Filius Jonathan, van der Hoek Yntze, Jarrín-V Pablo, van Hooft Pim
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group Wageningen University & Research Wageningen The Netherlands.
Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam Tena Ecuador.
Ecol Evol. 2020 Jun 20;10(13):6623-6635. doi: 10.1002/ece3.6394. eCollection 2020 Jul.
One of the most evident and direct effects of roads on wildlife is the death of animals by vehicle collision. Understanding the spatial patterns behind roadkill helps to plan mitigation measures to reduce the impacts of roads on animal populations. However, although roadkill patterns have been extensively studied in temperate zones, the potential impacts of roads on wildlife in the Neotropics have received less attention and are particularly poorly understood in the Western Amazon. Here, we present the results of a study on roadkill in the Amazon region of Ecuador; a region that is affected by a rapidly increasing development of road infrastructure. Over the course of 50 days, in the wet season between September and November 2017, we searched for road-killed vertebrates on 15.9 km of roads near the city of Tena, Napo province, for a total of 1,590 surveyed kilometers. We recorded 593 dead specimens, predominantly reptiles (237 specimens, 40%) and amphibians (190, 32%), with birds (102, 17%) and mammals (64, 11%) being less common. Recorded species were assigned to three functional groups, based on their movement behavior and habitat use ("slow," "intermediate," and "fast"). Using Ripley's K statistical analyses and 2D HotSpot Identification Analysis, we found multiple distinct spatial clusters or hotspots, where roadkill was particularly frequent. Factors that potentially determined these clusters, and the prevalence of roadkill along road segments in general, differed between functional groups, but often included land cover variables such as native forest and waterbodies, and road characteristics such as speed limit (i.e., positive effect on roadkill frequency). Our study, which provides a first summary of species that are commonly found as roadkill in this part of the Amazon region, contributes to a better understanding of the negative impacts of roads on wildlife and is an important first step toward conservation efforts to mitigate these impacts.
道路对野生动物最明显、最直接的影响之一就是动物因车辆碰撞而死亡。了解道路杀伤动物现象背后的空间模式有助于制定缓解措施，以减少道路对动物种群的影响。然而，尽管在温带地区对道路杀伤动物现象的模式进行了广泛研究，但道路对新热带地区野生动物的潜在影响却较少受到关注，在亚马逊西部地区尤其缺乏了解。在此，我们展示了对厄瓜多尔亚马逊地区道路杀伤动物现象的研究结果；该地区正受到道路基础设施迅速发展的影响。在2017年9月至11月的雨季期间，我们在50天内，对纳波省特纳市附近15.9公里的道路上的脊椎动物路杀情况进行了搜索，总计调查了1590公里的道路。我们记录了593个死亡标本，主要是爬行动物（237个标本，占40%）和两栖动物（190个，占32%），鸟类（102个，占17%）和哺乳动物（64个，占11%）则较少见。根据记录物种的移动行为和栖息地利用情况（“慢速”、“中等”和“快速”），将其分为三个功能组。通过Ripley's K统计分析和二维热点识别分析，我们发现了多个不同的空间集群或热点，在这些地方道路杀伤动物现象尤为频繁。潜在决定这些集群以及一般路段上路杀现象普遍程度的因素在功能组之间有所不同，但通常包括土地覆盖变量，如原生森林和水体，以及道路特征，如限速（即对道路杀伤频率有正向影响）。我们的研究首次总结了在亚马逊地区这一部分常见的道路杀伤动物的物种，有助于更好地理解道路对野生动物的负面影响，并且是朝着缓解这些影响的保护工作迈出的重要第一步。
