Hernández-Ruedas Manuel A, Arroyo-Rodríguez Víctor, Meave Jorge A, Martínez-Ramos Miguel, Ibarra-Manríquez Guillermo, Martínez Esteban, Jamangapé Gilberto, Melo Felipe P L, Santos Bráulio A
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico.
Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico.
PLoS One. 2014 Jun 5;9(6):e98931. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098931. eCollection 2014.
Rainforests are undergoing severe deforestation and fragmentation worldwide. A huge amount of small forest patches are being created, but their value in conserving biodiversity and forest structure is still controversial. Here, we demonstrate that in a species-rich and moderately-managed Mexican tropical landscape small rainforest patches (<100 ha) can be highly valuable for the conservation of tree diversity and forest structure. These patches showed diverse communities of native plants, including endangered species, and a new record for the country. Although the number of logged trees increased in smaller patches, patch size was a poor indicator of basal area, stem density, number of species, genera and families, and community evenness. Cumulative species-area curves indicated that all patches had a similar contribution to the regional species diversity. This idea also was supported by the fact that patches strongly differed in floristic composition (high β-diversity), independently of patch size. Thus, in agreement with the land-sharing approach, our findings support that small forest patches in moderately-managed landscapes should be included in conservation initiatives to maintain landscape heterogeneity, species diversity, and ecosystem services.
热带雨林在全球范围内正经历着严重的森林砍伐和碎片化。大量的小森林斑块正在形成,但其在保护生物多样性和森林结构方面的价值仍存在争议。在此,我们证明,在物种丰富且管理适度的墨西哥热带景观中,小型雨林斑块(<100公顷)对于保护树木多样性和森林结构具有极高的价值。这些斑块呈现出多样的本地植物群落,包括濒危物种,并且创造了该国的一项新纪录。尽管较小斑块中被砍伐树木的数量有所增加,但斑块大小并不能很好地指示基部面积、茎密度、物种数量、属和科的数量以及群落均匀度。累积物种 - 面积曲线表明,所有斑块对区域物种多样性的贡献相似。斑块在植物区系组成上差异很大(高β多样性),且与斑块大小无关,这一事实也支持了这一观点。因此,与土地共享方法一致,我们的研究结果支持,在管理适度的景观中的小型森林斑块应纳入保护倡议,以维持景观异质性、物种多样性和生态系统服务。