1 Abstract
Protected areas are central to meeting biodiversity conservation goals, but measuring their effectiveness is challenging. We address this challenge by using DNA from leech-ingested bloodmeals to estimate vertebrate occupancies across the 677 km2 Ailaoshan reserve in Yunnan, China. 163 park rangers collected 30,468 leeches from 172 patrol areas. We identified 86 vertebrate species, including amphibians, mammals, birds, and squamates. Multi-species occupancy modelling showed that species richness increased with elevation and distance to reserve edge, including the distributions of most of the large mammals (e.g. sambar, black bear, serow, tufted deer). The exceptions were the three domestic mammal species (cows, sheep, goats) and muntjak deer, which were more common at lower elevations. eDNA-estimated vertebrate occupancies are Granular, Repeatable, Auditable, Direct, Efficient, and Simple-to-understand measures that can be used to assess conservation effectiveness and thus to improve the contributions that protected areas make to achieving global biodiversity goals.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Revised occupancy modelling and corresponding figures, including the addition of a metacommunity analysis to better estimate total species richness of vertebrates. Removed Bayesian variable selection to compensate for increased model complexity. Revised introduction and discussion to connect more directly to policy on area-based conservation and the need for outcome-based measures of effectiveness.
https://github.com/dougwyu/screenforbio-mbc-ailaoshan/releases/tag/1.3
