Forest Biomass controls in a hyper-fragmented landscape

Forests have been speedily converted into hyper-fragmented landscapes due to human activities. We aimed to assess the main drivers of the AGWB in different classes of forest fragment size. We expected soil and climate variables to be the main drivers of global biomass, whereas landscape variables were expected to be the main predictors of biomass in small fragments. We found that most of the fragments were 10ha < area < 50ha, and this class contributed the most to the global biomass model. Average of carbon stocks (Mg.ha-1) and of environmental variables varied little among fragment size classes. As the landscape variables, the percentage of native vegetation cover showed greater values in fragments with an area between 50 and 100 hectares. The aboveground woody biomass of smaller classes was relatively more affected by shape, environment, and landscape, whereas larger fragments (> 100ha) were only affected by shape index, slope, and clay. The smaller the fragment, the greater the influence of landscape variables on the aboveground woody biomass. The proper management of these areas is even more important to the Cerrado conservation, as they represent the "last" landscape elements in the vegetation, but still play a vital role in providing ecosystem services.