Edge effects on small mammals within Atlantic Forest

What is it about?

The Atlantic forest is one of the ecosystems most threatened by deforestation globally. When remnant native forest fragments decrease in size, they are exposed to edge effects, which involve environmental and vegetation structure changes on species habitat. In response to these changes, assemblages change not only in their composition and diversity, but also in other facets such as functional and phylogenetic diversity.

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Why is it important?

However, so far there are very few studies on the edge effect on species assemblages (plant or animal) explored from the diversity facets (functional taxonomic and phylogenetic). We found that beyond the size of the remnant native forest patch, species richness and total abundance of small mammals are affected by distance from the edge. We document the "spillover effect" in which native forest edges increase their species richness due to the arrival of generalist and exotic/invasive species. Some of these generalist species, and dominant in the assemblages, also helped to understand changes in phylogenetic diversity. Therefore, native forest edges show an increase in functional and phylogenetic diversity values with respect to the forest interior.

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