Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project Search this
Type:
Mixed archival materials
Place:
Manaus (Brazil)
Date:
1979
1979-
Category:
Agency History
Notes:
This is an agency history. It does not describe actual records. The Smithsonian Institution Archives uses these histories as brief accounts of the origin, development, and functions of an office or administrative unit to set that unit in its historical context. To find information on record holdings, please double-click the highlighted field "Creator/Author", which will open on a brief view of relevant records.
Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, http://www.stri.si.edu/english/research/programs/programs_information/biological_dynamics_forest_fragments.php, accessed June 7, 2012.
Tropinet, September 2004, vol. 15, no. 2/3, pp. 1-3.
Studies of Tropical Habitat Fragmentation, http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/bierregaard/tropical.htm, accessed May 8, 2013.
The Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) is the world's largest-scale and longest-running study of habitat fragmentation, operated cooperatively by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the Brazilian Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (National Institute for Amazonian Research or INPA).
The genesis of the project was a response to the scientific debate in the mid-1970s concerning the applicability of island biogreography theory to conservation planning called "SLOSS" (single large or several small reserves of equal area). The project began in 1979 under the name Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems Project in the central Amazon, near the city of Manaus, Brazil. The idea was the creation of Thomas E. Lovejoy of the World Wildlife Fund. Richard O. Bierregaard served as Field Director, 1979-1988, and then directed the project from the Smithsonian Institution Biodiversity Program at the National Museum of Natural History, 1988-1993.
The purpose of BDFFP is to assess the impacts of fragmentation on rainforest animals, plants, and ecological and ecosystem processes. Research in the BDFFP's 1000 square-kilometer study area is conducted by a combination of staff scientists, Brazilian and foreign graduate students, and visiting researchers. In addition to its research mission, the BDFFP sponsors a number of education programs each year for Latin American university students and decision-makers. The BDFFP has produced hundreds of publications or graduate theses and has trained hundreds of Amazonian scientists.
For a history of the larger creating unit, refer to "Forms part of" above.
Repository Loc.:
Smithsonian Institution Archives Capital Gallery, Suite 3000, MRC 507; 600 Maryland Avenue, SW; Washington, DC 20024-2520
