Measuring Disturbance in Tropical Forests: A Critique of the Use of Species-Abundance Models and Indicator Measures in General

• Published in: The Journal of applied ecology Vol. 35; no. 3; pp. 467 - 469
• Main Author: Watt, Allan D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.06.1998; Blackwell Science; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biodiversity; Biodiversity conservation; Biological and medical sciences; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Environmental degradation: ecosystems survey and restoration; Forest conservation; Forest ecology; Forests; Forum Papers: Disturbances in Tropical Forest; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Logging; Plantation forestry; Tropical forests; Tropical rain forests; Species diversity; Critical study; Tropical forest; Perturbation; Mathematical model; Indicator; Species richness; Ecological abundance
• ISSN: 0021-8901; 1365-2664
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2664.1998.00312.x

Recent studies advocating the use of species abundance models as indicators of tropical forest disturbance ignore the variety of types, degrees, and scales of forest disturbance that can exist, each of which can have different impacts on species diversity. Such models also do not quantify forest disturbance. There are other simpler, more direct, and more reliable ways of assessing forest disturbance than species abundance models, including visual evidence or local records of logging history. These approaches usually are faster and free of assumptions about disturbance impacts. Rather than focusing on finding an appropriate <">ecological test" of forest disturbance, research should try to quantify the impacts of many forms of disturbance on biodiversity.