Human activities and disturbances can put a significant amount of stress on local environments and a new research review has shown that the functional diversity in arid, desert environments can be affected by the hand of man.
According the report published in the Journal of Arid Environments, mammalian communities living in dry ecosystems are “drastically changing” as a result of human activities.
“We report for the first time that in drylands, the effect of human-induced disturbances on mammal functional diversity is negative,” said study co-author Veronica Chillo, a biologist in the Functional diversity Research Group at theArgentinian Institute of Arid Lands Research.
“Regardless [of] the characteristic of the disturbance, functional diversity is diminished,” she told BBC News.
The review culled information from 25 studies and included 110 mammalian species were that evaluated for the effects of human-caused disturbances like poaching, logging, grazing, fires, and introduction of invasive species.
Although deserts and arid lands appear to be desolate places and therefore more resilient to manmade disturbances, they often support an intricate and sensitive ecosystem for smaller mammal that live in concert with plant and other animal species. Herbivores play important role by dispersing plant seeds and other mammals enrich the soil by digging tunnels that increase water infiltration, according to the review.
Because living in these ecosystems can be a delicate balance for many mammals, any drastic changes to the local ecosystem can result in a negative impact on their diversity. The researchers found several examples of population decreases and even localized extinctions as a result of human disturbances.
The review also noted that low and unpredictable rainfall could exacerbate damage caused to plant life and the larger ecological cycle.
According to the review, the human impacts that are most damaging to mammals are those that fundamentally remade parts of the local habitat, such as fires or overgrazing that wiped out any desert grasses.
“The most negative effect is seen when disturbances change the conditions of the system [such as something that] modifies the structure or dominant plant species,” Chillo said.
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