Understanding Fragmentation: Getting Closer to 42: A Response to: Bogaert. 2003. 'Lack of Agreement on Fragmentation Metrics Blurs Correspondence between Fragmentation Experiments and Predicted Effects'

Abstract

"If we have a way to measure temporal differences in resource availability and quality, we then have a way to assess its influence on organism abundance, distribution, and response to habitat fragmentation. It is clear from the papers published on fragmentation effects and those reviewed by Debinski and Holt (2000), that spatial heterogeneity influences organism response. An additional question we need to ask is 'what effect does temporal discontinuity of resources play in organism response to spatially fragmented habitats?' If we are able to conceptualize and quantify time and space effects, we will have gotten closer to the '42' of the fragmentation problem. We suggest as we did in our 'Insight' paper that real world complexity is likely to make prediction difficult and inexact, but not impossible. By 'getting closer to 42', i.e., accounting for temporal discontinuities in resource abundance, availability, and quality, we should have a better understanding of organism response to habitat fragmentation, and a closer approximation to the true state of nature."