We tested the hypothesis that endemic bird species of the Brazilian Atlantic forest are more sensitive to forest fragmentation than non-endemics in a fragmented landscape in northern Paraná state of southern Brazil. Levels of sensitivity (high, medium, and low) were previously determined in the landscape based on the occurrences of bird species in 14 forest fragments. We evaluated 112 forest bi...

Environmental heterogeneity affects not only the distribution of a species but also its local abundance. High heterogeneity due to habitat alteration and fragmentation can influence the realized niche of a species, lowering habitat suitability as well as reducing local abundance. We investigate whether a relationship exists between habitat suitability and abundance and whether both are affected...

Determining the impact of forest disturbance and fragmentation on tropical biotas is a central goal of conservation biology. Among tropical forest birds, understory insectivores are particularly sensitive to habitat disturbance and fragmentation, despite their relatively small sizes and freedom from hunting pressure. Why these birds are especially vulnerable to fragmentation is not known. Our d...

It is important to understand the relative effects of landscape habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and matrix quality on biodiversity, so that potential management options can be appropriately ranked. However, their effects and relative importance may change with the size of the landscape considered because the multiple (and potentially conflicting) ecological processes that are influenced by...

Much of the world's boreal forest occurs on permafrost (perennially cryotic ground). As such, changes in permafrost conditions have implications for forest function and, within the zone of discontinuous permafrost (30-80% permafrost in areal extent), distribution. Here, forested peat plateaus underlain by permafrost are elevated above the surrounding permafrost-free wetlands; as permafrost thaw...

The context in which a forest exists strongly influences its function and sustainability. Unveiling the multi-scale nature of forest fragmentation context is crucial to understand how human activities affect the spatial patterns of forests across a range of scales. However, this issue remains almost unexplored in subtropical ecosystems. In this study, we analyzed temporal changes (1979-2010) in...

BACKGROUND The organization of networks of interacting species, such as plants and animals engaged in mutualisms, strongly influences the ecology and evolution of partner communities. Habitat fragmentation is a globally pervasive form of spatial heterogeneity that could profoundly impact the structure of mutualist networks. This is particularly true for biodiversity-rich tropical ecosystems, wh...

Habitat loss and attendant fragmentation threaten the existence of many species. Conserving these species requires a straightforward and objective method that quantifies how these factors affect their survival. Therefore, we compared a variety of metrics that assess habitat fragmentation in bird ranges, using the geographical ranges of 127 forest endemic passerine birds inhabiting the Atlantic ...