Blog #7


Title: Biodiversity in Forest Fragments Proves Precarious
Author: Dennis Normile
Date: 26 September 2013
Source: Science Magazine
URL: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/09/biodiversity-forest-fragments-proves-precarious

Deforestation is accelerating in many parts of the world, which is also hurting the biodiversity of the ecosystem. In Southern Thailand, the filling of the Chiew Larn Reservoir created an ample opportunity to study the effects of sudden isolation on small mammal communities because of the creation of more than 100 islands. A team went in the early 1990's to survey small mammals on 12 of the islands. After 5-7 years, they found the three biggest islands home to a larger range of species than that of the small islands. In 2012 and 2013, a team revisited those islands and found extreme decline in biodiversity, but a expansion in field rat populations, which is not normally found in the forest but likely migrated there. The researchers credit the rat and fragmentation to the loss of species. This case shows that these small fragments of important habitat should be conserved and the biodiversity saved.

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