Compound Ecoclimatic Events: The Long‐Term Recovery of Conservation‐Priority Mammals After an Extreme Ice Storm Event Was Promoted by the Alleviation of Poaching

Abstract

Extreme climatic perturbations are becoming increasingly frequent, with substantial and long‐lasting legacy effects on biodiversity and ecosystems that may be compounded by human pressures such as illegal hunting. It is therefore vital to develop a better understanding of how best to manage and enhance ecosystem recovery. Using 15 years of data (2005–2019) from subtropical China, we investigated how an extreme ice storm event (2008) degraded mammal communities and how recovery was enhanced by subsequent anti‐poaching enforcement (2012). Prior to the storm, communities were temporally stable, with a diversity of conservation‐priority species in primary forests, while less protected species dominated degraded forests. Overall, the storm caused a 35% loss in species richness and abundance, with a 50% decline in conservation‐priority species, all of which were obligate herbivores. Community properties in degraded forests recovered much more slowly than those in primary forests. Mammal communities did not regain dynamic stability when they reached their pre‐storm levels; instead, legal enforcement in 2012 caused a shift toward a greater proportion of conservation‐priority species, especially in degraded habitats, indicating that long‐term reductions in abundance and species richness among conservation‐priority mammal species were exacerbated by illegal poaching after this extreme storm event. These findings highlight that adaptive restoration management following extreme climatic events is essential for directing recovery trajectories toward achieving conservation and biodiversity targets, particularly for conservation‐priority species, and especially in areas most vulnerable to human disturbance.

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