Increasing synergistic effects of habitat destruction and hunting on mammals over three decades in the Gran Chaco

• Autores: Romero Muñoz, Alfredo; Benitez López, Ana; Zurell, Damaris; Baumann, Mathias; Camino, Micaela; Decarre, Julieta; del Castillo, Hugo; Giordano, Anthony J.; Gómez Valencia, Bibiana; Levers, Christian; Noss, Andrew J.; Quiroga, Verónica; Thompson, Jeffrey J.; Torres, Ricardo; Velilla, Marianella; Weiler, Andrea; Kuemmerle, Tobias
• Año de publicación: 2020
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Ecography 43 : 1-13. (2020)
• Materia: Deforestation; Resource Depletion; Land Use Change; Deforestación; Chaco; Cambio de Uso de la Tierra; Conservación de la Naturaleza; Nature Conservation; Planificación de Conservación; Difamación; Defaunation; Conservation Planning; Overexploitation; Habitat Loss; Pérdida del Hábitat; Falta de Recursos
• Institución: Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria

Habitat destruction and overexploitation are the main threats to biodiversity and where they co-occur, their combined impact is often larger than their individual one. Yet, detailed knowledge of the spatial footprints of these threats is lacking, including where they overlap and how they change over time. These knowledge gaps are real barriers for effective conservation planning. Here, we develop a novel approach to reconstruct the individual and combined footprints of both threats over time. We combine satellitebased land-cover change maps, habitat suitability models and hunting pressure models to demonstrate our approach for the community of larger mammals (48 species > 1 kg) across the 1.1 million km2 Gran Chaco region, a global deforestation hotspot covering parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. This provides three key insights. First, we find that the footprints of habitat destruction and hunting pressure expanded considerably between 1985 and 2015, across ~40% of the entire Chaco – twice the área affected by deforestation. Second, both threats increasingly acted together within the ranges of larger mammals in the Chaco (17% increase on average, ± 20% SD, cumulative increase of co-occurring threats across 465 000 km2), suggesting large synergistic effects. Conversely, core areas of high-quality habitats declined on average by 38%. Third, we identified remaining priority areas for conservation in the northern and central Chaco, many of which are outside the protected area network. We also identify hotspots of high threat impacts in central Paraguay and northern Argentina, providing a spatial template for threat-specific conservation action. Overall, our findings suggest increasing synergistic effects between habitat destruction and hunting pressure in the Chaco, a situation likely common in many tropical deforestation frontiers. Our work highlights how threats can be traced in space and time to understand their individual and combined impact, even in situations where data are sparse.
Fil: Romero Muñoz, Alfredo. Humboldt University. Geography Departament; Alemania. University of British Columbia. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES): Canada. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department Computational Landscape Ecology; Alemania. Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys). Integrative Research Institute; Alemania
Fil: Benitez López, Ana. Radboud University. Institute for Wetland and Water Research. Department of Environmental Science; Holanda. Estación Biológica de Doñana, (EBD-CSIC). Integrative Ecology Group; España
Fil: Zurell, Damaris. Humboldt-University. Geography Department; Alemania. University of British Columbia. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES); Canadá. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department Computational Landscape Ecology; Alemania. Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys). Integrative Research Institute; Alemania
Fil: Baumann, Mathias. Humboldt-University. Geography Department; Alemania. University of British Columbia. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES); Canadá. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department Computational Landscape Ecology; Alemania. Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys). Integrative Research Institute; Alemania
Fil: Camino, Micaela. Proyecto Quimilero, Resistencia; Argentina.
Fil: Decarre, Julieta. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Recursos Biológicos; Argentina
Fil: del Castillo, Hugo. Guyra Paraguay; Paraguay
Fil: Giordano, Anthony. Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study (S.P.E.C.I.E.S); Estados Unidos. UCLA Inst. of the Environment and Sustainability. Center for Tropical Research; Estados Unidos
Fil: Gómez Valencia, Bibiana. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt; Colombia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Grupo de Estudios de Sistemas Ecológicos en Ambientes Agrícolas; Argentina
Fil: Levers, Christian. Humboldt-University. Geography Department; Alemania. University of British Columbia. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES); Canadá. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department Computational Landscape Ecology; Alemania. Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys). Integrative Research Institute; Alemania
Fil: Noss, Andrew J. University of Florida. Department of Geography; Estados Unidos
Fil: Quiroga, Verónica. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Inst. de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA – CONICET), Centro de Zoología Aplicada; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas; Argentina
Fil: Thompson, Jeffrey J. Guyra Paraguay-CONACYT; Paraguay
Fil: Torres, Ricardo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Inst. de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA – CONICET), Centro de Zoología Aplicada; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas; Argentina
Fil: Velilla, Marianella. Guyra Paraguay-CONACYT; Paraguay
Fil: Weiler, Andrea. Universidad Nacional de Asunción. Departamento de Biología; Paraguay
Fil: Kuemmerle, Tobias. Humboldt-University. Geography Department; Alemania. University of British Columbia. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES); Canadá. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department Computational Landscape Ecology; Alemania. Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys). Integrative Research Institute; Alemania