The Effect of Habitat Amount on Species Richness and Composition of Medium- and Large-Sized Mammals in the Cerrado Biome, Brazil

Habitat fragmentation and reduction in the Cerrado are the primary threats to this biome’s biodiversity. The amount of habitat in the landscape has been proposed as the sole predictor variable for species richness in fragmented areas, potentially replacing the combined effects of fragment size and isolation (habitat amount hypothesis). This study aimed to test the influence of sampled fragment area, number of fragments, and habitat amount in local landscapes on the species richness of medium- and large-sized mammals in the Cerrado, southeastern Goiás, Brazil. The applicability of the habitat amount hypothesis to medium- and large-sized mammals in fragmented Cerrado habitats was thus evaluated. Medium- and large-sized mammal species were recorded from 2014 to 2018 in 14 Cerrado fragments in southeastern Goiás, Brazil. Using Landsat 7 and 8 satellite imagery from the year 2000 and the mammal sampling period, landscapes were delineated by creating buffers with a radius of 2 km from the central point of each sampled fragment. Through visual classification of these landscapes, the following variables were obtained: habitat amount in the landscape (HA), number of fragments (NP), and area of the sampled fragment (HF). The results indicate that the habitat amount in the past landscape (14 to 18 years before sampling) was the best predictor variable for the species richness and composition of medium- and large-sized mammals. The HA variable from the sampling period and the AREA variable from both periods also significantly influenced species composition. Therefore, considering the historical landscape context, the habitat amount hypothesis was applied to mammals in the Cerrado areas studied.