Fig 1.
Landscapes observed in three different forest types in the Atlantic Forest domain of southern Brazil.
Location of the three landscapes examined across three different forest types in the Atlantic Forest domain of southern Brazil. Large dark gray polygons represent the three protected areas used as control forests; small black polygons indicate the 10 forest fragments sampled in each landscape. Light gray areas refer to other forest fragments in the region. (a) Seasonal Deciduous Forest, including the Turvo State Park; (b) Araucaria Mixed Forests, including the Mata Preta Ecological Station; and (c) Evergreen or Moist/Ombrophilous Dense Forest, including the Serra do Tabuleiro State Park.
Fig 2.
Relationships between forest patch area and tree species attributes.
Relationships between log10 forest patch area (m²) and (a) tree species richness, (b) percentage of pioneer species, (c) percentage of pioneer stems, and (d) mean wood density (g/cm²) across three forest types of southern Brazil. Data points represent the 0.1-ha plots sampled in small forest fragments and core forest areas of continuous old-growth forest. P-values refer to linear regression models.
Fig 3.
Percentage of tree stem abundance and species richness in relation to seed size classes across the three forest types of southern Brazil.
Average percentage of stems and species in each category of vertebrate-dispersed seeds of different size classes in forest fragments (solid bars) and core areas of continuous old-growth forest (open bars) in three forest types. Numbers above each bar refer to the number of stems (left bars) and species (right bars). Seeds were grouped according to a logarithmic scale of seed size (from 1 to 5), considering their longest linear dimension: < 1 mm; 1–5 mm; 5–10 mm; 10–20 mm; ≥ 20mm.
Table 1.
Tree assemblage attributes (mean ± SD) in 0.1-ha plots located in forest fragments and core old-growth forest sites in the southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome.
Seeds were grouped according to a logarithmic scale of seed size (from 1 to 5), considering their longest linear dimension: < 1 mm; 1–5 mm; 5–10 mm; 10–20 mm; ≥ 20mm.
Table 2.
Generalized linear model results explaining seven assemblage-wide tree species attributes across 60 plots sampled within three Atlantic forest types of southern Brazil.
E = Evergreen forest; A = Araucaria forest; and D = Deciduous forest.
Fig 4.
Bray-Curtis similarity between landscape contexts across the three forest types of southern Brazil.
Bray-Curtis similarity values (mean ± SE) in species composition using abundance data both within and between landscape contexts across three forest types: between core forest plots (C-C); between forest fragment plots (F-F); and between forest fragment and core forest plots (F-C).
Fig 5.
NMDS ordination of forest fragments and core continuous old-growth forest plots in southern Brazil.
Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination of sixty 0.1-ha plots located within forest fragments and core areas of continuous old-growth forest in each of the three forest types.
Fig 6.
Relationship between NMDS ordination scores and the percentage of pioneer stems.
Relationship between the NMDS scores (derived on only one axis) and the percentage of pioneer stems in 0.1-ha plots within forest fragments (red circles) and continuous forests (green triangles) in each of the three forest types. R2 values refer to linear regression models.