Roadways can impact mammalian wildlife by dividing and isolating populations, increasing mortality events through vehicle collisions, and altering behavioral patterns. Natural preserves are often used to mitigate the effects of infrastructure, like roads, and to combat the loss of biodiversity. This can lead to an increase in mammal abundance, which can be important in ecosystems where mammals mediate top-down or bottom-up ecological processes. However, this increase in mammal abundance can also exacerbate human-wildlife conflict. It is therefore important to understand how urbanization affects near-urban mammal communities.
Nestled within a highly populated suburb of Phoenix, Arizona and bisected by a major roadway, McDowell Sonoran Preserve protects over 30,000 acres of land. Plans exist to expand this roadway, which cuts across the narrow gooseneck corridor connecting the northern and southern portions of the preserve. To assess mammalian biodiversity, community structure, and corridor connectivity through the northern, gooseneck, and southern regions of the preserve, we deployed 18 camera traps along washes from May 2017 - February 2018. We predicted a significant difference in mean mammal abundance and richness between each region of the study area.
Results/Conclusions:
We found a surprising diversity of wildlife within the gooseneck corridor, and little difference in mean daily abundance between the northern, gooseneck, and southern portions of the preserve. Region also had no statistically significant impact on species richness, nor was the community structure across sites or regions significantly different. Though the majority of the 16 taxa found through our study were recorded in each region, mountain lion were only found in the gooseneck and southern portions of the study. Conversely, skunk were not found in the gooseneck.
With many species utilizing the gooseneck corridor and little difference in abundance across regions, it is possible that species funnel through the gooseneck corridor and cross the major roadway. We expect differences in vegetative cover or proximity to the urban edge might also explain the observed patterns of abundance. Future research will incorporate acoustic ecology data and environmental covariates to ascertain what might drive mammal community structure throughout McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Understanding these relationships will help inform management decisions and mitigation strategies for possible roadway expansions and urban development.