Increasingly, the influence of landcover (more commonly referred to as the matrix) is being studied w.r.t species diversity and composition of forest patches (or other habitat types of focal interest) embedded in those landscapes. Recently, this was a subject of discussion in one my lab meetings based on the following article:
Conservation biology [0888-8892] Bhagwat yr:2005 vol:19 iss:6 pg:1853 -1862 In brief, the authors were comparing diversity of sacred groves in India (range of patch sizes) at various distances from a large forest reserve. The landscape between the sacred groves and the reserve was predominantly coffee estates with tree cover. The authors found little to weak evidence of either patch size effects or distance from the reserve on mean species richness within the groves. In conclusion, the authors stated that biodiversity within the sacred groves was (positively) influenced by tree cover the matrix. If this study were testing the effect of matrix quality on biodiversity within these patches however, would one not need to include a landscape were the habitat patches (in this case being the sacred groves) were surrounded land-uses without tree cover? This has very important implications for the design of field surveys to assess matrix effects on biodiversity.
