Abstract
Effects of fragmentation on biodiversity have received much attention in recent decades, as fragmentation can greatly reduce viable areas for living organisms. We studied its effect on Thamnophilus stictocephalus (Thamnophilidae), an understory bird, in semideciduous forest fragments in Alter-do-Chão, Santarém, Pará. We tested whether the density of Thamnophilus stictocephalus was a function of fragment size and shape, density of vegetation, or arthropod biomass. Density of Thamnophilus was positively related to fragment size, but not to the other factors analyzed. Arthropod biomass was positively related to fragment size. The density of T. stictocephalus in fragments was significantly higher than it was in continuous forest. Fragmentation processes had a pronounced effect on the relative density of T. stictocephalus.
Highlights
Effects of forest fragmentation on biodiversity have been the focus of much research in recent decades
We investigated the extent to which relative density of Thamnophilus stictocephalus varied with fragment size and shape, vegetation density, and prey availability in Alter-do-Chão, Pará, and whether density varies between fragments and continuous forest
Arthropod biomass was positively related to fragment size (R2 = 0.696; n = 17; p = 0.001) (Appendix 2, Fig. 2), being excluded from posterior analysis
Summary
Effects of forest fragmentation on biodiversity have been the focus of much research in recent decades. Fragmentation is thought to reduce and isolate populations of living organisms, leading to extinctions as population size is reduced (Metzger, 1999); in some cases, part of the biodiversity of a forest can be conserved for decades in small fragments (Turner & Corlett, 1996). Richness of some groups, such as frogs (Tocher, 1996) and small mammals (Malcolm, 1991) in central Amazonia increased in fragments. Other groups such as hummingbirds in central Amazonia (Stouffer & Bierregaard, 1995a) and frugivorous pigeons in Australia (Date et al, 1991) did not suffer significant alteration in richness with fragmentation
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