Study: Human Land Use Significantly Impacts Survival of Small Predatory Animals

20171223

Xinhua News Agency London, January 21 (Reporter Zhang Jiawei) London University College published a study on January 21st saying that humans have destroyed many natural habitats in order to develop agriculture or build towns, which has led to increasingly challenging survival situations for small predatory animals. The related results were published in the latest issue of the British 'Functional Ecology' journal.

The school's scholars led team analyzed more than 100,000 animal counts records from raw forests to intensively cultivated farmland and cities, involving data from over 2.5 million species in more than 80 countries and regions. The research results show that global ecosystems are being restructured, with the number of small predatory animals such as spiders and ladybugs decreasing most notably.

The report's main author, Dr. Tim Neesbold of the school said that different types of animals play different roles in the environment, such as predatory animals help control the population numbers of other animals, if some types of animals decline sharply due to loss of habitat, they also cannot play these important functions.

The team said that understanding how different animal groups are affected by land use changes can help us better understand how these ecosystems function and the consequences of biodiversity changes.