connectivity in rainforest ecosystems

Connect to Survive: Enhancing biodiversity on Agroecosystems by creating connectivity
Nicolas Davalos

The effect of agricultural intensification and expansion destroy native habitat, creating a serious threat for biodiversity. The destruction of native habitat is currently underway and must be effectively controlled. In order to conserve this biodiversity, it is common practice todesignate limits between agriculture landscape and protected areas, ending by fragmenting natural habitat into patches within the agricultural matrix. This disintegration of natural landscape inevitably creates regional extinctions if interfragment connectivity is not enhanced. (Vandermeer, Perfecto) Therefore, management of the agricultural matrix landscape and practices must be changed in order toconsider connectivity as a method to maintain biodiversity. It is imperative to understand that converted land is not “destroyed” in an ecological sense and, if considered in a larger conservation scale, the agricultural landscape still creates the opportunity for biodiversity. By having limited ecological scales, the options of including agriculture into the conservation focus are notconsidered, creating a distinct division in land use between production and conservation. This increases intensification in agricultural landscapes and fragmentation of natural habitats. By encompassing a larger scale it is possible to mitigate the effects of native habitat fragmentation by including the agricultural matrix as a possible connectivity medium between fragments. Scale brings context andrelevance to every issue and it must be taken into consideration in order to design an appropriate solution.
Despite the importance of biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for humans, the loss of biodiversity due to anthropogenic causes is greater than ever. The species loss rate is approximately 1000 times faster than the natural rate of species lost. (http://english.mep.gov.cn, Secretariat) Thebiggest driver of biodiversity loss in the last fifty years has been habitat conversion from natural landscapes to agriculture. (http://english.mep.gov.cn, Secretariat) Effects correlated to agriculture expansion and intensification have already been observed in agricultural systems around the world. An example of the immense impact that agriculture can have on biodiversity can be clearly observedwith the agricultural expansion in south eastern Brazil. This area was covered by the Atlantic rain forest, also known as the “Mata Atlantica” which covered 1.35 million kilometres and is considered in the top five native habitats with the highest endemism in the world. (http://environment, Morell) Now the Mata Atlantica is considered to be over 90% destroyed, making it one of the most threatenedhabitats of the world. (Vandermeer, Perfecto) In this region which used to be forest now lives more than 70% of Brazil’s population, on cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. This has transformed a unique forest into cities, mines, and agricultural fields of sugarcane, coffee, cacao, pasture and eucalyptus. (http://environment, Morell) The development of Brazil’s agriculture has fragmented thenative habitat to such extent that almost all the total area of the remaining forest (15%) consists of small fragments of forest spread in between fields (28,240 fragments less than 1 ha were counted, with the exception of state parks). (Vandermeer, Perfecto) Most of the agricultural matrix in this region consists of pasture and coffee plantations both of which are poor in enhancing migrationbetween native patches due to their lack of native vegetation and trees. (Vandermeer, Perfecto) Yet within these fragments of forest many of the unique species of the Mata Atlantica have survived. Scientists focus on patch-scale study in order to identify the issues related to habitat fragmentation on local flora and fauna species. The study determines the causes of the extinction related...