Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 6.1. (a) The species-area curve describes the relationship between the number
or diversity of species and the size of an area of habitat. Empirical evidence shows that
the curve typically rises with area size and then saturates at an upper maximum. (b) The
species-area relationship can be used to predict the effect of destroying large contiguous
areas that leave scattered smaller habitat patches on the landscape.The length of the arrow
indicates the magnitude of species loss caused by fragmentation within a fixed time frame.
Larger fragments are expected to lose fewer species than are smaller fragments.
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