Abstract
ABSTRACT Forest fragmentation has been intense in the eastern Amazon region, which has negatively affected wildlife populations. The speed of deforestation in this region underscores the urgent need to understand the effects of such changes on populations of endemic species, and to implement measures for ecosystem conservation. We analyzed the extent to which fragmented forests are still connected in the Xingu Area of Endemism, in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, and assigned conservation priority to fragments most important for connectivity maintenance. We structurally classified the Xingu landscape using the Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis and ranked each fragment according to its importance using an Index of Connectivity. Our data revealed important differences in conservation potential across the region. Although most of the study area already receives some degree of protection, future conservation actions should prioritize the connection of habitat fragments to maximize dispersal potential and minimize genetic isolation of biodiversity components. We produced a map of prioritary areas for connectivity maximization. These areas include fragments with large core areas and high-quality fragments that provide connection among habitats which, together, should maintain crucial corridors for gene flow in a biologically-rich region of the Amazon.
Highlights
The conservation of biodiversity in the Amazon is considered an important environmental goal, because its landscape has become increasingly modified since the 1970s (Laurance et al 2002; Nepstad et al 2006)
The Xingu Area of Endemism (XAE), in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, is among the most degraded areas in the region, as it has been under large-scale deforestation pressure
Our results show that a considerable part of remaining forested areas in the XAE already receive some level of protection, there is no protection for a large portion of fragments located in the northern region of the XAE, which provide the highest potential for connectivity for both dispersal distance scenarios (Figure 1)
Summary
The conservation of biodiversity in the Amazon is considered an important environmental goal, because its landscape has become increasingly modified since the 1970s (Laurance et al 2002; Nepstad et al 2006). Many species in the region are not widely distributed, but occur in areas of limited endemism, which, in many cases, makes them unique and irreplaceable (Silva et al 2005). The conservation of these areas is relevant because habitats of endemic species define the smallest and most-basic biogeographic unit on which to construct hypotheses about processes related to biodiversity (Almeida et al 2014). The Xingu Area of Endemism (XAE), in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, is among the most degraded areas in the region, as it has been under large-scale deforestation pressure. Despite the decline in deforestation between 2006 and 2010 (Macedo et al 2012), the XAE remained vulnerable to changes associated with land use (Coe et al 2013), and large-scale forest fragmentation (Alves 2001; Crist et al 2005)
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