Multi-scale analysis reveals the differential impacts of forest loss and fragmentation on mammal species in Southwest China and their conservation implications

Global land-use changes have driven forest loss and fragmentation, resulting in a drastic decline in biodiversity levels. Understanding how biological communities respond to anthropogenic landscapes is crucial for developing optimal spatial strategies for biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes. We used the long-term monitoring camera trap data within human-modified forest landscapes in the northern Guizhou Plateau, southwest China, to investigate the scale of effects of landscape structure on mammal communities through single-species occupancy model, and assessed which spatial factors (landscape and local habitat structure) best predict the species occurrence at multiple scales. We found significant differences of the scale of landscape effect on mammal species, with forest cover tending to have larger scales of effects than edge density and number of forest patches among the landscape variables. In addition, the effects of forest loss and fragmentation on species were distinct. Forest loss negatively affects species at multiple scales, especially at larger scales, whereas forest fragmentation mainly positively or negatively affects species at smaller scales. Mesocarnivores showed greater adaptability in fragmented landscapes with human disturbances, whereas ungulates avoid areas with less forest cover and more fragmentation. Therefore, we stress the importance of maintaining large areas of forest fragments, considering the effects of forest fragmentation within the species' core home ranges on conservation strategies, to ensure a greater persistence of mammal species in the human-modified forest landscapes in southwestern China.