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Impacts of Land Use and Cover Change on Land Mammal Distribution Ranges Across Mexican Ecosystems

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Mexican Fauna in the Anthropocene

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Abstract

Habitat loss due to land use change is recognized as one of the major drivers of contemporary defaunation. In this chapter, we examine tropical land mammal defaunation in Mexico from the perspective of changes in the natural land cover that represents the distribution range of a large sample (N = 252) of mammalian species. Based on a co-inertia analysis, we identified eight clusters of species based on the correlation between the configuration of the vegetation cover and the distribution ranges of mammals before and after the anthropogenic transformation of the major ecosystems of the country. We present detailed accounts of the identified clusters. Our analysis shows that species with distribution predominantly in tropical forests are considerably more challenged because tropical habitat transformation is very high (approaching 40% on average). In contrast, species that inhabit other ecosystems, mainly arid and semiarid vegetation, occur in areas where habitat transformation is lower (~20%) and their threats are consequently lower. Also, large-bodied species (with extensive habitat requirements) of restricted distribution seem to be the most impacted. However, other species that although of smaller body size, but are habitat specialists, are also at risk. We advocate for a deeper understanding of the differential resilience and susceptibility of mammals in the face of habitat transformation (and the synergies thereof with other anthropogenic impacts). Advances on this front may guide the implementation of effective conservation efforts to prevent a furthering of the country’s mammalian defaunation we document in this analysis.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Norma Tolama for helping to compile the information on the distribution of land mammals. Francelli Macedo helped to conduct a literature search and to summarize the information in a word cloud. E. M. had support from Mexico’s National Research System-CONACyT while conducting this research. R.D. was supported by Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones sobre los Recursos Naturales, Universidad Michocana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico

    Eduardo Mendoza

  2. Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (INECOL), Xalapa, Mexico

    Roger Guevara

  3. Department of Biology, Stanford University, California, CA, USA

    Rodolfo Dirzo

Authors
  1. Eduardo Mendoza
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  2. Roger Guevara
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  3. Rodolfo Dirzo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roger Guevara .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Querétaro, Juriquilla, Mexico

    Robert W. Jones

  2. Colección Nacional de Peces, Instituto de Biologia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, Mexico

    C. Patricia Ornelas-García

  3. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Juriquilla, Querétaro, Mexico

    Rubén Pineda-López

  4. Colección Nacional de Peces, Instituto de Biologia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, Mexico

    Fernando Álvarez

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Mendoza, E., Guevara, R., Dirzo, R. (2023). Impacts of Land Use and Cover Change on Land Mammal Distribution Ranges Across Mexican Ecosystems. In: Jones, R.W., Ornelas-García, C.P., Pineda-López, R., Álvarez, F. (eds) Mexican Fauna in the Anthropocene. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17277-9_12

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