Time-lagged effects of habitat fragmentation on terrestrial mammals in Madagascar.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity is severely threatened by habitat destruction. As a consequence of habitat destruction, the remaining habitat becomes more fragmented. This results in time-lagged population extirpations in remaining fragments when these are too small to support populations in the long term. If these time-lagged effects are ignored, the long-term impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation will be underestimated. We quantified the magnitude of time-lagged effects of habitat fragmentation for 157 nonvolant terrestrial mammal species in Madagascar, one of the biodiversity hotspots with the highest rates of habitat loss and fragmentation. We refined species' geographic ranges based on habitat preferences and elevation limits and then estimated which habitat fragments were too small to support a pop

SUBMITTER: Broekman MJE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9826438 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature