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Assessing Habitat Fragmentation Effects on Primates: The Importance of Evaluating Questions at the Correct Scale

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Primates in Fragments

Part of the book series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects ((DIPR))

Abstract

Forest-dwelling mammals such as primates could be particularly vulnerable to habitat fragmentation; however, the definition and quantification of fragmentation have varied considerably among studies. This has resulted in contradictions and thus results are difficult to interpret and compare. To encourage a consistent and more precise use of the term “habitat fragmentation,” we reviewed 100 fragmentation studies on primates to quantify how fragmentation effects are assessed. We advocate that habitat fragmentation is a landscape-scale process that involves both loss and the breaking apart of habitat. Hence, independently analyzing both effects is necessary to assess the effects of the breaking apart of habitat while controlling for habitat loss (fragmentation per se). This needs to be done through landscape-scale studies (that is, using landscapes as the independent unit of observation); however, fragmentation studies on primates are typically at the single fragment scale, often with a single continuous forest used for comparison. We suggest that primate responses at the fragment scale can vary dramatically in landscapes with different habitat amounts and configurations. In this review we provide clear and consistent terminology to help future studies to accurately assess the effects of fragmentation on primates and to help to form a body of literature where comparisons among studies are possible?

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8839-2_35

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

    Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez & Eddaly Cuesta-del Moral

  2. Red de Biología y Conservación de Vertebrados, Instituto de Ecología A.C., Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Salvador Mandujano

  3. Department of Anthropology, McGill School of Environment, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke St West, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 2T7

    Colin A. Chapman

  4. Investigador Titular A, ECOSUR-Campeche, Avenida Rancho s/n, Poligono 2, Lerma, Campeche, 24500El, Mexico

    Rafael Reyna-Hurtado

  5. Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Canada, K1S 5B6

    Lenore Fahrig

Authors
  1. Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez
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  2. Eddaly Cuesta-del Moral
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  3. Salvador Mandujano
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  4. Colin A. Chapman
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  5. Rafael Reyna-Hurtado
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  6. Lenore Fahrig
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Global Conservation Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

    Laura K. Marsh

  2. Department of Anthropology, McGill School of Environment, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Colin A. Chapman

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Arroyo-Rodríguez, V., Moral, E.Cd., Mandujano, S., Chapman, C.A., Reyna-Hurtado, R., Fahrig, L. (2013). Assessing Habitat Fragmentation Effects on Primates: The Importance of Evaluating Questions at the Correct Scale. In: Marsh, L., Chapman, C. (eds) Primates in Fragments. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8839-2_2

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