Habitat loss, due to landscape changes induced by human activities, is considered one of the main drivers of biodiversity decline. Thus, understanding how these changes affect top trophic-level species is essential to develop effective conservation strategy measures to overcome this problem. Mesocarnivores, as higher trophic-level species with crucial roles in ecosystem functioning, are a pivotal functional group in such strategies. Generalist mesocarnivores, such as the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), are excellent models to study species ecological adaption to landscapes moulded by humans. Using generalised linear mixed model (GLMM), we aim to understand how the landscape context affects the presence of this generalist species, in a Mediterranean ecosystem (northeastern Portugal) characterised by a combination of natural areas and traditional agricultural land uses. Based on scats’ distribution, we generated distribution models to test different ecological hypotheses—anthropic disturbance factors, altitude and land-cover patterns. According to our results, red foxes seem to have two distinct strategies: in forest-dominated areas, human activities have a negative effect (disturbance); in areas with a low percentage of forests, agriculture patches and the proximity to urban areas are the main drivers determining its presence, with a positive influence (food availability). Our results confirm the opportunistic character of this species and its high degree of adaptation. Further, the outcome also reveals that landscape context influences the detected pattern. Consequently, considering that populations of the same species are constrained by the same factors, independently of the landscape composition, will affect the effectiveness of management measures that will not account for landscape context effects.

中文翻译：

---

人类很重要：地中海西部景观中红狐狸（Vulpes vulpes）存在的决定因素

由于人类活动引起的景观变化，栖息地流失被认为是生物多样性下降的主要驱动力之一。因此，了解这些变化如何影响营养级别最高的物种对于开发有效的保护策略措施来克服这一问题至关重要。中生食肉动物是在生态系统功能中起关键作用的高营养级别物种，是这类策略中的关键功能群。通体中食肉动物，例如赤狐（Vulpes vulpes），是研究物种对人类塑造的景观的生态适应性的优秀模型。我们使用广义线性混合模型（GLMM），旨在了解在自然区域和传统农业土地利用相结合的地中海生态系统（东北葡萄牙）中，景观环境如何影响该通配物种的存在。根据粪便的分布，我们生成了分布模型以测试不同的生态假设-人为干扰因素，海拔高度和土地覆盖方式。根据我们的结果，狐狸似乎有两种不同的策略：在森林为主的地区，人类活动会产生负面影响（干扰）；在森林比例低的地区，农业斑块和邻近城市地区是决定其存在的主要动力，产生积极影响（粮食供应量）。我们的结果证实了该物种的机会性特征及其高度适应性。此外，结果还揭示了景观环境会影响检测到的模式。因此，考虑到同一物种的种群受相同因素的约束，而与景观构成无关，这将影响不考虑景观背景影响的管理措施的有效性。