Animals that evolved in environments subject to large-scale habitat-altering events like fires and storms are better equipped to handle forest fragmentation caused by human development than species in low-disturbance environments, new research shows.
Animals that evolved in environments subject to large-scale habitat-altering events like fires and storms are better equipped to handle forest fragmentation caused by human development than species in low-disturbance environments, new research shows.
Oregon State University scientists led an international collaboration whose work provides an important road map as conservation managers consider the effects of forest edges on wildlife in setting up reserves.
Findings of the study were published today in Science.
“Everyone knows habitat loss is bad for animals, but there’s been a longstanding debate about fragmentation – the arrangement of remaining habitat,” said co-corresponding author Matt Betts, a professor in the OSU College of Forestry and the director of the Forest Biodiversity Research Network. “How do we design wildlife reserves? Do we make many small ones, or fewer big ones, or do we make corridors?”
Read more at Oregon State University
Image: Contiguous forest in Borneo, near the Equator. (Credit: Photo by Matt Betts, OSU College of Forestry)
