Distribution of woodland species in farmland woods.
Abstract
Data on the spatial distribution of 111 taxa including trees, herbaceous plants, 4 species of squirrel and 10 invertebrate taxa were obtained from 4 types of mixed deciduous forest dominated by Acer saccharum in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region of Canada. These were: extensive continuous forest; 15 small (1-25 ha) remnants in farmland; a 50-ha little-disturbed forest reserve; and a 50-ha virgin stand contiguous with a much larger area of forest. The distribution of plant and animal taxa showed no consistent response to forest fragmentation - fewer than 10% of taxa were distributed according to the predictions of island biogeographic theory and it is concluded that the forest remnants studied do not operate as biogeographic islands.