Land-use changes are a main driver of modifications in tropical ecosystems, leading to the loss of species and ecological traits and affecting key ecological functions. Although much attention has been given to predict the effects of species loss on ecological processes, information on the large-scale effects of land-use changes over ecological functions is scarce. Here, we detected erosion in the prevalence of ecological functions performed by mammals in response to land-use changes in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. By analyzing the loss of different ecological functions (vertebrate and invertebrate predation, seed dispersal, seed depredation, herbivory) performed by mammal assemblages in a deforestation gradient, we observed that vulnerable functions (performed by sensitive species, such as browsing, seed depredation, medium and large vertebrate predation) were positively related to patch size and forest cover and negatively related to anthropogenic cover. These relationships were reversed for persistent functions (performed by resilient species, such as grazing, small seed dispersal, small vertebrate and invertebrate predation). Vulnerable functions were virtually restricted to large forest remnants, while persistent functions were prevalent in human-modified landscapes. Disturbed forests are not necessarily empty of mammal species, but there is a substantial loss of ecological functions across most of the Atlantic Forest. Five out of ten ecological functions lose prevalence in small forest remnants. Nonetheless, these small remnants serve as refuges for the remaining biodiversity and are on the verge of the functional extinction of important processes. The erosion of ecological functions provided by mammals compromise the persistence of Atlantic Forest's biodiversity.

土地利用变化是热带生态系统改造的主要驱动力，导致物种和生态特征的丧失并影响关键的生态功能。尽管人们已经非常重视预测物种丧失对生态过程的影响，但是关于土地利用变化对生态功能的大规模影响的信息却很少。在这里，我们检测到了哺乳动物对巴西大西洋森林中土地利用变化的反应而对生态功能的影响。通过分析在毁林梯度下哺乳动物组合执行的不同生态功能（脊椎动物和无脊椎动物的掠食，种子传播，种子掠食，草食）的丧失，我们观察到脆弱的功能（由敏感物种执行，例如浏览，种子掠食，中，大型脊椎动物的捕食与斑块大小和森林覆盖率呈正相关，与人为覆盖率呈负相关。这些关系因持久功能而被逆转（由有弹性的物种执行，例如放牧，种子传播小，脊椎动物小和无脊椎动物的捕食）。脆弱的功能实际上仅限于大片的森林残余物，而持久性功能则普遍存在于人工改造的景观中。被扰乱的森林不一定没有哺乳动物，但是大西洋大部分地区的生态功能都大大丧失了。十分之五的生态功能在小片森林遗迹中消失。尽管如此，这些少量残留物仍是剩余生物多样性的避难所，濒临重要进程的功能性灭绝。