Causes and Consequences of Large-Scale Defaunation in the Atlantic Forest

Mauro Galetti; Fernando Gonçalves; Nacho Fernandez De La Pradilla Villar; Valesca Zipparro; Claudia Paz; Calebe P. Mendes; Laís Lautenschlager; Yuri Souza; Paula Akkawi; Felipe Pedrosa; Leticia Bulascoschi; Carolina Bello; Anaiá P. Sevá; Lilian Sales; Luisa Genes; Fernanda Delborgo Abra; Ricardo Bovendorp

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-55322-7_14

Causes and Consequences of Large-Scale Defaunation in the Atlantic Forest

Mauro Galetti^* (Corresponding author), Fernando Gonçalves, Nacho Fernandez De La Pradilla Villar, Valesca Zipparro, Claudia Paz, Calebe P. Mendes, Laís Lautenschlager, Yuri Souza, Paula Akkawi, Felipe Pedrosa, Leticia Bulascoschi, Carolina Bello, Anaiá P. Sevá, Lilian Sales, Luisa Genes, Fernanda Delborgo Abra, Ricardo Bovendorp

^*Corresponding author for this work

NIOO - Aquatic Ecology (AqE)

Research output: Chapter in book/volume › Chapter › Scientific › peer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

The Atlantic Forest of South America hosts one of the world’s most diverse and threatened tropical forest biota. After five centuries of European human expansion, most Atlantic Forest landscapes are archipelagos of small forest fragments surrounded by open-habitat matrices. In this chapter, we describe the causes and consequences of large-scale defaunation in the Atlantic Forest of South America. We identify and quantify the magnitude of the main anthropogenic drivers of defaunation and stimulate a debate on how to revert the loss of fauna to restore biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services. The magnitude of the impact of defaunation in the Atlantic Forest is hard to estimate, but we can predict that, at large scale, habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are the most common threats to terrestrial populations. Other threats vary in importance according to the taxonomic group. In general, apex predators, other carnivores, large-bodied mammals, and large herbivores were among the most defaunated functional groups and the loss of these animals has also a strong impact on the ecosystem services. Given the extent of the consequences of defaunation in the Atlantic Forest, mitigation strategies are imperative. Habitat restoration would clearly be effective in building space for defaunation mitigation but reversing the pervasive defaunation that occurred in the Atlantic Forest is by no means a straightforward task. Nonetheless, it will be fundamental to assure the persistence of the biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest remnants.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The Atlantic Forest
Publisher	Springer Cham
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-030-55322-7
ISBN (Print)	9783030553210, 9783030553227
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55322-7_14
Publication status	Published - 2021

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Galetti et al 2021Final published version, 1.02 MB

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Galetti, M., Gonçalves, F., Fernandez De La Pradilla Villar, N., Zipparro, V., Paz, C., Mendes, C. P., Lautenschlager, L., Souza, Y., Akkawi, P., Pedrosa, F., Bulascoschi, L., Bello, C., Sevá, A. P., Sales, L., Genes, L., Abra, F. D., & Bovendorp, R. (2021). Causes and Consequences of Large-Scale Defaunation in the Atlantic Forest. In The Atlantic Forest Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55322-7_14

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title = "Causes and Consequences of Large-Scale Defaunation in the Atlantic Forest",

abstract = "The Atlantic Forest of South America hosts one of the world{\textquoteright}s most diverse and threatened tropical forest biota. After five centuries of European human expansion, most Atlantic Forest landscapes are archipelagos of small forest fragments surrounded by open-habitat matrices. In this chapter, we describe the causes and consequences of large-scale defaunation in the Atlantic Forest of South America. We identify and quantify the magnitude of the main anthropogenic drivers of defaunation and stimulate a debate on how to revert the loss of fauna to restore biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services. The magnitude of the impact of defaunation in the Atlantic Forest is hard to estimate, but we can predict that, at large scale, habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are the most common threats to terrestrial populations. Other threats vary in importance according to the taxonomic group. In general, apex predators, other carnivores, large-bodied mammals, and large herbivores were among the most defaunated functional groups and the loss of these animals has also a strong impact on the ecosystem services. Given the extent of the consequences of defaunation in the Atlantic Forest, mitigation strategies are imperative. Habitat restoration would clearly be effective in building space for defaunation mitigation but reversing the pervasive defaunation that occurred in the Atlantic Forest is by no means a straightforward task. Nonetheless, it will be fundamental to assure the persistence of the biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest remnants.",

author = "Mauro Galetti and Fernando Gon{\c c}alves and {Fernandez De La Pradilla Villar}, Nacho and Valesca Zipparro and Claudia Paz and Mendes, {Calebe P.} and La{\'i}s Lautenschlager and Yuri Souza and Paula Akkawi and Felipe Pedrosa and Leticia Bulascoschi and Carolina Bello and Sev{\'a}, {Anai{\'a} P.} and Lilian Sales and Luisa Genes and Abra, {Fernanda Delborgo} and Ricardo Bovendorp",

