Abstract
Habitat fragmentation is caused by the clearing and subdivision of formerly continuous vegetation. This chapter describes some geographical patterns of vegetation clearing, the major drivers of this clearing and recent trends in these drivers. Industrial drivers of habitat clearing, including large-scale farming, ranching and tree plantations, have grown in importance in recent decades. In addition, logging, mining, fossil fuel and infrastructure projects are creating an economic impetus for road building in many frontier areas, which also promotes habitat loss. In general, old-growth forests are declining rapidly across the planet and are being replaced by fragmented, secondary and logged forests and plantation monocultures. Forest regeneration may partially mitigate habitat fragmentation in some regions, but rapidly expanding plantations of non-native tree species typically have limited benefits for biodiversity.
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Global Forest Fragmentation
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ISBN/ISSN
978-1-78064-203-1
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Pages Count
8
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Publisher
CABI
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Publisher Location
Boston, MA, USA
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