HABITAT FRAGMENTATION

● Division of habitat into smaller (“patches”) and more isolated fragments separated by a
matrix of human-transformed land cover (Haddad et al., 2015).
● Not to be confused with habitat loss or habitat destruction.
○ Habitat loss refers to the state of a natural habitat wherein it is way too damaged
and destroyed to support the species and ecological communities that live in it
(Farmer, 2011).
○ Habitats destruction is the process - could be due to natural or anthropogenic
activities - that destroys the habitat. It often leads to the extinction of species and
loss of biodiversity (Klappenbach, 2019).
● Habitat loss is part of habitat fragmentation, alongside modification of habitat
configuration (Andrén (1994) & Fahrig (2003) as cited by Jackson & Fahrig, 2013).
● Loss of area, increase in spatial isolation, greater exposure to human lands, and
decrease in the availability of resources have a long-term effect on the condition
(structure and function) of these patches (Haddad et al., 2015).

Effect of habitat fragmentation on biotic interaction

Habitat fragmentation has a significant impact not only on species interaction but on the
ecological network itself. Hagen and his colleagues created a comprehensive article that
complied and summarized studies before 2012 about the effect of habitat fragmentation
on Biodiversity, Species Interactions, and Ecological Networks. Here are some of the
things listed on their paper.

A. Mutualistic plant-pollinator networks

a. Reduces abundance in pollination networks and then later links to decrease in
species (Aizen et al. (2008) Morales and Aizen (2006) as cited by Hagen et al.,
2012). This is a process called network contraction (Valladares et al. (2012) as
cited by Hagen et al., 2012).
i. For example, the number of butterflies per land decreases due to
fragmentation.
b. A decrease in pollinators (greater effect on specialist pollinators)
i. Abundance in pollination refers to the number of pollinators; thus, reduce
in abundance in pollination means a reduction in the number of
pollinators.
ii. There are two types of pollinators, the generalist and specialist
pollinators. specialist pollinators are more specific and selective with the
flows they visit.
iii. It is said that specialist pollinators will be greatly affected by the others
because if they are confined in a patch that does not have the specific
plant they use, they will not be able to perform pollination.
c. In a pollination network, plants generally live longer than pollinators. Thus, with
the decrease of pollinators, there will be an accumulation of time-delayed plant
extinction (Krauss et al. (2010) as cited by Hagen et al., 2012).
 d. Link switching, a process where species adapt to the changes in the environment
and rewire their pattern to enhance their condition (Hagen et al., 2012); “The
resource attraction principle” (Halloy (1998) as cited by Hagen et al., 2012)
i. As we have established earlier, habitat fragmentation changed the
configuration of the habitat; thus, assembles a new network that is
matched to the patch they are confined to.
ii. Oftentimes these switches result in turning species in bigger numbers or
those who are easier to who are easily exploited as the new optimal diet
choice.
B. Antagonistic food webs
a. Shorter topical level due to reduced number of big predators (g. Byrnes et al.,
(2011), O’Gorman and Emmerson (2009), and Woodward et al. (2012) as cited
by Hagen et al., 2012).
i. Tropical level: feeding positions in a food chain or web
ii. Because of fragmentation lands will become smaller. This will be difficult
for the bigger species such as most of the predators.
iii. And because there is a decrease in the number of predators, a shorter
tropical level might happen.
b. A decrease in large species at high trophic levels will reduce the linkage density
(Montoya et al. (2005); O’Gorman et al., (2010) as cited by Hagen et al., 2012),
connectance (O’Gorman and Emmerson (2010 as cited by Hagen et al., 2012)
and compartmentalization (Dunne et al. (2002) as cited by Hagen et al., 2012)
i. Linkage density (= L/S): Number of links per taxon. A measure of mean
dietary specialization across the food web
ii. Connectance (C) ( = L/S^2): proportion of potential links that actually
occur
iii. Compartmentalization: organization of ecological interaction networks into
subsets of species that do not interact with other subsets (true
compartments) or interact more frequently among themselves than with
other species (modules)
c. Secondary extinctions (Dunne et al. (2002) as cited by Hagen et al., 2012)
i. If a species goes extinct, there will likely be other extinctions, permanently
- or until the foreseeable future -
BE DECLINE
● North America: 50 percent less since 1974 (Main, 2021)
○ A report has shown that North America is experiencing a 50 percent decline in its
bee population in any location the data was collected.
● Europe: 17 percent less since the 20th century (What’s behind the Decline in Bees and
Other Pollinators?, 2019)
○ A report has also shown that there is a 17 percent decline in the bee population
all over Europe since the 20th century.
● Major causes: Human activity and Climate change (Main, 2021; What’s behind the
Decline in Bees and Other Pollinators?, 2019)
 ○ A study posted in a scientific magazine called Science has shown bee decline is
a result of climate change.
○ However, human activity is considered to be the biggest cause of bee decline.
■ An increase in urbanization of lands leads to the degradation of natural
habitats and loss of food.
■ Human usage of intensive agricultural practices and usage of hazardous
pesticides is seen as a cause for this decline.
○ Other causes are environmental pollution and the rise in invasive species and
diseases.

