Conclusion
Forest habitat loss, fragmentation, and conversion into cropland and exotic pastures have detrimental effects on local diversity whether we consider individual species or entire communities. However, preserving only a few large intact forest patches will not protect all species from extinction. At an entire region, species diversity results mostly from changes in species identity among forest patches, which only occur when multiple forest areas are preserved. In fragmented landscapes, most of the remaining patches are small and individually host a low diversity (Diamond, 1975; Chase et al. , 2020). However, these patches greatly differ in species identity (beta-diversity) and this heterogeneity can compensate for much of the local diversity loss. Collectively, multiple forest fragments can often preserve a disproportionate fraction of species diversity compared to a single continuous forest with the same area (Fahrig, 2003; Lasky & Keitt, 2013; Fahrig et al. , 2019). Although we have not been able to estimate the contribution of unsampled forest remnants or how the processes of colonization and extinction affect regional diversity, our results suggest that preserving several small patches, and consequently the overall beta-diversity, will be highly beneficial to regional diversity.