Mammal communities are larger and more diverse in moderately developed areas

Authors

Arielle Waldstein Parsons, North Carolina State University
Tavis Forrester, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Megan C. Baker-Whatton, The Nature Conservancy
William J. McShea, Smithsonian Conservation Biology
CHristopher T. Rota, West Virginia University
Stephanie G. Schuttler, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Joshua J. Millspaugh, University of Montana
Roland Kays, North Carolina State University

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1076-2896

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6762-4115

N/A

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8102-0200

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9272-4687

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9523-4448

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9473-9011

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2947-6665

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

College/Unit

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department/Program/Center

Division of Forestry and Natural Resources

Abstract

Developed areas are thought to have low species diversity, low animal abundance, few native predators, and thus low resilience and ecological function. Working with citizen scientist volunteers to survey mammals at 1427 sites across two development gradients (wild-rural-exurban- suburban-urban) and four plot types (large forests, small forest fragments, open areas and residential yards) in the eastern US, we show that developed areas actually had significantly higher or statistically similar mammalian occupancy, relative abundance, richness and diversity compared to wild areas. However, although some animals can thrive in suburbia, conservation of wild areas and preservation of green space within cities are needed to protect sensitive species and to give all species the chance to adapt and persist in the Anthropocene.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38012.001

Digital Commons Citation

Parsons, Arielle Waldstein; Forrester, Tavis; Baker-Whatton, Megan C.; McShea, William J.; Rota, CHristopher T.; Schuttler, Stephanie G.; Millspaugh, Joshua J.; and Kays, Roland, "Mammal communities are larger and more diverse in moderately developed areas" (2018). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 1321.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/1321

Source Citation

Parsons, A. W., Forrester, T., Baker-Whatton, M. C., McShea, W. J., Rota, C. T., Schuttler, S. G., Millspaugh, J. J., & Kays, R. (2018). Mammal communities are larger and more diverse in moderately developed areas. eLife, 7. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.38012

Comments

Copyright Parsons et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.