Impacts of pastures and forestry plantations on herpetofauna: a global meta-analysis

1.      The establishment of pastures and forestry plantations has increased globally to meet growing demands for meat and wood products. Pasture and plantation expansion often drives deforestation, which causes homogenization of biotic communities and is a major driver of the global extinction crisis. A core question is how the severity of losses varies between pastures and plantations, and in turn, how geographical location and plantation management characteristics moderate these impacts.
2.      Focusing on herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles) as the most endangered vertebrate group, we performed a global synthesis using 41 scientific articles that reported species richness or abundance in pastures and forestry plantations relative to natural forest in 191 case studies among 19 countries.
3.      We found a severe negative effect of pasture and a less negative effect of forestry plantations on species richness and abundance of herpetofauna. Within plantations, species richness and...