Effect of bee decline

● A decrease in diet breadth (What’s behind the Decline in Bees and Other Pollinators?,
2019; Mathiasson, 2018)
○ Diet breadth: ‘‘the total number of resources in the diet’’ (Kaplan & Hill, 1992:
171).
○ Without pollinators like a bee, successful reproduction of plants will occur; thus,
there will be a decline in plant species
● A disappearance of species dependent on the lost plants (What’s behind the Decline in
Bees and Other Pollinators?, 2019)
○ And if this happens, a chained effect will be the disappearance of species
whether directly or indirectly independent dependent on plants that have
declined.
● Lost interaction networks (Mathiasson, 2018)
○ Because there is a decrease in pollinators, there will be an increase in host plant
shifts or competitions.
● Interaction network that is more prone to disturbance (Mathiasson, 2018)
○ A decrease in nested networks would result in a network that may not be as
adaptive to changes in the environment.
This concern seems to be a large-scale issue, but does this mean we can’t do anything? No.
Here are some of the things we can do to conserve a healthy and natural species interaction.
Fragmentation
The team in Forest Research suggested these ways to help lessen habitat fragmentation.
● Protect existing high-quality wildlife greenspace
● Manage and improve degraded greenspace
● Restore sites of particular value that have been destroyed (such as wetlands)
● Improve the permeability of land use between sites
● Create new greenspace
(Habitat Fragmentation - Practical Considerations, n.d.)
But since a great facilitator of land division is caused by building infrastructure, we can also
inform companies and engineers about ways to help consider the condition of wildlife. The
Infrastructure and Ecology Network Europe (IENE) suggested the
Avoidance-Mitigation-Compensation method.
● Promote Avoidance-Mitigation-Compensation method (4.1 Countering the Threat of
Habitat Fragmentation – Handbook Wildlife Traffic, n.d.)
 ○ Avoidance: Designing an infrastructure that does not need to break habitat or
completely avoiding the area at all.
○ Mitigation: Finding ways to build infrastructure within habitats without completely
separating it. This can be done through underpass, overpass, bridges, etc.
○ Compensation: If habitat fragmentation cannot be avoided, do something that
can compensate the land that was ruined for the building of the project.
● Last step: Monitoring
○ No matter what action will be taken, it is important that monitoring is done so that
infrastructure owners can see the condition of the land.
Bee Decline
● Avoid harmful pesticides and herbicides. (Save the Bees, 2020; Saving the Bees Is
Good for Everyone!, n.d.)
○ Opt for antiviral and bee-friendly alternatives because even “organic” options may
still contain the chemicals that cause adverse effects on bees.
● Petition for the banning of dangerous pesticides. (Saving the Bees Is Good for
Everyone!, n.d.)
○ Petitions for the banning of dangerous pesticides already exist. We can take part
in this by promoting it and signing it. ‘
● Protect wild habitat (Saving the Bees Is Good for Everyone!, n.d.)
○ We can help protect their habitat through petitions or volunteer work.
● Create a bee garden (Save the Bees, 2020)
○ If possible, let’s say you are currently in the province, create a bee garden where
bees can feed, as a supplement to their wild habitat. Plat herbs and flowers that
attract bees like mint, lavender, and poppies, and others.
● Restore ecological agriculture

TAKE AWAY
● Observe your actions, respond to the call of nature, and develop a genuine concern for
our environment.
○ We need to be mindful of our actions because as we have seen in the issues that
are greatly affecting the interactions between species, our irresponsible human
activities distract the natural networks of species. Because of this unhealthy and
abnormal adaptation is being done by other species just to cope. Unfortunately,
this may link to grave consequences such as extinctions.
○ We have to be more responsible and develop genuine care for everything around
us so that we can start practicing activities that not only benefit us but also others
- be it humans or other species.
○ In the end, all of this will come back to us and if that happens, we will suffer far
more than what we want to imagine.