One consequence of human-driven habitat degradation in general, and habitat fragmentation in particular, is loss of biodiversity. An often-underappreciated aspect of habitat fragmentation relates to changes in the ecology of species that persist in altered habitats. In Bahamian wetlands, ecosystem fragmentation causes disruption of hydrological connectivity between inland fragmented wetlands an...

Fish communities associated with coral reefs worldwide are threatened by habitat degradation and overexploitation. We assessed coral reefs, mangrove fringes, and seagrass meadows on the Caribbean coast of Panama to explore the influences of their proximity to one another, habitat cover, and environmental characteristics in sustaining biomass, species richness and trophic structure of fish commu...

The physiological impact of agricultural pollution, habitat disturbance, and food source variability on amphibian remains poorly understood. By comparing the composition and predicted functions of gut microbiota of two frog species from forest and farmland, we quantified the effects of the exogenous environment and endogenous filters on gut microbiota and the corresponding functions. However, c...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are key tools for combatting the global overexploitation of endangered species. The prevailing paradigm is that MPAs are beneficial in helping to restore ecosystems to more 'natural' conditions. However, MPAs may have unintended negative effects when increasing densities of protected species exert destructive effects on their habitat. Here, we report on severe seag...

The Gap Analysis Program (GAP) is a nationwide effort to find areas of suitable habitat in the US, which if protected from habitat degradation, may help to preserve the native animal and plant biodiversity. In recent years, the GAP protocols used to analyze habitat data have become more scale and species dependent. This research describes the creation of a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS)...

Due to human impact, there is extensive degradation and loss of marine habitats, which calls for measures that incorporate taxonomic as well as functional and trophic aspects of biodiversity. Since such data is less easily quantifiable in nature, the use of habitats as surrogates or proxies for biodiversity is on the rise in marine conservation and management. However, there is a critical gap i...

Populations of many shorebird species are declining; habitat loss and degradation are among the leading causes for these declines. Shorebirds use a variety of habitats along interior migratory routes including managed moist soil units, natural wetlands, sandbars, and agricultural lands such as harvested rice fields. Less well known is shorebird use of freshwater aquaculture facilities, such as ...

Land use change can result in complex environments of varying habitat quality and permeability that directly indirectly influence the effectiveness natural areas for wildlife conservation. To assess how isolation degradation protected may affect long-term conservation efforts across range a sensitive subspecies, we used multiscale occupancy analysis, species distribution modeling, circuit theor...

persian gazelle, gazella subgutturosa, exists throughout arid and semiarid regions of iran and has a key role in these frail ecosystems. habitat degradation and population decline has placed it on the list of vulnerable species in 2008. the phylogenetic relationships of three persian gazelle populations in the central part of iran (i.e. ghamishlou national park and wildlife refuge, mouteh wildl...

Land-based activities, including deforestation, agriculture, and urbanisation, cause increased erosion, reduced inland and coastal water quality, and subsequent loss or degradation of downstream coastal marine ecosystems. Quantitative approaches to link sediment loads from catchments to metrics of downstream marine ecosystem state are required to calculate the cost effectiveness of taking conse...