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Landscape Characterization / Forest Fragmentation / What is Habitat Fragmentation? / The Process of Habitat Fragmentation
What is Habitat Fragmentation?
Habitat fragmentation
The process of fragmentation
Fragmentation occurs when a large region of habitat has been broken down,
or fragmented, into a collection of smaller patches of habitat. Fragmentation
typically occurs when land is converted from one type of habitat to another.
For example, a forest habitat may become fragmented when a highway is built
across the forest. The highway would split a single, large, continuous patch
of forest into two smaller patches.
History diagram
Stage 1: the clearing of forest to make fields. Patches
of cleared land appear within the matrix of forest.
Stage 2: as farms expand and a region develops, more
land is cleared of forest. The patches expand until there is as much forest as
there is open agricultural fields.
Stage 3: Development continues; the farm fields coalesce
into large open areas of land. Patches of forest now exist within a matrix of
agricultural fields.
Figure 2. Series of aerial photographs showing the stages of the fragmentation
process. The process proceeds from development of small patches within
a large area of continuous forest (a) to expansion of the developed patches
(b), and ultimately to conversion of the dominant land cover type from
forest to human land use (c).
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