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Effects of agroecosystem landscape complexity on small mammals: a multi-species approach at different spatial scales

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Abstract

Context

The effect of landscape complexity on biodiversity is an important topic in landscape ecology, and spatial scale is key to understand true species-landscape relationships.

Objectives

We assessed the effect of landscape complexity on the occurrence of small mammal species and species richness at different spatial scales in an agroecosystem of central Argentina.

Methods

We performed two capture-recapture samplings in 50 sites with different landscape complexity covering a ~ 452 km2 area. We used a multi-species analysis following a Bayesian approach. We modeled species occurrence as a function of landscape complexity (estimated through the Shannon habitat diversity index) at six spatial scales.

Results

We found that the occurrence probability of species that are favored by agriculture intensification increased with the decrease of landscape complexity, whereas that of species dependent on natural habitats decreased. Some species occurred over the whole range of landscape complexity, one species was only present in the simplest landscapes and the others occurred at intermediate and high values of landscape complexity. Species richness increased with landscape complexity. On average, our results suggest that landscape complexity is perceived by small mammals at a spatial scale of 150-200 m.

Conclusions

Landscape heterogeneity is a key factor to maintain biodiversity and species persistence in agroecosystems. An important finding of our study is that a complex landscape at 200 m (16 ha) spatial scale would benefit most small mammal assemblage species. This result would be key to define management strategies for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes of central Argentina.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to José A. Coda, Facundo Contreras and Javier Escudero for fieldwork assistance and to Andrea Goijman for the help in statistical analyses. We are thankful to Veronica Andreo for help with correcting the English and 2 Reviewers and the Editor for helpful comments on earlier versions.

Data Availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/) repository.

Funding

This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Investigación Científica y Técnica (CONICET) [PIP CONICET No. 11220150100034] and Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Investigaciones en Ecología Poblacional y Comportamental (GIEPCO), Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra, Biodiversidad y Sustentabilidad Ambiental (ICBIA), Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Río Cuarto, Argentina

    Vanesa Natalia Serafini, José W. Priotto & María Daniela Gomez

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  1. Vanesa Natalia Serafini
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  2. José W. Priotto
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  3. María Daniela Gomez
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Correspondence to María Daniela Gomez.

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Serafini, V.N., Priotto, J.W. & Gomez, M.D. Effects of agroecosystem landscape complexity on small mammals: a multi-species approach at different spatial scales. Landscape Ecol 34, 1117–1129 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-019-00825-8

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