Fragmentation and Connectivity in Forest Landscapes

Forest ecosystems are currently threatened by multiple global change stressors. Such pressures typically result in highly modified landscapes, comprising isolated and fragmented forests interspersed with degraded habitats that a less suitable for biodiversity. In recent decades, minimising fragmentation and enhancing landscape connectivity (i.e., the degree to which landscapes facilitate species movement) have received increased recognition as a key strategy to protect biodiversity. Well-connected habitat networks are thought to both preserve existing populations and assist adaptation under climate change. Hence, for effective conservation of forest biodiversity, it is imperative that we understand how best to maintain and enhance connectivity in fragmented landscapes across multiple spatial scales.

This Research Topic will focus on novel strategies and concepts that aim to minimize fragmentation and enhance connectivity in human-modified forested landscapes. We welcome research papers that provide distinct contexts and methodologies into how we can best develop conservation recommendations to improve connectivity in forest ecosystems. We hope to find studies that span a range of biomes, taxa, spatial scales and geographic regions, and that present novel and interdisciplinary approaches relating to the topic of landscape connectivity and wildlife dispersal through fragmented landscapes. We welcome studies that involve field research, are purely computational, or are a combination of both. We also invite Original Research and Review papers, as well as Methods and Opinion papers, providing that they address the key themes of fragmentation and/or connectivity and discuss how their scientific concepts can be integrated into landscape management.