Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Traits Reduce Functional
Diversity in a Fragmented
Atlantic Forest Landscape
Luciana Coe Girão, Ariadna Valentina Lopes,
Marcelo Tabarelli and Emilio M. Bruna
abstRact
Functional diversity has been postulated to be critical for the maintenance of
ecosystem functioning, but the way it can be disrupted by human-related dis-
turbances remains poorly investigated. Here we test the hypothesis that habi-
tat fragmentation changes the relative contribution of tree species within cat-
egories of reproductive traits (frequency of traits) and reduces the functional
diversity of tree assemblages. The study was carried out in an old and severely
fragmented landscape of the Brazilian Atlantic forest. We used published in-
formation and field observations to obtain the frequency of tree species and
