How much humanized is humans’ impact on wildlife? Distinguishing anthropic effects on wildlife

Summary

Humans have occupied or affected with their activities all ecosystems across the Planet. The current plans to exponentially expand the road network at the global level, the increasing continuum between areas occupied by humans and previously untouched habitats, and climate change are dramatic threats that require to deepen our understanding of humans' impact on wildlife use of habitat and resources. By considering several regional or global study cases, including the Anthropause due to COVID-19 lockdowns, I will suggest a niche-based interpretation of the human-wildlife relationship. Finally, I will present recently emerged global initiatives that address the abovementioned threats, using a bottom-up, collaborative scientific approach to increase knowledge and propose solutions regarding an ever thinning-up human-wildlife interface.

Recent publications:

1 Ross, J. G. B., Peters, W., Ossi, F., Moorcroft, P. R., Cordano, E., Eccel, E., ... & Cagnacci, F. (2021). Climate change and anthropogenic food manipulation interact in shifting the distribution of a large herbivore at its altitudinal range limit. Scientific reports, 11(1), 1-12.

2 Corradini, A., Randles, M., Pedrotti, L., van Loon, E., Passoni, G., Oberosler, V., ... & Cagnacci, F. (2021). Effects of cumulated outdoor activity on wildlife habitat use. Biological Conservation, 253, 108818.

3 Rutz, C., Loretto, M. C., Bates, A. E., Davidson, S. C., Duarte, C. M., Jetz, W., ... & Cagnacci, F. (2020). COVID-19 lockdown allows researchers to quantify the effects of human activity on wildlife. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4(9), 1156-1159.

4 Tucker, M. A., Böhning-Gaese, K., Fagan, W. F., Fryxell, J. M., Van Moorter, B., Alberts, S. C., ... Cagnacci, F., … & Mueller, T. (2018). Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements. Science, 359(6374), 466-469.