The Edge of the Cut: Implications for Wildlife Populations

he meeting of forest and field is an ecotone--the juxtaposition of two structurally and compositionally different ecosystems. Ecotones exist at several spatial scales, ranging from local-scale edges between patches of different habitat o continental-scale transitions between major biomes. The transitions between adjacent ecosystems may be gradual or abrupt. So-called inherent edges occur as a result of a variety of natural phenomena; induced edges are created by human activities (Thomas 1979). Our focus will be on the abrupt, local edges of anthropogenic origin, especially the forest edges created by some forest management practices. Such forest edges generate complex interactions between species and communities associated with the adjacent ecosystems, usually a forest stand and an adjacent cleared area. These interspecific interactions can affect the characteristics of local wildlife populations in the vicinity of the forest edge, and the summed impacts over a landscape can affect he characteristics of an entire regional population. Ecologists seeking to better understand the effects of forest edges on wildlife species have often studied