Forest edge effects push drier, windier microclimates deep into remnant patches
At a newly cut forest edge, sunlight and wind invade the understory, humidity drops, and temperatures swing harder than in deep interior shade. That altered belt can extend tens of meters inward.
Shade-loving plants, amphibians, and nest predators respond differently along the gradient, so a small fragment may be almost all edge and almost no true core habitat.
A line on a satellite map is not a soft border. Edge effects rewrite the climate of what looks like remaining forest before a single extra tree is felled.
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