Supplementary material from "Rethinking megafauna"
Posted on 2020-02-18 - 14:41
Concern for megafauna is increasing among scientists and non-scientists. Many studies have emphasized that megafauna play prominent ecological roles and provide important ecosystem services to humanity. But, what precisely are ‘megafauna’? Here, we critically assess the concept of megafauna and propose a goal-oriented framework for megafaunal research. First, we review definitions of megafauna and analyse associated terminology in the scientific literature. Second, we conduct a survey among ecologists and palaeontologists to assess the species traits used to identify and define megafauna. Our review indicates that definitions are highly dependent on the study ecosystem and research question, and primarily rely on ad hoc size-related criteria. Our survey suggests that body size is crucial, but not necessarily sufficient, for addressing the different applications of the term megafauna. Thus, after discussing the pros and cons of existing definitions, we propose an additional approach by defining two function-oriented megafaunal concepts: ‘keystone megafauna’ and ‘functional megafauna’, with its variant ‘apex megafauna’. Assessing megafauna from a functional perspective could challenge the perception that there may not be a unifying definition of megafauna that can be applied to all eco-evolutionary narratives. In addition, using functional definitions of megafauna could be especially conducive to cross-disciplinary understanding and cooperation, improvement of conservation policy and practice, and strengthening of public perception. As megafaunal research advances, we encourage scientists to unambiguously define how they use the term ‘megafauna’ and to present the logic underpinning their definition.
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Moleón, Marcos; Sánchez-Zapata, José A.; Donázar, José A.; Revilla, Eloy; Martín-López, Berta; Gutiérrez-Cánovas, Cayetano; et al. (2020). Supplementary material from "Rethinking megafauna". The Royal Society. Collection. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4860798.v1
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AUTHORS (27)
MM
Marcos Moleón
JS
José A. Sánchez-Zapata
JD
José A. Donázar
ER
Eloy Revilla
BM
Berta Martín-López
CG
Cayetano Gutiérrez-Cánovas
WG
Wayne M. Getz
ZM
Zebensui Morales-Reyes
AC
Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz
LC
Larry B. Crowder
MG
Mauro Galetti
MG
Manuela González-Suárez
FH
Fengzhi He
PJ
Pedro Jordano
RL
Rebecca Lewison
RN
Robin Naidoo
NO
Norman Owen-Smith
NS
Nuria Selva
JS
Jens-Christian Svenning
JT
José L. Tella