Fragstats User Guidelines

Version 3 The main metrics (Connectivity) Background.–Connectivity refers to the degree to which a landscape facilitates or impedes ecological flows (e.g., the movement of organisms among habitat patches and therefore the rate of movement among local populations in a metapopulation). An abrupt change in the Connectivity of the landscape, for example, as might be caused by habitat loss and fragmentation, may interfere with dispersal success, such that formerly widespread populations may suddenly become fragmented into small, isolated populations. This may in turn lead to an abrupt decline in patch occupancy (metapopulation dynamics) and ultimately extinction of the population across the landscape (extinction thresholds).