Regular articles
Special Issues



Caribbean Naturalist
    CANA Home
    Range and Scope
    Board of Editors
    Staff
    Editorial Workflow
    Publication Charges
    Subscriptions

Other EH Journals
    Northeastern Naturalist
    Southeastern Naturalist
    Neotropical Naturalist
    Urban Naturalist
    Prairie Naturalist
    Journal of North American Bat
       Research
    Eastern Paleontologist
    Journal of the North Atlantic
    eBio

Eagle Hill Institute Home

Characterization of the Network of Protected Areas in Puerto Rico

Jessica Castro-Prieto1,*, Maya Quiñones2, and William A. Gould2

1Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, PO Box 23301, San Juan, PR, USA 00931-3301. 2International Institute of Tropical Forestry, US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Río Piedras, 1201 Ceiba Street, San Juan, PR, USA 00926-1119. *Corresponding author.

Caribbean Naturalist, No. 29 (2016)

Abstract
Our goal was to describe the biodiversity and associated landscape diversity and forest cover characteristics within the network of terrestrial protected areas in Puerto Rico. We conducted spatial analysis to quantify different indicators of diversity at these sites. We found that protected areas in Puerto Rico overlap the most species-rich regions on the island, encompass a diverse landscape, are dominated by core forest, and include predicted habitats for 31 threatened vertebrate species analyzed here. However, when we calculated the proportion of the biodiversity features that are actually protected, we concluded that most of them need better representation within protected areas. Other available conservation mechanisms that enhance biodiversity conservation could be employed in addition to expanding the current network of protected areas.

pdf iconDownload Full-text pdf (Accessible only to subscribers. To subscribe click here.)