Habitat fragmentation effects on biodiversity patterns

We study the effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity patterns by means of a simple spatial model which considers selective geographic colonization, diffusion and mutation. In our model, regions of the lattice are characterized by the amount of resources available to populations of species which are going to colonize that regions. We simulate the fragmentation of the habitat by assuming that a proportion pp of the sites is not available for colonization, that is, there is no resource availability in those sites. We analyse the patterns of the species–area relationship and the abundance distribution considering two sample methods, in order to simulate the cases in which the habitats are distributed in islands and continents. We have observed that the pattern of the species–area curve is changed when different sample methods are considered. We have also verified that the abundance distribution is bimodal when small mutation probabilities are considered.