Rainforest Fragmentation and its Impacts on Amazonian Tree Communities

在亚马孙中部，研究小组正在进行世界上最大(1000平方公里)和运行时间最长(23年)的栖息地碎片化实验研究，重点是树木群落。树木定义了雨林的物理结构，在生态系统过程中发挥着关键作用，并与无数其他物种相互作用。因此，树木的命运对碎片化森林的生态有着深远的影响。自20世纪80年代初以来，该小组跟踪调查了近60,000棵大树(直径大于10厘米)的命运，这些树木分布在零散和完整的森林中，面积为1公顷。该小组将对地块战略子集内的小树和树苗进行普查，并对所有69块地块内的大树进行重新普查。这些数据将被用来检验有关零碎森林生态变化的性质和机制基础的重要假设。在过去的十年里，亚马逊森林的损失和碎片化速度急剧加快，大规模的新公路和基础设施项目现在正在深入盆地的心脏地带。该项目的成果将直接应用于景观管理战略、保护区系统的设计、生态分区倡议以及预测亚马逊森林未来状况的持续努力。

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.