SummaryForest edges influence more than half the world’s forests and contribute to worldwide declines in biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, predicting these declines is challenging in heterogeneous fragmented landscapes. We assembled an unmatched global dataset on species responses to fragmentation and developed a new statistical approach for quantifying edge impacts in heterogeneous landscapes to quantify edge-determined changes in abundance of 1673 vertebrate species. We show that 85% of species’ abundances are affected, either positively or negatively, by forest edges. Forest core species, which were more likely to be listed as threatened by the IUCN, only reached peak abundances at sites farther than 200-400 m from sharp high-contrast forest edges. Smaller-bodied amphibians, larger reptiles and medium-sized non-volant mammals experienced a larger reduction in suitable habitat than other forest core species. Our results highlight the pervasive ability of forest edges to restructure ecological communities on a global scale.

Habitat loss is the primary driver of biodiversity decline worldwide, but the effects of fragmentation (the spatial arrangement of remaining habitat) are debated. We tested the hypothesis that forest fragmentation sensitivity—affected by avoidance of habitat edges—should be driven by historical exposure to, and therefore species’ evolutionary responses to disturbance. Using a database containing 73 datasets collected worldwide (encompassing 4489 animal species), we found that the proportion of fragmentation-sensitive species was nearly three times as high in regions with low rates of historical disturbance compared with regions with high rates of disturbance (i.e., fires, glaciation, hurricanes, and deforestation). These disturbances coincide with a latitudinal gradient in which sensitivity increases sixfold at low versus high latitudes. We conclude that conservation efforts to limit edges created by fragmentation will be most important in the world’s tropical forests.

Agricultural intensification is one of the main causes for the current biodiversity crisis. While reversing habitat loss on agricultural land is challenging, increasing the farmland configurational heterogeneity (higher field border density) and farmland compositional heterogeneity (higher crop diversity) has been proposed to counteract some habitat loss. Here, we tested whether increased farmland configurational and compositional heterogeneity promote wild pollinators and plant reproduction in 229 landscapes located in four major western European agricultural regions. High-field border density consistently increased wild bee abundance and seed set of radish (), probably through enhanced connectivity. In particular, we demonstrate the importance of crop-crop borders for pollinator movement as an additional experiment showed higher transfer of a pollen analogue along crop-crop borders than across fields or along semi-natural crop borders. By contrast, high crop diversity reduced bee abundance, probably due to an increase of crop types with particularly intensive management. This highlights the importance of crop identity when higher crop diversity is promoted. Our results show that small-scale agricultural systems can boost pollinators and plant reproduction. Agri-environmental policies should therefore aim to halt and reverse the current trend of increasing field sizes and to reduce the amount of crop types with particularly intensive management.

A large proportion of European biodiversity today depends on habitat provided by low‐intensity farming practices, yet this resource is declining as European agriculture intensifies. Within the European Union, particularly the central and eastern new member states have retained relatively large areas of species‐rich farmland, but despite increased investment in nature conservation here in recent years, farmland biodiversity trends appear to be worsening. Although the high biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland has long been reported, the amount of research in the international literature focused on farmland biodiversity in this region remains comparatively tiny, and measures within the EU Common Agricultural Policy are relatively poorly adapted to support it. In this opinion study, we argue that, 10 years after the accession of the first eastern EU new member states, the continued under‐representation of the low‐intensity farmland in Central and Eastern Europe in the international literature and EU policy is impeding the development of sound, evidence‐based conservation interventions. The biodiversity benefits for Europe of existing low‐intensity farmland, particularly in the central and eastern states, should be harnessed before they are lost. Instead of waiting for species‐rich farmland to further decline, targeted research and monitoring to create locally appropriate conservation strategies for these habitats is needed now.

Habitat loss and fragmentation of forests are among the biggest threats to biodiversity and associated ecosystem services in tropical landscapes. We use the vicinity of the Las Cruces Biological Station in southern Costa Rica as a regional case study to document seven decades of land-use change in one of the most intensively studied sites in the Neotropics. Though the premontane wet forest was largely intact in 1947, a wave of immigration in 1952 initiated rapid changes over a short period. Overall forest cover was reduced during each time interval analyzed (1947–1960, 1960–1980, 1980–1997, 1997–2014), although the vast majority of forest loss (>90%) occurred during the first two time intervals (1947–1960, 1960–1980) with an annual deforestation rate of 2.14% and 3.86%, respectively. The rate dropped to <2% thereafter and has been offset by forest recovery in fallow areas more recently, but overall forest cover has continued to decline. Approximately 27.9% of the study area is forested currently. Concomitantly, the region shifted from a single contiguous forest to a series of progressively smaller forest fragments with each successive survey. A strong reduction in the amount of core habitat was paralleled by an increased proportion of edge habitat, due to the irregular shape of many forest fragments. Structural connectivity, however, remains high, with an expansive network of >100 km of linear strips of vegetation within a 3 km radius of the station, which may facilitate landscape-level movement for some species. Despite the extent of forest loss, a substantial number of regional landscape-level studies over the past two decades have demonstrated the persistence of many groups of organisms such as birds and mammals. Nonetheless, the continued decline in the quantity and quality of remaining habitat (~30% of remaining forest is secondary), as well as the threat of an extinction debt (or time lag in species loss), may result in the extirpation of additional species if more proactive conservation measures are not taken to reverse current trends–a pattern that reflects many other tropical regions the world over.

