Context: Anthropogenic landscape changes have substantial effects on biodiversity and animal populations worldwide. However, anthropogenic landscape change can take a variety of forms, and its effects on wildlife species can vary by landscape context and scale. It is therefore critical that studies of the effects of anthropogenic landscape change on wildlife consider landscape context and model effects of landscape change at multiple scales. Mesopredators serve as an excellent case study of scale-dependent and even contradictory effects of anthropogenic landscape change, because mesopredator populations can respond both positively and negatively to landscape change depending on its form (e.g. agricultural production, urbanisation) and scale.

Aims: The aim of this study was to model relationships between multiple aspects of anthropogenic landscape change, including agricultural production and the proliferation of non-native shrubs, and relative abundance of three mesopredator species: Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), and raccoon (Procyon lotor).

Methods: We summarised landscape variables at two scales and built both single-scale and multi-scale models linking relative abundance of mesopredators to landscape variables.

Key results: We found that relative abundance of all three species was most related to either the transition from natural areas to agricultural areas (brown-to-green gradient) or the likelihood of presence of non-native shrubs. We also found that responses to anthropogenic landscape change varied by spatial scale; for instance, skunks and raccoons had higher relative abundance in parts of Illinois with more forest cover and agriculture, respectively, but avoided more highly forested and agricultural areas, respectively, at smaller scales.

Conclusions: Mesopredator responses to landscape change were highly variable and scale-dependent, but were generally related to transitions from forest to agriculture or the presence of non-native shrubs.

Implications: Our study demonstrates the need to model effects of anthropogenic landscape change at multiple scales, given the differing results that can be achieved when landscape variables are measured at multiple scales.

背景：人为景观变化对全世界的生物多样性和动物种群产生重大影响。然而，人为景观变化可以采取多种形式，其对野生动物物种的影响可能因景观背景和规模而异。因此，关于人为景观变化对野生动物的影响的研究必须考虑多个尺度的景观背景和景观变化的模型影响。中捕食者是研究人为景观变化的规模依赖性甚至矛盾效应的绝佳案例，因为中捕食者种群可以根据其形式（例如农业生产、城市化）和规模对景观变化做出积极和消极的反应。

目的：本研究的目的是模拟人为景观变化的多个方面之间的关系，包括农业生产和非本地灌木的增殖，以及三种中捕食者物种的相对丰度：弗吉尼亚负鼠（Didelphis virginiana）、条纹臭鼬（ Mephitis ）恶毒）和浣熊（Procyon lotor）。

方法：我们总结了两个尺度的景观变量，并建立了将中捕食者的相对丰度与景观变量联系起来的单尺度和多尺度模型。

主要结果：我们发现所有三个物种的相对丰度与从自然区域到农业区域的过渡（棕色到绿色梯度）或非本地灌木存在的可能性最相关。我们还发现，对人为景观变化的反应因空间尺度而异。例如，臭鼬和浣熊在伊利诺伊州森林覆盖率较高和农业较多的部分地区分别拥有较高的相对丰度，但在较小的范围内分别避开了森林覆盖率较高的地区和农业地区。

结论：中捕食者对景观变化的反应具有很大的可变性和规模依赖性，但通常与从森林到农业的转变或非本地灌木的存在有关。

意义：我们的研究表明，考虑到在多个尺度上测量景观变量时可以获得的不同结果，需要在多个尺度上模拟人为景观变化的影响。