AN ECOLOGICAL-INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT OF THE NEW JERSEY PINELANDS

https://www.state.nj.us/pinelands/images/pdf%20files/EIA_Final_Report.pdf

Habitat Loss and Fragmentation

Fragmentation is the breaking up of a habitat or land type into smaller parcels, with smaller parcels becoming somewhat widely and usually unevenly separated (Forman 1995). Although this definition of fragmentation includes any kind of land cover, it is generally used to describe the breaking up of natural habitat. Fragmentation can be a result of natural or quasi-natural disturbances such as wind, wildfire, flooding, and outbreaks of herbivores or pathogens or can be solely the result of human activities (Dale et al. 2000). The process increases the number of patches and total edge length and decreases the average patch size, the total amount of interior or core habitat, and connectivity across an area (Forman 1995). Fragmentation effects are highly specific to the species, scale, and processes studied (Debinski and Holt 2000, Villard 2002).