Are Plant Species’ Richness and Diversity Influenced by Fragmentation at a Microscale?

Abstract

It is argued that forest fragmentation has negative effects on biodiversity at the short and long term; however, these effects might be dependent on the specific vegetation of the study area and its intrinsic characteristics. The processes leading to fragmentation are very diverse and many of them have anthropogenic causes as logging actions and clearings for agricultural fields. Furthermore, it is thought that scale plays an important role in the expected effects of fragmentation on biodiversity. In this study the effect of forest fragmentation and its impact on the woody plants species, richness and diversity are analysed considering three vegetation types in a poorly studied and difficult access biodiversity hotspot in northern Mexico. The results show that the effects of fragmentation are dependent on the vegetation type and that these are not strongly related to the species richness, and diversity in a microscale (100 m 2 ). Fragmentation effects on biodiversity must be analysed in a broad scale, considering the fragment as a whole. Furthermore, conservation priority should be given to the larger fragments, which could potentially maintain a higher portion of biodiversity. Management should also be focused on increasing the connectivity between these big and medium size forest patches.

Appraisal of arid land status: a holistic assessment pertains to bio-physical indicators and ecosystem values

“…We also found a hump-back relationship between these two variables which suggested that with 0.2 to 6.0 bare patch index, richness increase from 5 to 8, but when it ranged 23 to 37, richness decreased and it dropped to 2. The causes of such relationships may vary with habitat and land use; however, most related factors involve grazing intensity, site slope, and soil factors (Maestre 2004 andAguirre-Gutierrez 2014).…”