Landscape Fragmentation: Effects on Biodiversity and Wildlife

Dear Colleagues,

Landscape fragmentation is a widespread consequence of changes in land use and land cover, particularly in forested and semi-desert areas. This process, driven by factors such as population growth, agricultural expansion, urbanization, and climate change, disrupts ecological connectivity, degrades habitat quality, and poses significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. Understanding the impacts of landscape fragmentation on biodiversity and wildlife in these critical regions is crucial for developing targeted strategies that mitigate its effects and ensure the sustainability of ecosystems and the services they provide.

This Special Issue focuses on advancing the understanding of the ecological, spatial and functional consequences of landscape fragmentation in forest and semi-desert ecosystems. By integrating advanced tools and analyses such as remote sensing, spatial analysis, ecological connectivity models, machine learning and multi-criteria decision making, this collection aims to shed light on the spatial dynamics, habitat fragmentation and ecological processes that influence biodiversity and ecosystem services. The goal is to inform conservation planning, habitat restoration, and sustainable land management with practical, data-driven approaches.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

• Impacts of landscape fragmentation in forested and semidesert ecosystems on biodiversity, ecological connectivity, and ecosystem services.
• Habitat biodiversity modeling and species distribution in fragmented forested and semidesert landscapes.
• Applications of advanced remote sensing techniques, GIS, and geomatics for assessing and monitoring fragmentation in forested and semidesert areas.
• Multi-criteria evaluation and decision-making tools for prioritizing restoration and conservation efforts in fragmented ecosystems.
• Scenario analysis of land use/land cover changes and their projected impacts on biodiversity and ecological resilience in forested and semidesert environments.
• Integration of eco-hydrological processes in understanding and mitigating the effects of landscape fragmentation on water resources and ecosystem sustainability.
• Exploration of machine learning and spatial analysis tools for predicting the long-term impacts of landscape dynamics on biodiversity.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions that adopt interdisciplinary approaches and innovative methodologies to explore the challenges and solutions associated with landscape fragmentation, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem sustainability.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Jesús Alejandro Prieto-Amparán
Dr. Federico Villarreal-Guerrero
Dr. Alfredo Pinedo-Alvarez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• landscape fragmentation and biodiversity conservation
• ecological connectivity modeling
• land use/land cover changes (LULCC)
• habitat quality (HQ)
• ecosystem services
• remote sensing and spatial pattern analysis
• machine learning applications
• multi-criteria evaluation
• sustainable land management
• artificial intelligence in landscape analysis