{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.028153879217709003, 'fraction_numerical': 0.016763378465506126, 'mean_word_length': 5.255376344086022, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Trophic drivers of species loss from fragments

Fragments are not simply small forests; rather, through time, edge effects, changes in faunal composition and the many synergistic disturbances that follow on the heels of deforestation and increased access, all act together to transform fragments into entirely new ecosystems in which both the abiotic and biotic environments are greatly distorted (Laurance & Bierregaard Jr, 1997; Terborgh et al., 2001; Laurance et al., 2002). These changes are rarely desirable and instead leave us with patches of forest that are impoverished shadows of their former selves. Given the extreme pace at which tropical forests are being fragmented it is imperative that we not only document, but also understand the underlying causes of, these changes. Over the past three decades great headway has been made towards understanding some of the consequences of fragmentation (Debinski & Holt, 2000), particularity from studies of the experimental rainforest fragments created near Manaus, Brazil, as part of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP). Detailed studies of these fragments have helped revel how the creation of unnatural edges that invariably accompanies fragmentation leads to drastic changes in temperature, moisture, wind, light and other components of the abiotic environment (Laurance et al., 2002). These edge effects are often caused by, and in turn can cause, changes in the structure, dynamics and composition of the plant community (e.g. Leigh et al., 1993; Laurance et al., 1998, 2006). Likewise, studies from the BDFFP and elsewhere have documented significant changes in the composition and diversity of the faunal community (e.g. Adler & Seamon, 1991; Sodhi et al., 2006). But all too often the crucial link between these various sets of results has gone unexplored. What impacts do changes in the animal communities have on the plants and the abiotic environment, and conversely what impacts do changes in the plant community or the abiotic environment have on the animals? Trying to answer these questions and understand how distorted trophic relationships regulate diversity and composition in fragmented ecosystems were some of the principal factors motivating our research at Lago Guri, Venezuela, over the past decade. In many ways Lago Guri is a model fragmentation system and offers several distinct advantages over other sites, including the BDFF (Diamond, 2001). At Lago Guri we had access to a large number of fragments that were all created simultaneously by a single known disturbance event. And because in this case the fragments are in fact islands, the surrounding matrix (water) is homogenous and an almost impermeable barrier to most species. Most of the 11 islands we studied were separated by several kilometers of open water from the mainland. For all practical purposes the Guri islands can be considered ‘closed’ ecosystems (Terborgh & Feeley, 2008) as supported by earlier work in which we showed large effects of area but no detectable effects of isolation on patterns of relaxation in the avifaunal communities (Terborgh, Lopez & Tello, 1997b; Feeley, 2003). This advantageous combination of characteristics allowed us to accurately document the exact identity and abundance of the plants and animals persisting on the recently isolated islands, as well as the complex interactions between species. As both Laurence and Sherry correctly point out, the uniqueness of the Lago Guri experiment, while critical to the design and success of our research, also raises the question that some of our findings may not be applicable to other, more typical, fragmentation systems such as mainland forest patches embedded in a matrix of pasture or secondary forest (Laurance, 2008; Sherry, 2008). Unfortunately, this question has no simple answer because the situations encountered in mainland systems are typically less controlled and even more complex and variable than those in the island fragments of Lago Guri. In mainland systems, animals may cross the matrix freely and move between fragments undetected, resident animals may emigrate before achieving hyper-densities, and synergistic human disturbances such as hunting and fires will be of heightened frequency and importance, all of which will influence the presence and/or abundance of species within fragments (Peres, 2001; Wright & Duber, 2001). Studies of mainland fragments have rarely controlled for these factors, making comparisons of mainland studies with ours, or even inter se, tricky (Debinski & Holt, 2000). Nevertheless, our results offer some general principles that should hold true even