Assessing habitat fragmentation effects on primates: the importance of evaluating questions at the correct scale

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Forest-dwelling mammals such as primates could be particularly vulnerable to habitat fragmentation; however, the definition and quantification of fragmentation have varied considerably among studies. This has resulted in contradictions and thus results are difficult to interpret and compare. To encourage a consistent and more precise use of the term "habitat fragmentation," we reviewed 100 fragmentation studies on primates to quantify how fragmentation effects are assessed. We advocate that habitat fragmentation is a landscape-scale process that involves both loss and the breaking apart of habitat. Hence, independently analyzing both effects is necessary to assess the effects of the breaking apart of habitat while controlling for habitat loss (fragmentation per se). This needs to be done through landscape- scale studies (that is, using landscapes as the independent unit of observation); however, fragmentation studies on primates are typically at the single fragment scale, often with a single continuous forest used for comparison. We suggest that primate responses at the fragment scale can vary dramatically in landscapes with different habitat amounts and confi gurations. In this review we provide clear and consistent terminology to help future studies to accurately assess the effects of fragmentation on primates and to help to form a body of literature where comparisons among studies are possible?. eng

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