Graphical abstract
Summary
A methodology was developed to globally derive fragmentation indexes based on the metapopulation theory, at meaningful spatial scales for fragmentation mechanisms. The metapopulation capacity λ was calculated at the Grid Square (GS) scale (e.g. 100 km2) for all forest biodiversity hotspots (around 300 terrestrial ecoregions), and Forest Fragmentation Potential (FFP) indexes ranging from 0 (low fragmentation stress) to 1 (high fragmentation stress) were calculated based on λ statistics. These indexes were defined at various levels of spatial aggregation: damaged forest (i.e. forest cover <30%), forest, and the whole ecoregion. These indexes allow ranking the fragmented ecoregions according to their ability to host viable species populations (depending on the species dispersal distance (DD), e.g. 1 km).
Scientific background
- Assessing habitat fragmentation effects through large-scale indexes: global application to forest biodiversity hotspots – Publication under review process
Download maps
- FFP – GS, Forest<30%
- FFP – GS, Forest
- FFP – GS, All
- FFP, DD=1km 1 shapefile (which consists of 5 files: “FFP DD=1km.dbf”, “FFP DD=1km.prj”, “FFP DD=1km.qpj”, “FFP DD=1km.shp”, “FFP DD=1km.shx”)