Assessing The Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Genetic Variation and Long-Term Species Viability in Fragmented Landscapes

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation poses a significant threat to global biodiversity, resulting in smaller, isolated populations that are susceptible to genetic erosion. The paper will compare the short-term and long-term effects on the genetic diversity and long-term viability of a species of interest in fragmented landscapes. This hypothesis is that the smaller the patch size and the higher the isolation, the smaller the acceptable population size, leading to lower heterozygosity, lower allelic richness, and greater genetic differentiation among fragments. A genetic structure analysis with a gradient of fragment size and isolation was done using a combination of molecular markers and population viability analysis (PVA). This study's results show that the fragmentation metric is significantly correlated with the loss of adaptive potential under negativity. Also, PVA projections, which included contemporary genetic parameters, showed that smaller, more isolated populations face a substantially higher risk of extinction over the next century, mainly owing to inbreeding depression and demographic fragility. The findings indicate the paramount role of habitat connectivity and the need to mitigate the adverse genetic effects of fragmentation by applying corridor measures to safeguard the long-term evolutionary prospects of species in anthropogenically intensive environments.