Biodiversity Loss and Conservation in Fragmented Forest Landscapes: The Forests of Montane Mexico and Temperate South America

Biodiversity Loss and Conservation in Fragmented Forest Landscapes: The Forests of Montane Mexico and Temperate South America

Edited by A C Newton, Bournmouth University, UK

Pub Date: October 2007
Hardback
416 pages
Main Description
Increasing concern surrounding the loss of natural forests and the decline in biodiversity has lead to a rise in research and policy initiatives in recent years. However, interest has focused primarily on lowland tropical rainforests. Tropical montane and temperate rainforests, which face similar pressures from human activities and play major roles in the livelihood of rural communities, are often ignored.

Biodiversity Loss and Conservation in Fragmented Forest Landscapes is the product of over ten years of intensive field research into the changing montane and temperate rainforests of Mexico and South America. By concentrating on these largely overlooked environments, the studies reported allow for comparative analysis across areas and help identify how human disturbance has impacted the biodiversity of all forest types. Chapters incorporate features of landscape ecology, floristic biodiversity, conservation and policy and vary from in-depth investigations of a single study area to integrated examinations across regions.

Main Contents
• Spatial and temporal patterns of forest loss and fragmentation in Mexico and Chile
• Plant diversity in highly fragmented forest landscapes in Mexico and Chile: implications for conservation
• Fragmentation and edge effects on plant-animal interactions, ecological processes and biodiversity
• Habitat fragmentation and reproductive ecology of Embothrium coccineum, Eucryphia cordifolia and Aextoxicon punctatum in southern temperate rainforests
• Patterns of genetic variation in tree species and their implications for conservation
• Secondary succession under a slash-and-burn regime in a tropical montane cloud forest: soil and vegetation characteristics
• The impact of logging and secondary succession on the below-ground system of a cloud forest in Mexico
• Applying succession models to the conservation of tropical montane forest
• Models of regional and local stand composition and dynamics of pine-oak forests in the Central Highlands of Chiapas (Mexico): theoretical and management implications
• Process-based modelling of regeneration dynamics and sustainable use in species-rich rain forests
• Testing forest biodiversity indicators by assessing anthropogenic impacts along disturbance gradients
• Fire challenges to conserving tropical ecosystems: the case study of Chiapas
• Identification of priority areas for conservation in South Central Chile
• Restoration of forest ecosystems in fragmented landscapes of temperate and montane tropical Latin America
• Future scenarios for tropical montane and south temperate forest biodiversity in Latin America

Readership
Policy-makers, researchers and students in forest management, ecology, and environmental sciences