Fragmentation drives tropical forest fragments to early successional states: A modelling study for Brazilian Atlantic forests

S. Pütz, J. Groeneveld, L.F. Alves, J.P. Metzger and A. Huth

Ecological Modelling, 2011, vol. 222, issue 12, 1986-1997

Abstract: Land use leads to massive habitat destruction and fragmentation in tropical forests. Despite its global dimensions the effects of fragmentation on ecosystem dynamics are not well understood due to the complexity of the problem. We present a simulation analysis performed by the individual-based model FORMIND. The model was applied to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the world's biodiversity hot spots, at the Plateau of São Paulo. This study investigates the long-term effects of fragmentation processes on structure and dynamics of different sized remnant tropical forest fragments (1–100ha) at community and plant functional type (PFT) level. We disentangle the interplay of single effects of different key fragmentation processes (edge mortality, increased mortality of large trees, local seed loss and external seed rain) using simulation experiments in a full factorial design.

Keywords: Habitat fragmentation; Disentangling fragmentation processes and edge effects; Biodiversity loss; Landscape degradation; Tree species impoverishment; Carbon loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:222:y:2011:i:12:p:1986-1997

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.03.038

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