Habitat fragmentation is a landscape-level process in which continuous habitats are subdivided into smaller, isolated patches by natural or anthropogenic disturbances, altering spatial configuration without necessarily reducing total habitat area proportionally. It modifies edge-to-core ratios, connectivity, and matrix composition, thereby disrupting ecological flows such as dispersal, gene flow, and trophic interactions. Fragmentation typically leads to smaller population sizes, increased demographic and environmental stochasticity, and heightened vulnerability to local extinction. It also drives community reassembly through edge effects, altered microclimates, and differential species responses based on dispersal ability, habitat specialization, and sensitivity to isolation, making it a central topic in landscape ecology and conservation biology.
Urban planning needs to tackle greenhouse gas emissions—and an important way to achieve this is by reducing the number and length of car commutes. This can be achieved primarily by ensuring that homes are located close to ...
Environment
May 28, 2026
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Cattle ranching is the biggest driver of tropical deforestation, but it is also a key livelihood for nearly 1 billion smallholder farmers. A global study by Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) shows that this tension can ...
Ecology
May 26, 2026
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Across Europe, many landscapes show strong potential to move forward climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and biodiversity benefits, with low socioeconomic risk, according to an analysis using a new climate-smart rewilding ...
Environment
May 25, 2026
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A new large-scale study led by a research team from the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change has found that wildlife responds not only to how humans reshape their habitats, but also to the simple presence of humans—and ...
Plants & Animals
May 21, 2026
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A graceful black monkey edges across a swaying red rope bridge strung over a busy residential road in Malaysia's Penang, watched by local conservationists who carefully record her movements.
Ecology
May 20, 2026
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Antonio has spent the past seven years running toward fires that most others run from. A firefighter in the Brazilian Amazon since 2019, he works inside the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, one of the most biodiverse places ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 27, 2026
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A Sumatran orangutan has been filmed for the first time crossing a man-made canopy bridge constructed to help the endangered animals bypass a tarred road on the Indonesian island, an NGO said Sunday.
Ecology
Apr 27, 2026
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Increasing evidence suggests that our species emerged through interactions between populations living in different parts of Africa, rather than from a single birthplace. Until now, however, most explanations for how those ...
Evolution
Apr 22, 2026
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A new study shows how fast-growing poplar plantations can improve functional connectivity for forest birds in fragmented agricultural landscapes, provided they are strategically located and species have moderate to high dispersal ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 20, 2026
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Maintaining connections between natural habitats may support beneficial microbes that help wildlife defend against disease. In a new study of tropical amphibians, a team led by Penn State biologists found that amphibians ...
Ecology
Apr 20, 2026
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