Summary1. Habitat fragmentation is a major threat to biodiversity and can lead to the loss of both species and ecosystem services, but fragmentation effects vary greatly between studies and studied organisms. Understanding the distinct effects of habitat amount and isolation at the patch and landscape scale may account for some of this variation. 2. We studied biodiversity in 30 traditional orchards that were selected for independent variation in habitat amount and habitat isolation at the patch and landscape scale. We analysed species richness and abundance of snails, beetles, true bugs, spiders and breeding birds that avoid open farmland but occur in woody vegetation types. Additionally, the abundances of nine single species were analysed using specific habitat definitions. 3. Surprisingly, the effects of habitat isolation were more important than the effects of habitat amount. Effects at the patch scale were more frequent than landscape-scale effects. 4. Spider species richness decreased with increasing patch-scale habitat amount. Abundance of the weevil Phyllobius oblongus increased with landscape-scale habitat amount. Negative effects of patch isolation were greater for predatory birds and spiders, while the predominately herbivorous beetles, true bugs and snails were less affected. Species richness of birds, spiders and beetles, and abundance of birds, Cyanistes caeruleus, Parus major and Fringilla coelebs, decreased with increasing patchscale habitat isolation. In contrast, species richness of spiders and beetles increased with increasing landscape-scale habitat isolation. 5. Synthesis and applications. The effects of habitat fragmentation differed between taxonomic groups, with stronger and more consistent responses in birds than invertebrates. Our understanding of fragmentation effects may be biased due to the dominance of bird studies in the literature, and further invertebrate studies are encouraged. Landscape management to improve biodiversity or ecosystem services requires a group-specific approach and coordinated priority setting. High habitat connectivity benefited wood-preferring birds, spiders and beetles, lending support to national initiatives for increased habitat connectedness. The negative effects of patch isolation were greater for natural pest regulators, birds and spiders than for herbivorous beetles and bugs.

Tropical biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions have become heavily eroded through habitat loss. Animal-mediated pollination is required in more than 94% of higher tropical plant species and 75% of the world's leading food crops, but it remains unclear if corridors avert deforestation-driven pollination breakdown in fragmented tropical landscapes. Here, we used manipulative resource experiments and field observations to show that corridors functionally connect neotropical forest fragments for forest-associated hummingbirds and increase pollen transfer. Further, corridors boosted forest-associated pollinator availability in fragments by 14.3 times compared with unconnected equivalents, increasing overall pollination success. Plants in patches without corridors showed pollination rates equal to bagged control flowers, indicating pollination failure in isolated fragments. This indicates, for the first time, that corridors benefit tropical forest ecosystems beyond boosting local species richness, by functionally connecting mutualistic network partners. We conclude that small-scale adjustments to landscape configuration safeguard native pollinators and associated pollination services in tropical forest landscapes.

Aim Biodiversity across the globe is heavily eroded by intensified management at local and landscape scales. Species communities of calcareous grasslands, which are among Europe's most diverse habitats, are severely threatened by the cessation of appropriate traditional management, loss of habitat connectivity and simplification of the surrounding landscape. However, our understanding of these often interrelated factors remains limited, in particular for trait-mediated responses across taxa. Here, we test the independent effects of local management (grazing, mowing and abandonment), habitat connectivity (measured by a connectivity index) and landscape complexity (indicated by the percentage of arable land) on nine taxa: plants, butterflies, bees, grasshoppers, hoverflies, spiders, true bugs, rove beetles and leafhoppers on small semi-natural calcareous grassland remnants (< 1 ha).Location Central Germany. Methods We use a joint analysis across taxa to identify general and trait-mediated responses (body size and Red List status) in species richness, abundance and community composition. Results We identified three key drivers of local diversity patterns: First, an increasing proportion of arable land from 10% to 80% led to a 29% loss of overall species richness. Second, despite differences between taxa, increasing habitat connectivity generally enhanced species richness. Connectivity effects were more accentuated in the large species per taxon, which can be expected to be good dispersers. Finally, grazing reduced species richness and abundance much more than annual mowing or short-term abandonment (5-15 years), in particular for red-listed species. We attribute this to plant resource removal through overgrazing and trampling.Main conclusions For the conservation management of small calcareous grasslands, we advocate an alternating strategy of mowing or lenient grazing and short-term abandonment, prioritizing connected fragments surrounded by diverse landscapes. Despite taxon-specific responses, our study across nine taxa demonstrates universal, trait-mediated effects of management, landscape complexity and connectivity on local biodiversity in fragmented communities.