Matrix composition mediates effects of habitat fragmentation: a modelling study

Chetcuti, Jordan; Kunin, William E.; Bullock, James M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0529-4020. 2021 Matrix composition mediates effects of habitat fragmentation: a modelling study. Landscape Ecology, 36 (6). 1631-1646. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01243-5

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01243-5

Abstract/Summary

Context: Habitat loss has clear negative effects on biodiversity, but whether fragmentation per se (FPS), excluding habitat loss does is debatable. A contribution to this debate may be that many fragmentation studies tend to use landscapes of fragmented focal-habitat and a single vastly different species-poor intervening land cover (the matrix). Objectives: How does matrix composition influence the effect of FPS on biodiversity?. Methods: Using an individual-based model to investigate the effect of different configurations of the matrix on the relationship between FPS and biodiversity of the focal-habitat. We manipulated the number and quality of land cover types in the matrix, and their similarity to the focal-habitat. Results: Extremely different matrix, caused an order of magnitude stronger effect of FPS on alpha- and gamma-diversity and beta-diversity to decline. Low FPS led to high gamma-diversity. Increasing FPS caused a dramatic decline to low diversity. In contrast landscapes with a more similar matrix had lower diversity under low FPS declining little with increasing FPS. Having few matrix types caused beta-diversity to decline in general compared to landscapes with a larger numbers. Conclusions: The effects of FPS on biodiversity may change depending on the number of matrix types and their similarity to the focal-habitat. We recommend that fragmentation studies should consider a greater variety of landscapes to help assess in which cases FPS does not have a negative impact and allow better predictions of the impacts of fragmentation. We show the importance of having a diversity of matrix land cover types and improving the hospitability of the matrix for species dependent on the focal-habitat.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01243-5
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Biodiversity (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	0921-2973
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
Additional Keywords:	species diversity, fragmentation per se, individual-based model, movement ecology, matrix habitat, landscape scale
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment
Date made live:	26 May 2021 15:29 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530401

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01243-5

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Biodiversity (Science Area 2017-)

ISSN:

0921-2973

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.

Additional Keywords:

species diversity, fragmentation per se, individual-based model, movement ecology, matrix habitat, landscape scale