title: Nestedness in forest mammals is dependent on area but not on matrix type and sample size: an analysis on different fragmented landscapes.
abstract: Nestedness, the pattern in which the species of a species-poor community are a subset of species-rich communities, can provide information regarding species order of extinction, which is vital knowledge for conservation biology. We tested the hypotheses that the nestedness of mammal communities in forest remnants is influenced by sampling effort, mean remnant area, range of remnant areas, matrix type, and presence or absence of forest corridors, and compared the results with multi-taxa reviews. We used 24 published datasets to test this hypothesis and ran simple regressions for each variable. Our results provide evidence that area was the main determinant of nestedness in mammalian communities. We also found a significant effect on the range of areas as measured through area ratio. However we conclude that nestedness is not affected by sample size.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação de Populações, Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundão, CP 68020, CEP 21941-590Rio de JaneiroRJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: J F S
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Menezes
authors.forename: F A S
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Fernandez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D008322:Mammals / Q000145:classification* / Q000196:embryology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011156:Population Density; D011157:Population Dynamics; D018401:Sample Size; D014197:Trees