With one million species threatened with extinction and more than a third of terrestrial Earth now devoted to crop or livestock production, many conservation organisations are acquiring land, destocking and converting them to national parks or conservation reserves. When pastoral properties are acquired, destocking is often the first management action. Species responses to destocking are varied and largely associated with changes in ground vegetation complexity. However, studies over short timeframes may fail to capture the often slow and episodic recovery post-destocking, particularly in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. In this study, we examined the response of small mammals and reptiles between 6 and 24 years since destocking in mallee (Eucalytpus sp.) and Casuarina vegetation communities in semi-arid Australia. As casuarina sites were closer to water than mallee, they were subject to higher domestic livestock grazing intensity, and higher grazing pressure from invasive goats and native kangaroos after livestock were removed. We related faunal abundance and diversity to time-since-destocking, fractional cover, rainfall and temperature and described compositional dynamics. We found that the vegetation types had distinct fauna communities and unique recovery trajectories. In mallee, reptile abundance and diversity increased with time-since-destocking but did not change in casuarina. Small mammal response to time-since-destocking was non-linear and strongly influenced by rainfall. Overall, the mallee community showed signs of recovery, but recovery was less evident in the more degraded casuarina. We highlight that destocking ex-pastoral properties is rarely a restoration ‘quick-fix’ and land managers must deal with a complex legacy of impacts, when converting pastoral land to conservation reserves.

中文翻译：

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将牧场转变为保护区：去除家畜放牧 24 年后小型哺乳动物和爬行动物的反应

有 100 万种物种面临灭绝威胁，而现在超过三分之一的陆地用于作物或牲畜生产，许多保护组织正在征用土地，将其去除库存并将其转变为国家公园或保护区。当获得牧区财产时，去库存通常是第一个管理行动。物种对去库存的反应各不相同，并且在很大程度上与地面植被复杂性的变化有关。然而，短期内的研究可能无法捕捉到去库存后通常缓慢和间歇性的恢复，特别是在干旱和半干旱生态系统中。在这项研究中，我们检查了小型哺乳动物和爬行动物自去库存后 6 到 24 年间在马利( Eucalytpus sp.) 和木麻黄中的反应澳大利亚半干旱地区的植被群落。由于木麻黄的产地比木马更靠近水，它们受到更高的家畜放牧强度，以及家畜被移除后来自入侵山羊和本地袋鼠的更高的放牧压力。我们将动物群的丰度和多样性与去库存后的时间、部分覆盖、降雨和温度相关联，并描述了成分动态。我们发现植被类型具有不同的动物群落和独特的恢复轨迹。在mallee中，爬行动物的丰度和多样性随着去库存后的时间而增加，但在木麻黄中没有变化。小型哺乳动物对去库存后时间的反应是非线性的，并且受到降雨的强烈影响。总体而言，木麻黄群落显示出恢复的迹象，但在更退化的木麻黄中恢复不那么明显。