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Galetti, M, Gonçalves, F, Fernandez De La Pradilla Villar, N, Zipparro, V, Paz, C, Mendes, CP, Lautenschlager, L, Souza, Y, Akkawi, P, Pedrosa, F, Bulascoschi, L, Bello, C, Sevá, AP, Sales, L, Genes, L, Abra, FD & Bovendorp, R 2021, Causes and Consequences of Large-Scale Defaunation in the Atlantic Forest. in The Atlantic Forest. Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55322-7_14

TY - CHAP

T1 - Causes and Consequences of Large-Scale Defaunation in the Atlantic Forest

AU - Galetti, Mauro

AU - Gonçalves, Fernando

AU - Fernandez De La Pradilla Villar, Nacho

AU - Zipparro, Valesca

AU - Paz, Claudia

AU - Mendes, Calebe P.

AU - Lautenschlager, Laís

AU - Souza, Yuri

AU - Akkawi, Paula

AU - Pedrosa, Felipe

AU - Bulascoschi, Leticia

AU - Bello, Carolina

AU - Sevá, Anaiá P.

AU - Sales, Lilian

AU - Genes, Luisa

AU - Abra, Fernanda Delborgo

AU - Bovendorp, Ricardo

N1 - Data archiving: no data

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N2 - The Atlantic Forest of South America hosts one of the world’s most diverse and threatened tropical forest biota. After five centuries of European human expansion, most Atlantic Forest landscapes are archipelagos of small forest fragments surrounded by open-habitat matrices. In this chapter, we describe the causes and consequences of large-scale defaunation in the Atlantic Forest of South America. We identify and quantify the magnitude of the main anthropogenic drivers of defaunation and stimulate a debate on how to revert the loss of fauna to restore biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services. The magnitude of the impact of defaunation in the Atlantic Forest is hard to estimate, but we can predict that, at large scale, habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are the most common threats to terrestrial populations. Other threats vary in importance according to the taxonomic group. In general, apex predators, other carnivores, large-bodied mammals, and large herbivores were among the most defaunated functional groups and the loss of these animals has also a strong impact on the ecosystem services. Given the extent of the consequences of defaunation in the Atlantic Forest, mitigation strategies are imperative. Habitat restoration would clearly be effective in building space for defaunation mitigation but reversing the pervasive defaunation that occurred in the Atlantic Forest is by no means a straightforward task. Nonetheless, it will be fundamental to assure the persistence of the biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest remnants.

AB - The Atlantic Forest of South America hosts one of the world’s most diverse and threatened tropical forest biota. After five centuries of European human expansion, most Atlantic Forest landscapes are archipelagos of small forest fragments surrounded by open-habitat matrices. In this chapter, we describe the causes and consequences of large-scale defaunation in the Atlantic Forest of South America. We identify and quantify the magnitude of the main anthropogenic drivers of defaunation and stimulate a debate on how to revert the loss of fauna to restore biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services. The magnitude of the impact of defaunation in the Atlantic Forest is hard to estimate, but we can predict that, at large scale, habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are the most common threats to terrestrial populations. Other threats vary in importance according to the taxonomic group. In general, apex predators, other carnivores, large-bodied mammals, and large herbivores were among the most defaunated functional groups and the loss of these animals has also a strong impact on the ecosystem services. Given the extent of the consequences of defaunation in the Atlantic Forest, mitigation strategies are imperative. Habitat restoration would clearly be effective in building space for defaunation mitigation but reversing the pervasive defaunation that occurred in the Atlantic Forest is by no means a straightforward task. Nonetheless, it will be fundamental to assure the persistence of the biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest remnants.

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-55322-7_14

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-55322-7_14

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9783030553210

SN - 9783030553227

BT - The Atlantic Forest

PB - Springer Cham

ER -

Causes and Consequences of Large-Scale Defaunation in the Atlantic Forest

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