One major threat to terrestrial habitats is habitat fragmentation, which refers to discontinuities (fragmentation) in a habitat. This means that habitats which were once continuous become divided into separate areas which are isolated from one another. This threat may be caused either by geological processes that slowly alter the layout of the physical environment, or by anthropogenic processes such as land conversion.

The number of species that a fragmented habitat can support is dependent on its size; for example, small fragments can only hold a small population of plants and animals. Such small fragments easily lead to extinction, since some species cannot move between fragments and are forced to survive on what is available in the fragment they occupy. Furthermore, minor fluctuations in climate, resources or other pressures can be catastrophic for such small populations since the pressures exerted cannot be relieved through the migration from an expanding nearby population.

Furthermore, habitat fragmentation leads to edge effects. Smaller pieces of land have an increased edge area, which exposes the reduced core area to greater human disturbances and other pressures. This refers to the situation where a natural habitat becomes less suitable for sustaining native species over the short and long term since it is adjacent to developed or disturbed land. For instance, in fragmented rural areas, the Algerian Hedgehog (Scientific: Atelerix algirus, Maltese: Qanfud) is more likely to succumb to predators or road vehicles driven in country roads.

Should you require more information, please contact nature.requests@mepa.org.mt.

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. Malta together with many other countries around the globe is carrying out a number of initiatives to celebrate life on earth and the value of biodiversity for our lives. We are all invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity