Conservation effectiveness of protected areas on the completeness of medium- and large-bodied mammal community in China

<b>Abstract</b>Effectiveness evaluation with quantitative metrics is critical to enhance protected area (PA) performance. Species richness has been widely used, although it is naturally different among ecoregions, making large scale comparison across ecoregions inappropriate. Here, we suggest using the completeness index (CI) and defaunation index (DI) of animal communities as alternative indexes. We compile a camera-trapping dataset consisting of 2,023,952 camera days and 619,432 independent detections of 98 medium- and large-bodied mammals (MLMs) in 115 Chinese nature reserves to calculate their CIs and DIs. Based on these indexes, we provide a list of reserves with high conservation priority and those require restoration efforts. We find that MLM communities are better retained in PAs with higher elevation and lower temperature. PA size, the reduction of human disturbances by PA, and scientific research also contribute to MLM community conservation. Our study provides specific suggestions to improve PA management in China, and demonstrates a new framework to evaluate conservation effectiveness of PAs across ecoregions.<b>Teaser</b>Indexes that quantify the completeness of mammal community provide suggestions to enhance protected area performance.<br><b>Data and code:</b><b>1 code and data file</b>Here is the file list inside the zip fiile:<i>1. input data files:</i>observed_diversity.csv; PA_observed_diversity.csv; reference.csvobserved_functional_diversity.csv; PA_observed_functional_diversity.csvreference_functional.csv; species_traits.csv<i>2. files generated during processes:</i>Beals.csv; dark_diversity.csv; dark_diversity_verified.csv; Beals_functional.csvdark_functional_diversity.csv; dark_functional_diversity_verified.csv; species_pool.csv<i>3. output result files:</i>dark_diversity_verified.xlsx; dark_functional_diversity_verified.xlsx; Defaunation Index.xlsx<b>2 Supplemented Tables</b>Table S1 - S9