Ecological Connectivity and Multiscale Resilience in Fragmented Temperate Forest Landscapes Under Climate and Land-use Pressures
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Increasing fragmentation of temperate forests disrupts ecological exchange at the same time that climate change alters the distribution and persistence of suitable habitat. Although structural landscape connectivity is routinely mapped, its relationship to biological resilience remains conditional on species traits, habitat quality, disturbance regimes, and the timescale of ecological response. This conceptual review integrates established evidence on the enduring effects of fragmentation, process-based connectivity modeling, and climate-adaptive conservation planning. It distinguishes structural continuity from functional movement, demographic exchange, genetic connectivity, and the maintenance of ecosystem processes. Special attention is given to edge effects, refugia, distributed pathways, network bottlenecks, habitat maturation, and the uncertainty created by resistance assignments and temporally mismatched observations. Two interpretive tables organize evidence types and management trajectories without presenting invented field measurements. The synthesis argues that increasing modeled connectedness is insufficient when destination habitats are degraded, ecological interactions are disrupted, or pathways concentrate exposure to disturbance. Resilient forest mosaics require viable habitat cores, complementary microhabitats, multiple potential routes, realistic restoration timelines, and monitoring linked to explicit mechanisms. Conservation choices should be assessed across plausible environmental futures and revised through evidence-based adaptive management.
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225265319