Large-scale alteration of nature landscapes has had profound
implications for biological diversity. The single biggest
contributor to the current extinction crisis is the wholesale
destruction of habitats. As habitats are destroyed, formerly
contiguous landscapes become fragmented into smaller patches.
But what exactly the effects of fragmentation are, independent
of habitat destruction, is not always so clear (e.g., Simberloff
2000. What do we really know about fragmentation? Texas Journal
of Science 52: S5-S22). The biological dynamics of forest
fragments project (BDFFP) in the Amazon, was started in 1979 and
created 11 tropical forest patches ranging from 1 to 100 ha in
size. The dynamics of these fragments have been consistently
monitored and compared to plots in intact forest. This
experiment represents the world's largest, longest-running
fragmentation experiment and has told us more about
fragmentation then any other study system. In a recent
publication by William Laurance and many colleagues involved