Showing papers by "William F. Laurance published in 1999"
TL;DR: Positive and significant correlations between matrix abundance and vulnerability to fragmentation are exhibited, suggesting that species that avoid the matrix tend to decline or disappear in fragments, while those that tolerate or exploit the matrix often remain stable or increase.
772 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess the pattern and pace of tropical forest destruction in the Americas, Asia, and Africa, and discuss some factors that tend to promote forest conversion in developing countries, and propose that human population pressure, weak government institutions, increasing trade liberalization, and industrial logging are emerging as key drivers of forest destruction.
598 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the above-ground dry biomass of living trees including palms was estimated in 65 1 ha plots spanning a 1000 km 2 landscape in central Amazonia, where the study area was located on heavily weathered, nutrient-poor soils that are widespread in the Amazon region.
399 citations
TL;DR: The results suggest that edge effects in forest fragments are significantly influenced by the structure of surrounding vegetation, and that the capacity of different regrowth forests to buffer edge effects can be predicted from the growth form and stand features of the dominant tree species.
278 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used systematic spotlighting surveys to sample arboreal mammals in 36 linear rainforest remnants in tropical Queensland, Australia, and assessed the effects of corridor width, height, isolation, elevation, and floristic composition on mammals with multiple regression models.
169 citations
95 citations
TL;DR: A “random-clearing model” is devised to predict effects of habitat loss on plant communities and populations in central Amazonia and was effective in all cases, explaining 83–99% of the total variability in species persistence on each plot.
Abstract: We devised a “random-clearing model” to predict effects of habitat loss on plant communities and populations. The model yields the probability that a species will be extirpated by land clearing, based on only two parameters: its density and the percentage of the landscape that has been cleared. It can also be used to predict species richness of plant communities following clearing, so long as densities of individual species are known. We tested the model using data on the distributions of 200 tree species (≥10 cm dbh) within two 9-ha experimental landscapes in central Amazonia. Deforestation levels ranging from 20% to 99% of the landscape were simulated randomly, with the actual persistence of each species being the number of times it remained in the landscape after 1000 runs. The model was effective in all cases, explaining 83–99% of the total variability in species persistence on each plot. Species’ distribution patterns explained some residual variation in persistence but were of negligible importance ...
42 citations
Journal Article•
11 citations
TL;DR: Support was derived from the US National Science Foundation (DEB-9812375), NASA’s Long Term Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (series publication number 256) and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.
9 citations