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Landscape Ecology: Establishing Protected AreasNext Lesson 

Landscape Structure & Biodiversity: Fragmentation, Edges & Corridors

Chapter 56 /  Lesson 7   Transcript
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  • 0:01 Landscape Ecology
  • 0:29 Fragmentation & Edges
  • 3:18 Corridors
  • 4:20 Lesson Summary
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Lesson Transcript
Instructor: Artem Cheprasov
What is landscape ecology? What does it have to do with fragmentation, edges, and corridors? This lesson will explain what these concepts are and how they're important in ecology.

Landscape Ecology

Mary is an ecologist who specializes in landscape ecology, the science and study of how spatial arrangements of habitats affect ecological processes, the abundance of organisms, and the distribution of these organisms. Basically, Mary tries to figure out the effects of spatial patterns on ecological processes over time. Today, she's going to show us how fragmentation, edges, and corridors play a role in all of this.

Fragmentation & Edges

The biodiversity in a landscape is heavily influenced by the structure of the landscape itself. Mary first takes us to the savannah to see why. Here, the open structure of the savannah allows everything from zebras to lions to thrive. But then, Mary takes us to the rainforest, where we do not see any zebras nor do we see any lions. This is because the structure and function of the landscape has changed, and thus, the biodiversity of this landscape is different as well.

While that was a clear example of two different landscapes and the unique biodiversity therein, we need to also understand that many species depend on more than one kind of ecosystem and many live on borders between ecosystems. This is why understanding the connections between landscape structure, biodiversity, and conservation is important.

To help clarify this point, Mary takes us to open fields running right alongside a forest. She has just taken us to an edge. Boundaries between ecosystems are called edges. Edges have their own unique sets of physical conditions that are different from those found on either side of the edge, and these conditions set up areas where certain species can thrive.

For example, white-tailed deer love edge habitats because they can feast on the woody shrubs found in these areas. So, the more we log and fragment forests into smaller and smaller pieces separate from one another, the more edges we create, and deer populations tend to expand in these areas.

You'd think that's great! We're increasing the deer population - hurray! But creating edges as a result of human alteration causes reduced biodiversity, and not just as a result of the obvious habitat loss.

To prove this point, Mary points out a bird flying overhead near the edge of the forest we're at. It's a brown-headed cowbird. Mary explains that the cowbird is an edge-adapted species that lays its eggs in the nests of migratory songbirds. The cowbirds need the forest to parasitize the nests of other birds in which they lay their eggs, but they also need the open fields next to the forest to eat. That's why cowbird populations flourish in edge habitats at the expense of the destruction of their host species. This is just one example of why human alterations reduce biodiversity while also increasing the number of edge-adapted species.

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You are viewing lesson Lesson 7 in chapter 56 of the course:

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