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Conserving biodiversity and enhancing food security: understanding small mammal diversity patterns in mosaic landscapes of Guinea‐Bissau (West Africa)
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Autores
Resumo(s)
The need to meet human population increasing requirements while ensuring biodiversity conservation has
challenged current management practices and called for nature-based solutions. This is particularly relevant
in the understudied Afrotropical landscapes where food insecurity meets high levels of biodiversity. These
nature-based solutions can include the integration of mosaic landscapes containing patches of native habitat
within human-modified landscapes and ecologically based pest management. However, a prerequisite to
implement these solutions efficiently is to understand how different groups use and persist across humanmodified landscapes and identifying the species present. This study investigates small mammal diversity
patterns (species richness, Shannon index, abundance and composition) in rural landscapes of GuineaBissau at different scales in three habitats: forests, bolanhas (local name for rice paddies) and cashew
orchards. Small mammals were sampled across 15 sampling sites using Sherman live traps. We captured
230 individuals belonging to 11 species. At a local scale, small mammal composition differed across the
habitats, with bolanhas supporting distinctive assemblages. However, species richness and Shannon
diversity index remained similar between the three habitats. At a landscape scale, both observed species
richness and abundance were higher in landscapes with higher proportion of bolanha, highlighting the
importance of this habitat for small mammals. Conversely, abundance was lower under higher proportions
of cashew orchards, reflecting the potentially lower availability of resources in this habitat. Overall, our
results support the idea that mosaic landscapes are beneficial for small mammals, particularly those with a
reasonable bolanha coverage and reduced proportions of cashew orchards. These findings strengthen the
potential role of heterogeneous landscapes comprising agricultural crops and native habitat in fostering
biodiversity conservation. This study serves as a baseline knowledge to develop tailored management
strategies and policies aimed at enhancing crop productivity and food security while concurrently addressing
pest-related challenges and preserving biodiversity across tropical modified landscapes.
Descrição
Tese de mestrado, Biologia da Conservação , 2023, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências
Palavras-chave
Agricultura Alteração do uso da terra Arrozais Expansão do caju Gestão de roedores Teses de mestrado - 2024