Habitat fragmentation: the possibility of a patch disrupting its neighbor

TL;DR

This paper uses a mathematical model based on the Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piskunov equation to analyze how habitat fragmentation affects population survival, revealing that small patches can negatively impact larger ones depending on their size and placement.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analytical expression for minimum patch sizes in fragmented habitats, enhancing understanding of patch interactions beyond previous models.

Findings

Large patches next to small ones benefit the small patches.

Very small patches can negatively affect large patches.

The derived expression enables further study of habitat fragmentation effects.

Abstract

This paper starts from the Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piskunov equation to model diffusive populations. The main result, according to this model, is that two connected patches in a system do not always contribute to each other. Specifically, inserting a large fragment next to a small one is always positive for life inside the small patch, while inserting a very small patch next to a large one can be negative for life inside the large fragment. This result, obtained to homogeneously fragmented regions, is possible from the general case expression for the minimum sizes in a system of two patches. This expression by itself is an interesting result, because it allows the study of other characteristics not included in the present work.