Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2026
12:44
Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework
Published on: July 24, 2016
Landscape disruption in a fragmented world: A critical global analysis
Carlos A Rivas1, Guillermo Palacios-Rodríguez1, Rafael M Navarro-Cerrillo2
1Mediterranean Forest Global Change Observatory, Digitalization and Development in Forestry Ecosystems Laboratory (DigiFoR+-ERSAF), Department of Forestry Engineering, University of Córdoba, Campus de Rabanales, Crta. IV Km 396, Córdoba, 14071, Spain.
Journal of Environmental Management
|June 10, 2026
Summary
Global land use changes reveal increasing landscape fragmentation over 30 years. This trend, especially in tropical areas, impacts biodiversity and ecological processes, necessitating new conservation strategies.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Environmental Science
- Geography
Background:
- Land-use change and landscape fragmentation are critical global environmental issues.
- Understanding long-term structural shifts in landscapes is vital for conservation and policy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a comprehensive global assessment of land-use change and landscape fragmentation from 1992-2022.
- To quantify structural shifts using spatial metrics across diverse land-cover types and regions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized high-resolution Copernicus land-cover datasets for a 30-year period (1992-2022).
- Quantified changes in the number of patches, mean patch size, and size of the largest patch.
- Integrated spatial metrics across 37 land-cover types and multiple geopolitical regions.
Main Results:
- Observed a global trend of increased fragmentation: 10.3% rise in patch number, 9.2% decline in mean patch size, and 40% reduction in the largest patch size.
- Most severe fragmentation trends identified in tropical biodiversity hotspots (South America, Central Africa, South-Eastern Asia) linked to agriculture and deforestation.
- Fragmentation occurs even in regions with stable natural cover, impacting connectivity and specialist species.
Conclusions:
- Conservation strategies must consider both habitat area and spatial configuration.
- Promoting ecological corridors, heterogeneous agricultural matrices, and agroforestry systems is crucial.
- Findings offer novel insights into global landscape transformation, informing sustainable land management and policy.
Related Concept Videos
02:31Habitat Fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.
01:50Threats to Biodiversity
There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...
02:26Ecological Disturbance
An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.Ecological disturbances can be caused by an event as small as the trampling of underbrush to an incident as wide-ranging as a forest...
02:07Conservation of Declining Populations
Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.
01:29Applications of GIS: Disaster Management and Emergency Response
Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is essential for risk identification, action prioritization, and resource optimization in critical situations like flooding and earthquakes. By integrating spatial and demographic data, GIS provides a comprehensive framework for emergency response.GIS integrates data layers, like rainfall intensity, topography, elevation profiles, and river levels, to model high-risk flood zones. These layers assess areas susceptible to flooding based on their...
01:21Manipulation and Analysis
GIS manipulation and analysis functions are vital for decision-making and planning. These activities range from data retrieval tasks, such as selecting information based on specific criteria, to advanced analytical techniques that address complex spatial problems.One critical GIS analysis method is overlaying, which combines multiple data layers to examine impacts. For example, overlaying a river-dammed lake boundary with road networks can identify affected infrastructure. Another common...