Small patches make critical contributions to biodiversity conservation

Abstract

Vast areas of the earth's land surface have been altered by human activities such as clearing native vegetation for agriculture and livestock grazing, logging of natural forests, and land conversion for urban settlements (1). These activities have had profound impacts on biodiversity and on key ecosystem processes (e.g. pollination and nutrient cycling) (2). Many ecosystems have been markedly reduced in extent (often termed habitat loss) (3, 4) with remaining areas sub-divided into small, isolated remnants (typically termed habitat fragmentation) (see (5)). In PNAS, Wintle et al. (6) explore some new perspectives associated with the conservation value of small, isolated remnants and demonstrate they are more important for biodiversity conservation than often recognized. Show more