Effects of Anthropogenic Disturbance on Mammal Community Diversity and Activity Patterns: Evidence from the Jinfoshan and Jinyunshan National Nature Reserves, China

TL;DR

Human activities in protected areas affect mammal diversity and behavior differently, with long-term habitat changes reducing diversity and short-term disturbances altering activity patterns.

Contribution

The study distinguishes the independent effects of long-term habitat modification and short-term human activity on mammal communities using multidimensional diversity and behavioral metrics.

Findings

Long-term human modification (HM) reduces mammal taxonomic diversity (Shannon–Wiener index).

Short-term human activity (HA) affects community evenness non-linearly, increasing at low disturbance but decreasing at high disturbance.

Mammals adjust their activity patterns, with omnivores becoming more nocturnal under higher disturbance.

Abstract

Human disturbance is increasingly shaping wildlife communities, even inside protected areas. Using three years (2017–2019) of camera-trap monitoring in two subtropical forest reserves in Chongqing, China (Jinfoshan and Jinyunshan), we assessed how short-term direct human activity (HA) and long-term landscape human modification (HM) influence mammal diversity and daily activity patterns. Although the two reserves differ in elevation range and mammal diversity, HA and HM were largely independent across camera stations, allowing us to evaluate their distinct effects. We found that HM was associated with reduced mammal taxonomic diversity (Shannon–Wiener index), whereas HA mainly affected community evenness, showing a non-linear response (evenness increased at low disturbance but declined at high disturbance). Mammals also altered their behavior to reduce encounters with humans. Our results highlight that different disturbance dimensions affect mammal communities in different ways, and effective conservation should manage both habitat modification and direct human use within and around protected areas.

Anthropogenic disturbance can reshape mammal communities through both long-term habitat modification and short-term direct human presence, yet these disturbance dimensions are often conflated. Using three consecutive years (2017–2019) of camera-trap data from two subtropical forest reserves in Chongqing, China (Jinfoshan and Jinyunshan), we evaluated the differential effects of human modification (HM) and human activity (HA) on mammal taxonomic diversity, functional diversity (MNTD and SES.MNTD), and diel activity patterns. HM and HA were not significantly correlated, indicating that they represent largely independent disturbance components in this system. Regression analyses showed that HM was significantly associated with reduced Shannon–Wiener diversity, while HA primarily influenced community evenness with a non-linear response (initial increase followed by decline at higher disturbance). In contrast, functional diversity metrics (MNTD and SES.MNTD) did not exhibit significant relationships with either HM or HA across the observed gradients, suggesting relative stability of trait dispersion at the community level. Activity analyses revealed guild-specific behavioral strategies: herbivores retained a predominantly crepuscular pattern but reduced activity during periods of high human presence, whereas omnivores displayed stronger temporal niche partitioning, becoming more nocturnal under higher disturbance intensity, particularly in Jinyunshan. Together, these results demonstrate that distinct disturbance types can affect mammal communities through different pathways and that integrating multidimensional diversity metrics with behavioral analyses can improve conservation planning in human-dominated landscapes.

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