Conclusion
Forest habitat loss, fragmentation, and conversion into cropland and
exotic pastures have detrimental effects on local diversity whether we
consider individual species or entire communities. However, preserving
only a few large intact forest patches will not protect all species from
extinction. At an entire region, species diversity results mostly from
changes in species identity among forest patches, which only occur when
multiple forest areas are preserved. In fragmented landscapes, most of
the remaining patches are small and individually host a low diversity
(Diamond, 1975; Chase et al. , 2020). However, these patches
greatly differ in species identity (beta-diversity) and this
heterogeneity can compensate for much of the local diversity loss.
Collectively, multiple forest fragments can often preserve a
disproportionate fraction of species diversity compared to a single
continuous forest with the same area (Fahrig, 2003; Lasky & Keitt,
2013; Fahrig et al. , 2019). Although we have not been able to
estimate the contribution of unsampled forest remnants or how the
processes of colonization and extinction affect regional diversity, our
results suggest that preserving several small patches, and consequently
the overall beta-diversity, will be highly beneficial to regional
diversity.