Abstract The transition from natural habitat to agricultural land use is widely regarded as one of the leading drivers of biodiversity loss. Despite this, most wildlife still lives outside protected areas on private agricultural land, particularly on rangeland used for livestock grazing. Understanding which species persist and which decline in agricultural landscapes is important for global biodiversity monitoring, management and conservation. In this study, we used hierarchical multi-species occupancy modelling to estimate terrestrial vertebrate (body mass > 0.5 kg) richness in the Karoo, a semi-arid region of South Africa. We evaluated species-specific responses to different anthropogenic and environmental variables in rangeland and a nearby protected area of similar size. We grouped mammal species according to trophic guild and body size and compared their occurrence between areas. In total we detected 42 species over 4035 6-day pooled trap nights across 322 sites. Community species richness was not significantly different between the two types of land use and decreased with increasing elevation in the protected area. Human disturbance did not affect individual species occupancy in either area. Carnivores, omnivores and medium-sized species occupancy probabilities were similar between the two areas but were higher for herbivores and large species in the protected area and for insectivores and small species in rangeland. Our results reveal that drylands in the South African Karoo region, including rangeland used for small-livestock farming, support a diverse community of terrestrial vertebrates. Private landowners are thus important custodians of key components of indigenous biodiversity outside of protected areas, especially in low-lying areas.

中文翻译：

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卡鲁牧场哺乳动物和地面鸟类群落的多物种占用模型：全球旱地系统的案例

摘要 从自然栖息地向农业土地利用的转变被广泛认为是生物多样性丧失的主要驱动因素之一。尽管如此，大多数野生动物仍然生活在私人农业用地的保护区之外，特别是在用于放牧的牧场上。了解哪些物种在农业景观中持续存在以及哪些物种减少对于全球生物多样性监测、管理和保护非常重要。在这项研究中，我们使用分层多物种占用模型来估计南非半干旱地区卡鲁的陆生脊椎动物（体重 > 0.5 kg）丰富度。我们评估了牧场和附近类似规模的保护区对不同人为和环境变量的物种特异性反应。我们根据营养公会和体型对哺乳动物物种进行分组，并比较它们在不同地区的发生情况。我们总共在 322 个地点的 4035 个为期 6 天的汇集陷阱之夜中检测到 42 个物种。群落物种丰富度在两种土地利用类型之间没有显着差异，并且随着保护区海拔的增加而减少。人为干扰不影响任一区域的个别物种占有率。两个地区的食肉动物、杂食动物和中型物种占据概率相似，但保护区内的食草动物和大型物种以及牧场的食虫动物和小型物种的占有概率更高。我们的研究结果表明，南非卡鲁地区的旱地，包括用于小型畜牧业的牧场，支持着多样化的陆生脊椎动物群落。