Human activities have altered the abundance and distribution of animals, reshaping
ecosystems into novel and generally more depauperate configurations. Whereas …

Defaunation, the loss or population decline of medium and large native vertebrates
represents a significant threat to the biodiversity of tropical ecosystems. Here we review the …

“Empty forests” in which humans have driven large vertebrate species to extinction lack
myriad direct and indirect species interactions. This may alter key ecosystem processes …

The mammalian and avian assemblages of intact tropical forests are among the most
diverse vertebrate communities on Earth and influence the structure, composition, and …

Hunting has reduced or eliminated large-bodied vertebrates in many areas across the
tropics, contributing to the global process of defaunation. Elucidating the ecological …

It has been suggested that tropical defaunation may unleash community-wide cascading
effects, leading to reductions in plant diversity. However, experimental evidence establishing …

Defaunation, driven by hunting and habitat fragmentation, poses a threat to wildlife in
tropical forests worldwide and is expected to have cascading effects on other organisms …

Biodiversity loss can precipitate extinction cascades and impair ecological processes. These
'downstream'effects will be exacerbated if functionally important taxa are tightly linked with …

Preserving large tracts of natural habitats is essential to maintain biodiversity. Nevertheless,
even large areas may still suffer from less “visible” impacts such as loss of ecological …

One of the most intriguing questions in ecology is how to identify which and how many
species will be able to inhabit human-modified landscapes. Large-bodied mammals …