Norwegian University of Life Sciences

The largest long-term standardized camera-trap survey to date finds that human activity impacts tropical mammals living in protected areas and sheds light on how different species are affected based on their habitat needs and anthropogenic stressors. By 2030, if the 30 by 30 initiative supported by more than 100 countries is successful, 30% of our land and ocean ecosystems will be designated protected areas meant to safeguard biodiversity and help limit the impacts of climate change. However, a study by Rice University ecologist Lydia Beaudrot and collaborators reports for the first time that tropical mammals living inside protected areas are not spared the effects of human activity even when it occurs outside of the protected boundaries. Based on the largest long-term camera-trap wildlife survey of its kind to date, the research sheds light on how anthropogenic stressors such as human population density and habitat fragmentation impact 159 mammal species in 16 protected areas across three biogeographic regions. The study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, could inform biodiversity policymaking decisions by 30 by 30 participants. Composed of millions of images collected over multiple years from over 1,000 camera-trap sites, the data set was assembled by a large-scale network of research stations that agreed to implement a consistent data-collection protocol as part of a partnership between Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Smithsonian Institution. "This data set is just phenomenal -- it was a herculean effort unlike anything attempted before," said Beaudrot, an assistant professor of biosciences. The study found that specialist species -- which occupy specific habitats only -- thrive when habitat fragmentation is low and are generally more susceptible to the negative impacts of human activities like hunting and land use than generalist species, which are able to live in more diverse habitats. Thus, a white-bellied pangolin living in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda should shuffle closer to its center, since specialists are likely to fare better the farther inward they are from the edge of a protected area. "Habitats are more varied at the edge of the protected area," said Asunción Semper-Pascual, a postdoctoral researcher at the Norwegian University for Life Sciences and the lead author on the study. "There is usually this difference between forest cover and open landscape, such as an area used for agriculture, etc. Some generalist species thrive in this kind of diverse setting because it provides access to different resources." Generalist species, such as the tayra -- a dog-sized omnivore in the weasel family that is at home both under forest cover and in grasslands or cropland, only thrive near the edge of protected areas if human population density there is low. Understanding species-specific responses to different anthropogenic stressors can help set conservation priorities and guide protected-area management -- locally by focusing on the most vulnerable species in a region and globally by highlighting how landscape-scale factors impact biodiversity beyond the protected perimeter. "We have to think about the situation holistically," Beaudrot said. "Conservation is going to work best when it's tackled in specific contexts and in concert with the people who live there so as to create win-win situations for both the people and the wildlife." "As more protected areas are created, we need to think carefully about the factors both within and outside protected areas that influence biodiversity," Semper-Pascual said. The Research Council of Norway (NFR301075) and the National Science Foundation (2213568) supported the research.

A massive study of rainforest species across three regions of the world finds striking similarities in how animals spend their days. How do animals in the wild use their time? A researcher at Rice University is part of a new study that shows what motivates the daily ramble of tropical populations. The study by an international team that includes Rice bioscientist Lydia Beaudrot and is led by Andrea Vallejo-Vargas, a graduate student at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and currently a visiting scholar at Rice, found that communities of mammals across the wet tropics divide their days in similar ways, all generally geared toward finding their next meal. (Or avoiding being the next meal.) Using millions of images from camera trap networks in 16 protected forests around the world, they examined the relationship of mammal activities to body sizes and feeding routines to find common characteristics among diverse populations. Their open-access study in Nature Communications confirms that despite their diversity, similar patterns dominate the days of wildlife in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The study showed that the activity of herbivores and insectivores was largely influenced by temperature in the environment (in study-speak, "thermoregulatory constraints"). For instance, large African herbivores are seven times more likely to be nocturnal than smaller herbivores. Interactions between predators and prey were primarily dominated by the time of day. Within that regime, the researchers found "top-down" activities that dominate the days of prey naturally focus on not getting eaten. They avoid exposure when predators are most likely to be on the hunt. In this regard, size also matters: Small carnivores, for instance, alter their activities to reduce their encounters with large carnivores. Conversely, "bottom-up" strategies affect how predators adjust their activities to maximize encounters with prey. "As you think about a food chain, top-down refers to how higher tropic levels -- that is, predators -- affect their prey, whereas bottom-up refers to how lower trophic levels -- food sources including plants and insects -- affect the animals that eat them," said Beaudrot, an assistant professor of biosciences. "This paper is a prime example of how important it is to have standardized data collection replicated over large spatial extents," she said. "By analyzing data collected in the same way in national parks throughout the tropics, we have been able to identify similarities in behavioral activity that were previously unable to be quantified." Beaudrot provided feedback throughout the development of the research project and manuscript and advised the team on specifics of working with the camera-trap data based on her experience. She said all cameras were located well within the national parks and were set up in the best possible way to assess tropical wildlife with the least human impact. "None of the protected areas are free from human influences, but they give us the greatest chance of measuring similarities in wildlife among regions," Beaudrot said. She noted that even though species in different regions have evolved in isolation from each other, the study provides solid evidence that similar environmental conditions in rainforests around the world result in consistent activity patterns among wildlife. "This suggests that there has been convergence in animal behavior in response to rainforest environments," Beaudrot said. Co-authors of the paper are Rice visiting scholar Asunción Semper-Pascual; Douglas Sheil of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the Center for International Forestry Research Indonesia; Robert Bitariho of Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda; Jorge Ahumada of the Moore Center for Science, Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia; Emmanuel Akampurira of Ghent University, Belgium, and Mbarara University; Santiago Espinosa of the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, Quito; Vittoria Estienne of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Republic of Congo; Patrick Jansen of Wageningen and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; Charles Kayijamahe of the International Gorilla Conservation Program, Kigali, Rwanda; Emanuel Martin of the College of African Wildlife Management, Tanzania; Marcela Guimarães Moreira Lima of the Federal University of Pará, Brazil; Badru Mugerwa of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, and the Technical University of Berlin; Francesco Rovero of the University of Florence and the Science Museum of Trento, Italy; Julia Salvador of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Ecuador; Fernanda Santos of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém Pará, Brazil; Wilson Roberto Spironello of the National Institute of Amazonian Research, Brazil; Eustrate Uzabaho of the International Gorilla Conservation Program; and Richard Bischof of the Norwegian Institute of Life Sciences. The Research Council of Norway (NFR301075) and the National Science Foundation (DEB-2213568) funded the research.

GEn1E Lifesciences Inc. received exclusive global rights to the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s specific and function s...