Thesis
FOREST FRAGMENTATION EXPLAINS VARIATION IN PRODUCTIVITY AND DROUGHT REGULATION WITHIN THE LOS TUXTLAS BIOSPHERE RESERVE, MEXICO
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2025
Abstract
Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to forest ecosystems. However, whether fragmentation, independent of forest loss, explains observed variation in key ecosystem functions, such as productivity and drought regulation, remains poorly understood. To address this, we analyzed over 20 years of forest change in the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Mexico, to examine how forest cover and fragmentation affect gross primary productivity and drought regulation. We used long‐term satellite observations of climate, gross primary productivity (GPP), and the normalized difference moisture index (NDMI) to examine how changes in forest configuration influence gross primary productivity and drought regulation. Gross primary productivity represents the total carbon uptake by vegetation, whereas the normalized difference moisture index provides a satellite-based measure of canopy water content and moisture stress. We found that forest cover remained relatively stable during the 20-year period, while fragmentation varied across both time and space. Furthermore, we found that fragmentation explained similar levels of variation for both GPP (18%) and NDMI (17%), although the contributions of landscape- and patch-level fragmentation metrics differed between responses. Landscape-level fragmentation metrics better captured variation in GPP, whereas a combination of landscape and patch-level metrics best explained NDMI. Overall, our results indicate that fragmentation independently shapes variation in GPP and NDMI, beyond what can be explained by forest loss alone. To facilitate extrapolation of fragmentation effects beyond individual study systems and to reconcile contrasting results reported across studies, our results highlight the need to adopt spatiotemporal approaches to better capture fragmentation impacts on ecosystems.
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Details
- Title
- FOREST FRAGMENTATION EXPLAINS VARIATION IN PRODUCTIVITY AND DROUGHT REGULATION WITHIN THE LOS TUXTLAS BIOSPHERE RESERVE, MEXICO
- Creators
- Craig Malone
- Contributors
- Jenny Zambrano (Advisor)Raymond D Evans (Committee Member)Arjan Meddens (Committee Member)John Bishop (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Biological Sciences
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 60
- Identifiers
- 99901393505901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis