Abstract:
Human-dominated landscapes comprise the bulk of the world's terrestrial surface and Africa
is predicted to experience the largest relative increase over the next century. A multi-scale
approach is required to identify processes that maintain diversity in these landscapes. Here
we identify scales at which animal diversity responds by partitioning regional diversity in a
rural African agro-ecosystem between one temporal and four spatial scales. Human land
use practices are the main driver of diversity in all seven animal assemblages considered,
with medium sized mammals and birds most affected. Even the least affected taxa, bats
and non-volant small mammals (rodents), responded with increased abundance in settlements
and agricultural sites respectively. Regional turnover was important to invertebrate
taxa and their response to human land use was intermediate between that of the vertebrate
extremes. Local scale (< 300 m) heterogeneity was the next most important level for all
taxa, highlighting the importance of fine scale processes for the maintenance of biodiversity.
Identifying the triggers of these changes within the context of functional landscapes would
provide the context for the long-term sustainability of these rapidly changing landscapes