Abstract
Developed areas are thought to have low species diversity, low animal abundance, few native predators, and thus low resilience and ecological function. Working with citizen scientist volunteers to survey mammals at 1427 sites across two development gradients (wild-rural-exurban-suburban-urban) and four plot types (large forests, small forest fragments, open areas and residential yards) in the eastern US, we show that developed areas actually had significantly higher or statistically similar mammalian occupancy, relative abundance, richness and diversity compared to wild areas. However, although some animals can thrive in suburbia, conservation of wild areas and preservation of green space within cities are needed to protect sensitive species and to give all species the chance to adapt and persist in the Anthropocene.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e38012 |
| Journal | eLife |
| Volume | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2018 |
Funding
We thank our 557 volunteers for their hard work collecting camera trap data for this study. For their field assistance and volunteer coordination we thank the staff of the NPS, USFWS, USFS, TNC, NC, VA, and MD State Parks, NCWRC and VDGIF. We thank A Mash, N Fuentes, S Higdon, T Perkins, L Gatens, R Owens, R Gayle, C Backman, K Clark, J Grimes and J Simkins for their help reviewing photographs. This work was conducted with funding from the National Science Foundation [grant #1232442 and #1319293], the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the VWR Foundation, the US Forest Service, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution. We thank M Katti and R Dunn for comments on early versions of this manuscript.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| 1319293, 1232442 | |
| Smithsonian Institution | |
| U.S. Forest Service-Retired | |
| North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences |
