Habitat fragmentation
Introduction
Many ecological studies cite “habitat fragmentation” as one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. But what exactly is it? One major problem is that the term “habitat fragmentation” can mean many different things to different people. A second problem is that many other concepts are related to “habitat fragmentation” – for example, edge effects, vegetation thresholds, and wildlife corridors. But how exactly are these various themes related to one another?
Given the threats to biodiversity posed by human landscape modification, and the complexity of the literature on “habitat fragmentation”, David Lindenmayer and I decided to pull together and synthesise what is known on this topic to date. Our aims were: (1) to provide an overview of a range of themes often seen to fall under the umbrella of “fragmentation”, (2) to show how these various themes are linked to each other, and (3) to derive meaningful guidelines for the management of human-modified landscapes.
Outputs
A book and three journal articles resulted from our work (references below).
The book is a comprehensive summary outlining in 21 chapters key themes associated with “habitat fragmentation”, how to study it, and how to mitigate its potentially negative effects. Our three papers draw on different themes that are discussed in more detail in the book. An overview paper was published in the journal Global Ecology & Biogeography. Its scope is similar to the book, but it is a much condensed version with less depth and fewer examples. A paper synthesizing key management recommendations was published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Finally, we also published an opinion article in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, where we encourage other ecologists to be more consistent in their application of important concepts and terminology.
“Advance praise” for the book
“… an extremely useful and cogent synthesis about one of the dominant processes that threaten biodiversity…”
(Malcolm L. Hunter Jr., Libra Professor of Conservation Biology, University of Maine, USA) “… a book we have been waiting for.. with an amazing coverage of the relevant empirical literature…” (Yrjö Haila, professor of environmental policy, University of Tampere, Finland) “… we finally have an up-to-date overview of the complex topic of habitat fragmentation … written in language understandable by all interested parties…”
(Jerry F. Franklin, professor, University of Washington, USA)
Published reviews of the book
“… probably the most thorough and readable synthesis of its topic”
(Davis, R. 2007. Austral Ecology 32, 477-478.)
“… In sum, this volume provides a highly effective framework for teaching, designing research, and developing effective solutions in interactions between land cover change and biodiversity. I highly recommend it.”
(Coughenour, M. 2007. The Quarterly Review of Biology 82, 296-297.)
“The reader will find that the advanced praise for this book accurately depicts its value. … When our guitarist Nigel was questioned about the volume settings of his new amplifiers which he touted as much better, he responded that “these go to eleven”, “it’s one better”. Lindenmayer and Fischer’s book ‘goes to eleven’ by addressing the ‘noise’ in the underlying concept of fragmentation with this clearly written book.”
(In reference to the movie Spinal Tap: Bissonette, J. A. 2008. Ecological Restoration, in press.)
References
Lindenmayer, D. B. and Fischer, J. (2006). Habitat fragmentation and landscape change: an ecological and conservation synthesis. Island Press, Washington D.C.
Fischer, J. and Lindenmayer, D. B. (in press). Landscape modification and habitat fragmentation: A synthesis. Global Ecology & Biogeography.
Fischer, J., Lindenmayer, D. B. and Manning, A. D. (2006). Biodiversity, ecosystem function, and resilience: Ten guiding principles for commodity production landscapes. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4, 80-86.
Lindenmayer, D. B. and Fischer, J. (2007). Tackling the habitat fragmentation panchreston. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 22, 127-132.