The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness estimates across Africa’s major land uses

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species’ population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate ‘intactness scores’: the remaining proportion of an ‘intact’ reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the region’s major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.) and intensities (e.g., large-scale vs smallholder cropland). This dataset was co-produced as part of the Biodiversity Intactness Index for Africa Project. Additional uses include assessing ecosystem condition; rectifying geographic/ taxonomic biases in global biodiversity indicators and maps; and informing the Red List of Ecosystems

Using species distribution models to gauge the completeness of the bat checklist of Eswatini

National species checklists are important for a variety of reasons, including biodiversity conservation. However, these national checklists are rarely complete, and it is not easy to gauge how many species have been overlooked or what the taxonomic identities of overlooked species would be. This is particularly the case for small, elusive, or nocturnal species such as bats. Despite their diversity and importance as ecosystem service providers, bat distributions are poorly known throughout much of Africa. We present a national checklist of bats for a small African country, Eswatini, by compiling species from museum specimens and literature records. A total of 32 species of bats have been recorded from the country. Since 1995, new species have continued to be recorded in Eswatini, with five additional species added since the last published checklist in 2016, suggesting that some species may still be overlooked. In order to determine what species these may be, we used species distribution models based on the occurrence records of bats from southern Africa to predict what species would occur in Eswatini, which was then compared with what has been collected and deposited in museums. Our models predicted that a total of 47 species are likely to occur in Eswatini compared with 32 species collected to date. Our data suggest that the national checklist of bats of Eswatini is not yet complete and that further species are expected to be recorded for the country. We suggest that species distribution models can be useful for gauging the completeness of national checklists and predicting which species may have been overlooked.The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Student Research Grant from Bat Conservation International, a National Geographic Young Explorer’s Grant 9635-14, and The Explorers Club Exploration Fund – Mamont Scholars Program.http://link.springer.com/journal/103442022-01-26hj2021Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog

Assessing the impacts of domesticated versus wild ungulates on terrestrial small mammal assemblages at Telperion Nature Reserve, South Africa

Grazing by large mammals alters vegetation physiognomy, consequently changing habitat suitability for small mammal communities. We investigated the response of terrestrial small mammals to grazing by wild and domesticated ungulates at the boundary of a protected area (Telperion Nature Reserve) and surrounding cattle ranches in Mpumalanga, South Africa over two seasons. Fifteen paired grids were set on either side of the boundary fence at which small mammals were trapped in Sherman live traps placed flat on the ground. A total of 11 760 trap nights resulted in the capture of 187 animals belonging to 14 species (11 rodents, two shrews and one elephant shrew). The small mammal communities in grasslands grazed by domesticated or wild ungulates were similar in abundance, species richness, diversity and demographic parameters, likely due to the fact that vegetation structure of the two grazing systems was also similar. We used generalised linear models to show that rock and grass cover were plausible predictors of small mammal abundance in this system. Rock cover showed a positive relationship with small mammal abundance whilst grass cover showed a negative relationship. Our observations suggest that at the scale of our study and with the current stocking densities, wild and domesticated ungulates have similar impacts on the small mammal community.JTS received support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant no. DGE-1315138, National Geographic Young Explorer’s Grant, and a grant from The Explorer’s Club Exploration Fund – Mamont Scholars Program.https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tafz202019-04-06hj2018Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog

bii4africa dataset

The bii4africa dataset is presented in a multi-spreadsheet .xlsx file. The raw data spreadsheet (‘Scores_Raw’) includes 31,313 individual expert estimates of the impact of a sub-Saharan African land use on a species response group of terrestrial vertebrates or vascular plants. Estimates are reported as intactness scores - the remaining proportion of an ‘intact’ reference (pre-industrial or contemporary wilderness area) population of a species response group in a land use, on a scale from 0 (no individuals remain) through 0.5 (half the individuals remain), to 1 (same as the reference population) and, in limited cases, to 2 (two or more times the reference population). For species that thrive in human-modified landscapes, scores could be greater than 1 but not exceeding 2 to avoid extremely large scores biasing aggregation exercises. Expert comments are included alongside respective estimates

bi4africa dataset - open source

The bii4africa dataset is presented in a multi-spreadsheet .ods file. The raw data spreadsheet (‘Scores_Raw’) includes 31,313 individual expert estimates of the impact of a sub-Saharan African land use on a species response group of terrestrial vertebrates or vascular plants. Estimates are reported as intactness scores - the remaining proportion of an ‘intact’ reference (pre-industrial or contemporary wilderness area) population of a species response group in a land use, on a scale from 0 (no individuals remain) through 0.5 (half the individuals remain), to 1 (same as the reference population) and, in limited cases, to 2 (two or more times the reference population). For species that thrive in human-modified landscapes, scores could be greater than 1 but not exceeding 2 to avoid extremely large scores biasing aggregation exercises. Expert comments are included alongside respective estimates