Characterizing mammal community responses to large-scale impacts and interventions.

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The cumulative impact of a growing human population is transforming the Earth and threatening species and ecosystems. Human land uses cover more than half of the terrestrial land base, degrading natural habitats and compounding other threats to biodiversity. Medium- and large-bodied terrestrial mammals (larger mammals) are a key component of biodiversity facing mounting pressure. They play critical roles in the functioning of natural ecosystems, generate substantial economic revenues, and embody great cultural value. Many larger mammals are sensitive to human disturbances while others become overabundant in human-modified habitats. Finding a balance between threat and conflict—a path to human-wildlife coexistence—requires an understanding of mammal responses to anthropogenic impacts and interventions. ******The goal of my program is to predict how terrestrial mammal communities respond to cumulative environmental effects in transforming landscapes. My recent work has articulated a conceptual framework to improve cumulative effects assessment by integrating large-scale surveillance monitoring with predictive modelling of species-impact relationships. My group has advanced this framework through improving the use of camera traps (CTs) to pursue multi-species, multi-scale inquiry, and thereby identify wildlife winners and losers in the face of cumulative disturbances. We will build on this research to test the hypothesis that cumulative human disturbance represents a filter on mammal communities, causing predictable shifts in community structure. We will do this by: 1) improving CT inferences on the distribution and abundance of interacting mammal populations; 2) testing multi-scale models of mammal-landscape relationships; 3) advancing metrics of mammalian community structure and resilience; and 4) combining CT surveys with landscape-level management experiments.******My program will provide a proof-of-concept for coordinated distributed experiments using CTs, capitalizing on the emergence of this multi-species survey tool and on societal investments in management interventions. We will test fundamental hypotheses on extinction vulnerability, functional diversity, and community resilience, while identifying directions for additional mechanistic research. Our methodological tests and innovations will have broad application to biodiversity research and monitoring in and out of academia, and will be widely disseminated through our WildCAM network. My program will train over 20 HQP, making significant contributions to the next generation of wildlife scientists, and will include active engagement with a wide range of research users (including government and industry). Our ultimate goal is to produce knowledge and capacity to support successful human-wildlife coexistence.