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Science 12 January 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5809, pp. 238 - 241
DOI: 10.1126/science.1133097
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Reports

A Large-Scale Deforestation Experiment: Effects of Patch Area and Isolation on Amazon Birds

Gonçalo Ferraz,1* James D. Nichols,2 James E. Hines,2 Philip C. Stouffer,1,3 Richard O. Bierregaard, Jr.,1,4 Thomas E. Lovejoy1,5

As compared with extensive contiguous areas, small isolated habitat patches lack many species. Some species disappear after isolation; others are rarely found in any small patch, regardless of isolation. We used a 13-year data set of bird captures from a large landscape-manipulation experiment in a Brazilian Amazon forest to model the extinction-colonization dynamics of 55 species and tested basic predictions of island biogeography and metapopulation theory. From our models, we derived two metrics of species vulnerability to changes in isolation and patch area. We found a strong effect of area and a variable effect of isolation on the predicted patch occupancy by birds.

1 Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, 69011 Manaus AM, Brazil.
2 Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD 20708, USA.
3 School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University (LSU) and LSU AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
4 Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
5 The H. John Heinz III Center for Science Economics and the Environment, Washington, DC 20004, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gferraz{at}inpa.gov.br

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