IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-28270-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Matrix condition mediates the effects of habitat fragmentation on species extinction risk

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Pablo Ramírez-Delgado

    (University of Northern British Columbia)

  • Moreno Di Marco

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

  • James E. M. Watson

    (University of Queensland
    The University of Queensland)

  • Chris J. Johnson

    (University of Northern British Columbia)

  • Carlo Rondinini

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Xavier Corredor Llano

    (University of Northern British Columbia)

  • Miguel Arias

    (University of Northern British Columbia)

  • Oscar Venter

    (University of Northern British Columbia)

Abstract

Habitat loss is the leading cause of the global decline in biodiversity, but the influence of human pressure within the matrix surrounding habitat fragments remains poorly understood. Here, we measure the relationship between fragmentation (the degree of fragmentation and the degree of patch isolation), matrix condition (measured as the extent of high human footprint levels), and the change in extinction risk of 4,426 terrestrial mammals. We find that the degree of fragmentation is strongly associated with changes in extinction risk, with higher predictive importance than life-history traits and human pressure variables. Importantly, we discover that fragmentation and the matrix condition are stronger predictors of risk than habitat loss and habitat amount. Moreover, the importance of fragmentation increases with an increasing deterioration of the matrix condition. These findings suggest that restoration of the habitat matrix may be an important conservation action for mitigating the negative effects of fragmentation on biodiversity.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Pablo Ramírez-Delgado & Moreno Di Marco & James E. M. Watson & Chris J. Johnson & Carlo Rondinini & Xavier Corredor Llano & Miguel Arias & Oscar Venter, 2022. "Matrix condition mediates the effects of habitat fragmentation on species extinction risk," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28270-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28270-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28270-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-28270-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Clayton, Helena & Hingee, Kassel L. & Chancellor, Will & Lindenmayer, David & van Dijk, Albert & Vardon, Michael & Boult, Chris, 2024. "Private benefits of natural capital on farms across an endangered ecoregion," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    2. Carmen Galán-Acedo & Gabriela Pacheco Hass & Vinícius Klain & Pedro Bencke & Júlio César Bicca-Marques, 2024. "Urban Matrices Threaten Patch Occurrence of Howler Monkeys in Anthropogenic Landscapes," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-13, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28270-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.