What is a common effect of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity?

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The main idea here is how breaking up a continuous habitat into smaller, isolated patches affects biodiversity. When habitat is fragmented, patches become smaller and more isolated, so they support fewer species and smaller populations. This makes local extinctions more likely and reduces the overall species richness. Isolation also limits movement between patches, cutting gene flow among populations; reduced gene flow leads to less genetic diversity and a weaker ability to adapt to environmental changes. Edge effects and altered microclimates near the patch boundaries can stress species that aren’t adapted to those conditions, further lowering biodiversity. The species-area relationship explains why total species richness typically declines as habitat area is reduced. Fragmentation also tends to disrupt ecosystem services like pollination and seed dispersal. In contrast, fragmentation does not generally increase species richness, and it does not improve connectivity unless corridors or other connectivity measures are added.