| dc.description.abstract | The expansion and intensification of agricultural lands (i.e., croplands and pasture areas) have become
increasing threats to species diversity around the world. However, genus diversity should be considered for
biodiversity conservation due to the important role that phylogenetic diversity and evolutionary history play
shaping biodiversity patterns, particularly in the Neotropics, the most species-rich realm. Here, we explored
agricultural land effects on distribution patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity at the genus level using cases
from the Neotropics. We compiled distribution data on genera of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles and
explored the effects of agricultural lands on genus diversity distribution patterns for terrestrial vertebrates in the
region using distribution modelling. Geography Weighting Regression (GWR) was used to explore the spatially
variable relationship between agricultural lands and genus diversity. We found that there are significant, non stationary relationships between agricultural lands and genus diversity in the Neotropics. The non-stationary
relationship between croplands and genus diversity was stronger than that between pasture areas and genus
diversity. Furthermore, these effects may depend on changes in genus groups (i.e., amphibians, birds, mammals,
and reptiles) and biomes. The relationship was the strongest for the croplands and reptile diversity pair at the
genus levels. The relationship between both croplands and pasture areas and reptile diversity was the largest in
temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. Given the influence of crop and pasturelands on vertebrate distribution
patterns, we argue that agriculture development should be considered in the spatial prioritization of conservation
for vertebrates in the Neotropics. Agricultural lands should be used as environmental variables for distribution
modelling, and understanding the impacts of agricultural lands on biodiversity is critical for effective conser vation management in the Neotropics | en_US |
