Landscape models and fragmentation analysis: from island biogeography to the continuum landscape approach

Abstract

Valdés, A. (2011). Landscape models and fragmentation analysis: from island biogeography to the continuum landscape approach. Ecosistemas 20(2-3):11-20

The study of habitat fragmentation, and the management of the environmental problems that it leads to, requires conceptualizing landscapes in a realistic way. This entails not only establishing theoretical frameworks to explain species loss and collapses of ecological processes in fragmentation gradients, but also representing accurately the actual gradients appearing in real-world landscapes and the heterogeneity in the capacity of response of organisms. In this article I review, from an historical perspective, the different landscape models used to analyze habitat fragmentation. These include the model based on island biogeography theory, the patch-corridor-matrix model, the variegated landscape model and the continuum landscape model. I illustrate the utility of the last model with the case of Primula vulgaris in the fragmented forests of the Cantabrian Range. Finally, I discuss the applicability of the different models for the study of habitat fragmentation.