In central Amazonia, the research team is conducting the world's largest (1000 km2) and longest-running (23 yr) experimental study of habitat fragmentation, with an emphasis on tree communities. Trees define the physical structure of the rainforest, play critical roles in ecosystem processes, and interact with myriad other species. Hence, the fate of trees has a profound influence on the ecology of fragmented forests. Since the early 1980s the team has followed the fates of nearly 60,000 large trees (greater than 10-cm diameter) within a network of 1-ha census plots in fragmented and intact forest. The team will census small trees and saplings within a strategic subset of the plots, as well as re-census the large trees within all 69 plots. These data will be used to test important hypotheses concerning the nature and mechanistic basis of ecological change in fragmented forests.
Over the past decade, rates of forest loss and fragmentation have accelerated dramatically in the Amazon, and massive new highways and infrastructure projects are now penetrating deep into the heart of the basin. Results from this project will have direct applications for landscape-management strategies, for the design of protected-area systems, for ecological-zoning initiatives, and for ongoing efforts to project the future conditions of Amazonian forests.
