Abstract
ABSTRACT The woody plants in an edge area formed approximately 35 years ago in an Atlantic Forest fragment in northeastern Brazil were examined, and three environments defined: edge, intermediate, and interior. Canopy tree densities and basal areas were found to be similar in all three environments, and also similar to previous published studies in the same region; species richness was greatest at the forest edge. The understory showed greater species richness in the forest interior, but greater diversity and equitability in the intermediate environment. Understory environments close to the forest edge demonstrated larger stem diameters than in the forest interior, although at lesser densities and with smaller total basal areas. Our results indicated the existence of distinct patterns in canopy and understory that most likely reflect differences in the response times of these two vegetation layers, with the understory being more sensitive to alterations in environmental structure.
Highlights
Neotropical forests demonstrate exceptional species richness as well as high levels of endemism, but they have been subjected to accentuated destruction and alterations due to human activities since colonial times (Myers et al, 2000)
The increase in basal area in the environments nearest the forest edge occurred as a function of increasing plant densities
Canopy - As the edge environment in the present study had a density (1490-1560 ind./ha) similar to that of the interior site and was, in turn, very similar to the values reported for other general quantitative surveys undertaken in northeastern Brazil using the same basic methodology (Siqueira et al, 2001; Rocha et al, 2008; Silva et al, 2008a, b) – it can be concluded that no edge effect was detectable at the study site
Summary
Neotropical forests demonstrate exceptional species richness as well as high levels of endemism, but they have been subjected to accentuated destruction and alterations due to human activities since colonial times (Myers et al, 2000). These habitat losses have had the direct effect of exposing remnant areas to novel environment conditions, reducing population sizes as well as alterating migration and dispersal patterns that contribute to biodiversity losses (Murcia, 1995; Cadenasso et al, 2003). From the community perspective, Tilman et al (1994) used the term “extinction debt” to refer to situations following habitat loss in which suitable conditions for the survival and/or reproduction of some species no longer exist, they can continue to survive within the community due to lag times in responding to those environment changes
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