A Threat To Wildlife And Bio-Diversity

A Threat To Wildlife And Bio-Diversity

Thesis Statement: The acceleration and diversification of human induced disturbances upon natural ecosystems during the past decades has contributed to wildlife habitat fragmentation. The changes in land use have driven wildlife managers to reconsider the benefits previously attributed to the Edge Effects on wildlife diversity.

Habitat fragmentation has been recognized as a major threat to the survival of natural populations and to the functioning of ecosystems. The reduction of large continuous habitats to small and isolated remnants affects the abundance and species composition of various Taxa. Some possible factors contributing to this decline include changes in food and cover availability, microclimatic effect, evolution of predation, loss of genetic variation, and lack of recolonization following local extinctions. Ultimately, habitat loss and fragmentation are processes that isolate small populations, which have higher extinction rates that may lead to a reduction in biological diversity. The acceleration of the land acreage consumption by human activities to the detriment of natural areas has revealed dramatic changes in the land uses during the past decades. Previously thought to be beneficial to wildlife habitat and diversity, the edge effects have been reevaluated by wildlife managers.

I. Definition:

A. Wildlife habitat

In a formal sense, wildlife habitat can be defined as an area with the combination of resources such as food, cover, water, substrate, topography, temperature, precipitation, and security that promotes occupancy by individuals of a given species and allows them to survive and reproduce (Morrison et al., 1992). Usually, the quality and extent of an an...

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