How is habitat fragmentation different than habitat destruction?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes that slowly alter the layout of the physical environment(suspected of being one of the major causes of speciation,and human activity such as land conversion, which can alter the environment much faster and causes the extinction of many species.
The term habitat fragmentation includes five discrete phenomena: -
Reduction in the total area of the habitat
Decrease of the interior: edge ratio
Isolation of one habitat fragment from other areas of habitat
Breaking up of one patch of habitat into several smaller patches
Decrease in the average size of each patch of habitat.
Natural causes :-
Evidence of habitat destruction through natural processes such as volcanism, fire, and climate change is found in the fossil record.[1][failed verification] For example, habitat fragmentation of tropical rainforests in Euramerica 300 million years ago led to a great loss of amphibian diversity, but simultaneously the drier climate spurred on a burst of diversity among reptiles.
Human causes :-
Habitat fragmentation is frequently caused by humans when native plants is cleared for human activities such as agriculture, rural development, urbanization and the creation of hydroelectric reservoirs. Habitats which were once continuous become divided into separate fragments. After intensive clearing, the separate fragments tend to be very small islands isolated from each other by cropland, pasture, pavement, or even barren land. The latter is often the result of slash and burn farming in tropical forests. In the wheat belt of central western New South Wales, Australia, 90% of the native vegetation has been cleared and over 99% of the tall grass prairie of North America has been cleared, resulting in extreme habitat fragmentation.
Endogenous vs. exogenous :-
There are two types of processes that can lead to habitat fragmentation. There are exogenous processes and endogenous processes. Endogenous are process that develop as a part of a species biology so they typically include changes in biology, behavior and interactions within or between species. Endogenous threats can result in changes to breeding patterns or migration patterns and are often triggered by exogenous processes. Exogenous processes are independent of species biology and can include habitat degradation, habitat subdivision or habitat isolation. These processes can have a substantial impact on endogenous processes by fundamentally altering species behavior. Habitat subdivision or isolation can lead to changes in dispersal or movement of species including changes to seasonal migration. These changes can lead to decrease in a density of species, increased competition or even increased predation.