Landscape Fragmentation and Ecological Connectivity in Human-Modified Landscapes

Anthropogenic landscape transformation is accelerating across terrestrial ecosystems worldwide, reshaping habitat structure and disrupting the ecological connectivity that wildlife populations depend on for movement, gene flow, and persistence. Agricultural expansion, urbanization, infrastructure development, and climate change are fragmenting habitats at unprecedented rates, with cascading consequences for biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and conservation planning.

This Research Topic focuses on landscape fragmentation and ecological connectivity in human-modified landscapes. It aims to bring together research that quantifies how fragmentation reshapes habitat configuration and connectivity, and that identifies strategies to maintain or restore functional connectivity where human land use dominates. The collection emphasizes applied conservation science, drawing on spatial ecology, landscape modeling, connectivity analysis, and species distribution approaches.

A central objective is to advance conservation strategies that move beyond isolated protected areas toward landscape-scale approaches built on corridors, stepping-stones, and matrix management. Within this framework, human–wildlife coexistence is addressed as one important application area — showing how connectivity planning can reduce conflict and support shared use of human-modified landscapes — rather than as a separate, equally weighted theme.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions addressing:

• Habitat fragmentation and landscape ecology

• Ecological corridors and functional connectivity

• Connectivity modeling and conservation prioritization

• Maintaining and restoring connectivity in agricultural and human-modified landscapes

• Matrix management and landscape-scale conservation design

• Biodiversity and movement responses to land-use change

• Restoration ecology and landscape resilience

• Connectivity planning under climate and socio-economic change

• Human–wildlife coexistence as an applied outcome of connectivity-focused planning

The collection encourages submissions spanning multiple taxa, ecosystems, and geographic regions, particularly biodiversity hotspots and understudied human-modified landscapes.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Habitat Fragmentation, Ecological Connectivity, Landscape Ecology, Biodiversity Conservation, Human–Wildlife Coexistence, Conservation Planning, Ecological Corridors, Land-Use Change, Species Distribution Modeling, Agricultural Landscapes.

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.