The effects of human development, environmental factors, and a major highway on mammalian community composition in the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah, USA

Human development and roads threaten wildlife through distinct mechanisms and understanding the influence of these elements can better inform mitigation and conservation strategies. We used camera traps to quantify the effects of major roads, environmental factors, and human development on the mammalian community composition between sites north and south of a major interstate highway in northern Utah, USA. We found no significant differences in species richness nor community similarity across the north-south divide of the highway. Through Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we compared the effects of the distance to the highway, housing and human population density, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the human footprint index to changes in mammalian community composition and species-specific habitat usage. Community occupancy response, similarity, and species richness were negatively affected by increased housing and human population densities and positively affected by increased NDVI and decreased human footprint, whereas their response to the highway was more inconclusive. We conclude that mammalian community composition in our study area is influenced by both environmental conditions and human development while the effect of the highway was more nuanced, possibly due to the presence of a newly constructed wildlife overpass. Taken together, the lack of differences in species richness or community composition across the highway suggests that it may not currently exacerbate the effects of other anthropogenic sources of habitat fragmentation and highlights the need for additional research into human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies.

Automated summary

Human development and roads have distinct effects on wildlife. Understanding these effects can help inform conservation strategies. We studied the mammalian community composition near a major interstate highway in northern Utah, USA. Our findings suggest that the highway does not significantly affect species richness or community similarity. Factors such as housing and human population density negatively impact mammalian community composition and species richness, while increased NDVI and decreased human footprint have a positive effect.