Indirect effects of habitat loss via habitat fragmentation: A cross-taxa analysis of forest-dependent species
File(s)
Supporting information
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that habitat amount is the main determinant of species richness, whereas habitat fragmentation has weak and mostly positive effects. Here, we challenge these ideas using a multi-taxa database including 2230 estimates of forest-dependent species richness from 1097 sampling sites across the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot. We used a structural equation modeling approach, accounting not only for direct effects of habitat loss, but also for its indirect effects (via habitat fragmentation), on the richness of forest-dependent species. We reveal that in addition to the effects of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation has negative impacts on animal species richness at intermediate (30–60%) levels of habitat amount, and on richness of plants at high (>60%) levels of habitat amount, both of which are mediated by edge effects. Based on these results, we argue that dismissing habitat fragmentation as a powerful force driving species extinction in tropical forest landscapes is premature and unsafe.
Date Issued
2020-01
Date Acceptance
2019-11-25
Citation
Biological Conservation, 2020, 241, pp.1-10
ISSN
0006-3207
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
1
End Page
10
Journal / Book Title
Biological Conservation
Volume
241
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719307402?via%3Dihub
Subjects
05 Environmental Sciences
06 Biological Sciences
07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
Ecology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
108368
Date Publish Online
2019-12-19