mammal diversity and their ecological functions in human-modified landscapes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mammals as Key Species in the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation)
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13 pages, 2028 KiB  
Article
Landscape Composition Matters for Mammals in Agricultural Ecosystems: A Multiscale Study in Southeastern Brazil
by Rayssa Faria Pedroso, Clarissa Rosa and Marcelo Passamani
Sustainability 2024, 16(12), 5066; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16125066 - 14 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1216
Abstract
The conversion of native habitats into anthropogenic ones compromises the original composition and configuration of the landscapes, influencing ecological dynamics and affecting biodiversity. Increasingly, landscape ecology has shown that these effects can only be understood if they are accessed at adequate spatial scales, [...] Read more.
The conversion of native habitats into anthropogenic ones compromises the original composition and configuration of the landscapes, influencing ecological dynamics and affecting biodiversity. Increasingly, landscape ecology has shown that these effects can only be understood if they are accessed at adequate spatial scales, as the scale at which landscape structure is evaluated influences species responses. Here, we investigated how three variables of landscape composition (proportion of forest, coffee crop, and pasture) and two of configuration (number of fragments and mean nearest neighbor distance) interfere with the richness and composition of medium- and large-sized mammals, considering a multiscale approach. We recorded medium- and large-sized mammal species in 13 landscapes with predominant matrices of coffee and pasture in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Then, we built distance-based linear models to identify the scale of effect of each landscape variable for both response variables considering eight scales (from 250 m to 2000 m). Finally, we verified the influence of the landscape on the richness and composition of mammals, considering the landscape variables in their respective scales of effect. We found 67% of the probable species occurring in the region. The scales of effect varied among landscape variables, probably due to the fact that different variables affect different aspects of organisms’ ecological requirements. The proportion of pasture in the landscape explained the variation in species richness, while the proportion of forest explained the variation in species composition. In addition, the proportion of pasture in the landscape had a positive influence on species richness, indicating that this matrix may favor the presence of generalist species of habitat and/or this result is due to the higher concentration of species in the fragments immersed in this matrix. These results suggest that considering different responses to biodiversity is important to understand different aspects of the landscape’s influence on biodiversity. In addition, the composition of the landscape is fundamental for the perpetuation of species and, therefore, both forest cover and types of matrices in the landscape must be considered to improve species conservation strategies. Finally, generalizing a spatial scale can lead to misinterpretations about the influence of the landscape on biodiversity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mammals as Key Species in the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation)
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14 pages, 1558 KiB  
Article
Determinants of Small Mammals’ Body Condition in Eucalyptus Dominated Landscapes
by Beatriz C. Afonso, Gonçalo Matias, Daniela Teixeira, Rita Pereira and Luís M. Rosalino
Sustainability 2024, 16(1), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010128 - 22 Dec 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1537
Abstract
The timber industry has increased considerably in recent decades to meet human needs for wood. In Portugal, Eucalyptus plantations are the most common use of forested land, presenting the largest coverage of Eucalyptus globulus in Europe. Although it is established that this landscape [...] Read more.
The timber industry has increased considerably in recent decades to meet human needs for wood. In Portugal, Eucalyptus plantations are the most common use of forested land, presenting the largest coverage of Eucalyptus globulus in Europe. Although it is established that this landscape can affect biodiversity patterns, it is not clear what its role in shaping small mammals’ body condition is. Here, we tested the effect of Eucalyptus plantations on small mammals’ body condition, together with vegetation structure, weather, predators/competitors’ abundance, and parasites’ prevalence, using the Scaled Mass Index (SMI) as a surrogate. Capture of small mammals took place in 11 study areas in central Portugal from 2019 to 2022. The drivers’ influence was tested using structural equation models (SEM). The response of body condition to Eucalyptus is species-specific, with Crocidura russula displaying better individual condition in native habitats (i.e., there was an indirect negative effect of Eucalyptus plantations). The overall model suggested that deer abundance, precipitation, and forest integrity promoted higher body condition levels, while wild boar abundance had an adverse effect. The management of these plantations must ensure the integrity of the remnants of native patches and control of highly abundant competitors (e.g., wild boar) to maintain a healthy and functional small mammal community. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mammals as Key Species in the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation)
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12 pages, 313 KiB  
Opinion
Giving Wings to Sustainability: Brazil Needs to Consider Bats as Suppressors of Agricultural Pests and Tropical Disease Vectors
by William D. Carvalho, Elizabete C. Lourenço, Júlia L. Luz, Bruna S. Xavier, Angélica V. Yantén and Luciana M. Costa
Sustainability 2024, 16(14), 5858; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16145858 - 9 Jul 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2012
Abstract
Insect-eating bats play a crucial role in agriculture and public health by suppressing populations of agricultural pests and disease vectors. These ecosystem services promoted by insect-eating bats are essential in a world that seeks sustainability in agricultural production and the management of urban [...] Read more.
Insect-eating bats play a crucial role in agriculture and public health by suppressing populations of agricultural pests and disease vectors. These ecosystem services promoted by insect-eating bats are essential in a world that seeks sustainability in agricultural production and the management of urban areas. Despite Brazil’s status as one of the largest agricultural producers globally, research using insect-eating bats for pest control is lacking. This review underscores the importance of filling this knowledge gap and provides guidelines for future research. Bats exhibit diverse feeding habits and consume significant quantities of insects, including agricultural pests. While studies in the USA and Europe have highlighted insect-eating bats’ role in reducing agricultural losses, research in Brazil is limited. Challenges include the need for more advanced diet analysis techniques, such as DNA metabarcoding, and understanding bat habitat use in agricultural and urban landscapes. Research on natural and artificial roosts’ effectiveness and population dynamics is also essential. Integrating bat conservation into agricultural sustainability requires investment in technological methods, valuation of ecosystem services, population monitoring, habitat use studies and environmental education. Financial incentives and collaboration between sectors are crucial for advancing research and implementing bat-friendly practices in agriculture, ultimately enhancing biodiversity conservation and production sustainability in Brazil. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mammals as Key Species in the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation)
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