Consequences of habitat loss for tropical trees: an integrative perspective

Land-use change presents major threats to biodiversity with impacts that typically outpace those from climate change.

Although the full impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation are often cryptic or delayed, they can elevate extinction risk and reduce the potential for species to adapt to future environmental change.

Developing successful strategies to manage and mitigate the consequences of land-use change on biodiversity is thus a pressing need at regional, national, and international levels.The overarching aim of this proposal is to better understand how land-use dynamics have affected the current geographic distributions, population sizes, and genetic diversity of tropical trees.

The work will be conducted on the island of Puerto Rico, which represents an ideal case study because of its well-documented land-use history, high level of biodiversity, extensive amount of existing data, and superb research infrastructure.The project will:Quantify the impacts of land-use change on habitat availability over timeDetermine relationships between land-use change and current abundanceCharacterize genetic signatures of land-use change for tropical tree species with divergent life-history strategies and climatic preferences.Overall, the proposed work will increase our understanding of the ecological implications of past and future land-use change, thereby promoting the development of effective conservation and management strategies.