Differential effect of agricultural matrices on bamboo abundance in forest fragments

Bamboos, abundant in tropical forests, have high potential to dominate disturbed areas due to their high vegetative growth rate and preference for disturbed habitats. However, there are no studies exploring the influence of forest patch characteristics and anthropogenic land-use on bamboo populations. We investigated the influence of landscape matrix characteristics on the abundance of two bamboo taxa (Merostachys sp. and Parodiolyra micrantha) across two different spatial scales: 600 m (113 ha) and 1000 m (314 ha). We sampled the edge of 15 forest fragments (from 20.3 to 116.5 ha) in a highly disturbed landscape in Alfenas, Brasil. Only P. micrantha abundance was influenced by landscape metrics: positively by the percentage of sugarcane and coffee plantations around a forest fragment at 600 m, and negatively by the percentage of pasture at 1000 m. We suggest that cattle presence and/or the edge effect intensified by the adjacent pasture matrices could explain the negative effect of pasture, and that the disturbance caused by sugarcane and coffee plantations might explain the positive influence on P. micrantha abundance, a generalist and competitive understory species. Our results could help decision makers in their attempts to control bamboo populations and manage the landscape around forest fragments.