Islands, mainland, and terrestrial fragments: How isolation shapes plant diversity.

ABSTRACT: The fragmentation of natural habitats is a major threat for biodiversity. However, the impact and spatial scale of natural isolation mechanisms leading to species loss, compared to anthropogenic fragmentation, are not clear, mainly due to differences between fragments and islands, such as matrix permeability. We studied a 500 km² Mediterranean region in France, including urban habitat fragments, continuous habitat, and continental-shelf islands. On the basis of 295 floristic relevés, we built species-area relationships to compare isolation in fragments after urbanization, with continuous habitat and continental-shelf islands. We assumed either no dispersal, infinite dispersal, or estimated intermediate levels of habitat reachability through graph theory. Isolation mechanisms occ

SUBMITTER: Martin-Queller E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5587450 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature