Habitat fragmentation may not matter to species diversity

Habitat fragmentation may not matter to species diversity.

Conservation biologists worry that fragmenting a bloc of natural habitat might reduce its species diversity. However, they also recognize the difficulty and importance of isolating the effect of fragmentation from that of simple loss of area. Using two different methods (species-area curve and Fisher's alpha index of diversity) to analyse the species diversities of plants, tenebrionid beetles a...

Complex organism – environment feedbacks buffer species diversity against habitat fragmentation

An additional factor that is not as well studied, but potentially important is the ecological feedbacks between organisms and their local environment, whereby organisms modify the environment and aff ect the survival and reproduction of individuals that subsequently utilize the altered environment. Well-documented examples of organism – environment feedbacks include those between plants and soi...

Habitat Fragmentation and Species Barriers

Genetic Diversity, Habitat Fragmentation and Epigenetic Variations

Habitat fragmentation, species loss, and biological control.

Fragmentation of habitats in the agricultural landscape is a major threat to biological diversity, which is greatly determined by insects. Isolation of habitat fragments resulted in decreased numbers of species as well as reduced effects of natural enemies. Manually established islands of red clover were colonized by most available herbivore species but few parasitoid species. Thus, herbivores ...