The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness estimates across Africa's major land uses.

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species' population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate 'intactness scores': the remaining proportion of an 'intact' reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the region's major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.) and intensities (e.g., large-scale vs smallholder cropland). This dataset was co-produced as part of the Biodiversity Intactness Index for Africa Project. Additional uses include assessing ecosystem condition; rectifying geographic/taxonomic biases in global biodiversity indicators and maps; and informing the Red List of Ecosystems.

Time for a paradigm shift? Small carnivores' sensitivity highlights the importance of monitoring mid-rank predators in future global change studies.

Research Highlight: Jachowski, D. S., Marneweck, C. J., Olfenbuttel, C., & Harris, S. N. (2024). Support for the size-mediated sensitivity hypothesis within a diverse carnivore community. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13916. A current paradigm in ecological research suggests that top predators are suitable sentinel species to identify ecosystem dysfunctions and monitor the effects of climate change. However, the adequacy of top predators to systematically take this function may be mistakenly inferred or unintentionally conflated from the fact that these species are regarded as biodiversity indicators or keystone, umbrella and flagship species in most ecosystems. Regarding terrestrial mammalian carnivores (order Carnivora), some researchers recently suggested that the smaller species likely possess a higher sensitivity to environmental changes than large carnivores because of their biological attributes and their intermediate position in food webs. To test this hypothesis, Jachowski et al. (2024) used camera trapping followed by occupancy and structural equation modelling to explore the dynamics of a diverse carnivore community and the factors that influence them. Their results confirmed that small carnivores are more sensitive to habitat changes and are interconnected by a greater number of significant pathways compared with larger carnivores. This support for the size-mediated sensitivity hypothesis strengthens the proposition that small carnivores (and other mid-rank predators) are ideal sentinel species for monitoring the effects of the wide range of contemporary and future environmental changes. Time will tell whether this new 'middle-out ecology' paradigm will be considered in future global change studies.

Competition and specialization in an African forest carnivore community.

Globally, human activities have led to the impoverishment of species assemblages and the disruption of ecosystem function. Determining whether this poses a threat to future ecosystem stability necessitates a thorough understanding of mechanisms underpinning community assembly and niche selection. Here, we tested for niche segregation within an African small carnivore community in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We used occupancy modeling based on systematic camera trap surveys and fine-scale habitat measures, to identify opposing preferences between closely related species (cats, genets, and mongooses). We modeled diel activity patterns using kernel density functions and calculated the overlap of activity periods between related species. We also used co-occupancy modeling and activity overlap analyses to test whether African golden cats Caracal aurata influenced the smaller carnivores along the spatial and/or temporal axes. There was some evidence that related species segregated habitat and activity patterns. Specialization was particularly strong among forest species. The cats and genets partitioned habitat, while the mongooses partitioned both habitat and activity period. We found little evidence for interference competition between African golden cats and other small carnivores, although weak interference competition was suggested by lower detection probabilities of some species at stations where African golden cats were present. This suggests that community assembly and coexistence in this ecosystem are primarily driven by more complex processes. The studied carnivore community contains several forest specialists, which are typically more prone to localized extinction. Preserving the observed community assemblage will therefore require the maintenance of a large variety of habitats, with a particular focus on those required by the more specialized carnivores.