Isolation
Fragmentation can cause isolation of patches from other
remnant patches. The time since isolation, the distance from other remnants,
the degree of connectivity and the characteristics of the surrounding
landscape, are important for determining the effect of isolation.
Simply the presence of species in a remnant is no guarantee
of its continued existence there. It may be necessary to look at the age
structure of species to determine whether it is likely to survive in a
remnant.
Isolated remnants will have lost some original species(or
be losing them) and gained some invading ones (or be gaining them). Therefore,
it is important to look at species composition as well as species numbers
to examine the full effect of isolation
