Habitat fragmentation amplifies threats from habitat loss to mammal diversity across the world’s terrestrial ecoregions

Abstract

Global biodiversity is increasingly threatened by anthropogenic environmental change. While there is mounting evidence that habitat loss is a key threat to biodiversity, global assessments typically ignore additional threats from habitat fragmentation. Here, we present a species-area model that integrates habitat size and connectivity, considering species habitat preference and dispersal capacity, patch size, inter-patch distances, and landscape matrix permeability. We applied the model to predict threats from habitat loss and fragmentation to non-volant mammal diversity across the world’s ecoregions. We predict that, on average, 10 mammal species are committed to extinction due to habitat loss and fragmentation (range 0–86). On average, 9% of loss is due to fragmentation (range 0%–90%). Considering both habitat loss and fragmentation, our model can be used for large-scale explorative assessments to inform and evaluate strategies for minimizing biodiversity loss and for optimizing habitat conservation and restoration.