Taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of forest mammals mainly associated with elevation range

Abstract

Abstract Forest mammal diversity has declined rapidly due to the widely loss and fragmentation of primary forest habitats, further threatening the functioning and biodiversity of forest ecosystems and emphasizes the importance of the research on forest mammal diversity. This study tried to link forest mammal diversity captured by camera traps with elevation range, contemporary climate, paleoclimate change and human activities in China, a country with diverse forest types, high mammal diversity, and massive anthropogenic disturbance on primary forest. The results showed that the camera traps in 72 Chinese forest sites captured 125 mammal species, accounting for 18% of all mammal species in China. In addition, the phylogenetic and functional diversity of these species accounted for 33% and 49% of all mammal species in China. Notably, forest sites with higher elevation range had higher species richness, higher functional diversity, over-dispersed functional structure, but clustered phylogenetic structure. Stable paleoclimate promoted species richness and functional diversity. Higher contemporary temperature and more precipitation promoted phylogenetic diversity and over-dispersed phylogenetic structure. In addition, anthropogenic factors (cropland area and human population size) had weak impacts on forest mammal diversity. These findings suggest that the mammal diversity in Chinese forest ecosystems is mainly associated with natural environmental variables, supporting the habitat heterogeneity hypothesis, history climate stability hypothesis, and tropical conservatism hypothesis. Meanwhile, the weak links between forest mammal diversity with anthropogenic activities may indicate the important role of forest ecosystems in conserving forest mammal diversity in China.