Forest Ecology and Management 482 (2021) 118842 0378-1127/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Edge effects in forest patches surrounded by native grassland are also dependent on patch size and shape Lucas Deziderio Santana a, * , Jamir A. Prado-Junior b , Jos´ e Hugo C. Ribeiro c , Miriana Araújo S. Ribeiro d , Kelly Marianne G. Pereira e , Kelly Antunes f , Fabrício Alvim Carvalho f , Eduardo van den Berg e a Department of Forest Sciences, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Minas Gerais State Zip Code 37200-900, Brazil b Institute of Biology, Federal University of Uberlandia, Uberlˆ andia, Minas Gerais State Zip Code 38400-902, Brazil c Federal Institute of Southeast Minas Gerais, Muria´ e, Minas Gerais State Zip Code 36884-036, Brazil d Department of Forest Engineering, Federal University of the Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valley, Diamantina, Minas Gerais State Zip Code: 39100-000, Brazil e Department of Ecology and Conservation, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Minas Gerais State Zip Code 37200-900, Brazil f Department of Botany, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais State Zipe Code 36036-900, Brazil A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Edge-interior transition Natural edge Sharp ecotone Soil variables ABSTRACT Our knowledge of biodiversity responses to fragmentation comes from human-driven fragmentation processes. However, evaluating forest patches with natural edge can produce useful models to understand how the micro- environmental gradient between forest edge and interior shapes the plant communities, regardless habitat loss. Here, we tested how forest edges and interiors differ in soil characteristics, communities’ structure and diversity metrics, and the extent to which these differences are related to forest size and shape of patches. We present data of ten tropical montane cloud forest patches surrounded by native non-forest vegetation (highland grasslands) of southeast Brazil. In each forest, we established fve plots right on the edge and fve randomly distributed over the forest interior. Our dataset covers a total of 5495 trees, and the main fndings showed that patches with natural edges are also infuenced by the edge effect, affecting the structure, species composition and soil variables. We found that with the increase in distance from the forest edge, the soils became more acid, with greater accu- mulation of organic matter, phosphorus, silt and sand, in contrast, the content of total exchangeable bases and clay decreased. When accounting for the effect of patch size and shape in the relationships between forest habitat and the structural community metrics, tree density and upper 95-percentile stem diameter tended to be higher in larger patches. In contrast, aboveground biomass and median stem diameter were positively related to patch shape in forest interiors. In addition, species composition showed marked differences between habitats, but rarefed species richness and Fisher’s diversity index were higher, in the interior, only in large patches. These results indicate that besides differences between forest habitats, with increasing patch size and circularity, the differences become more pronounced. We would like to highlight that in conservation and management de- cisions, peculiarities of each habitat must be taken into account, with techniques that assess the surrounding matrix (man-made or natural) and that consider the edge and the interior as distinct habitats. 1. Introduction Forest fragmentation is generally thought of as a factor of habitat degradation and a primary driver of biodiversity loss worldwide (Had- dad et al., 2015). Studies of forest fragmentation are mainly based on comparisons between continuous and fragmented landscapes or among forest fragments of different sizes. In this sense, our understanding of the fragmentation effects on biodiversity is highly linked to habitat loss (Fahrig, 2017). In addition to habitat loss, forest fragmentation changes the environmental conditions, community structure, and composition close to the edge of the patches, which have been termed ‘edge effects’ (Murcia, 1995; Pardini et al., 2017). To understand the fragmentation * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: lucasdeziderio01@gmail.com (L. Deziderio Santana), jamirjunior@yahoo.com.br (J.A. Prado-Junior), jhugocampos@gmail.com (J.H. C. Ribeiro), mirianamdm@gmail.com (M. Araújo S. Ribeiro), kellyguimaraes10@gmail.com (K.M. G. Pereira), klybio@yahoo.com.br (K. Antunes), fabricio.alvim@ gmail.com (F. Alvim Carvalho), evandenb@ufa.br (E. van den Berg). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forest Ecology and Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foreco https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118842 Received 6 October 2020; Received in revised form 30 November 2020; Accepted 1 December 2020