Princeton Guide to Ecology

ABSTRACT Landscapes will likely become increasingly fragmented for biological organisms and ecological processes as the human population and its demands for resources continue to escalate. Landscape fragmentation results in habitat loss and alterations in the composition and spatial arrangement of landscape elements, consequently affecting population and ecosystem processes. Thus, to protect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and to understand how nature works in the changing world, we must understand how organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems interact with spatially heterogeneous landscapes in which they reside --that is, ecological dynamics in fragmented landscapes. This paper discusses the effects of landscape fragmentation on population and ecosystem processes as well as major approaches to studying these effects