Connecting models, data, and concepts to understand fragmentation's ecosystem‐wide effects

at large spatial scales not attainable with experiments. Our Special Issue highlights some of the benefi ts of observational studies for advancing our understanding of fragmentation, including the use of observational studies to test hypotheses regarding conceptual models of habitat fragmentation (Brudvig et al. 2017), responses in fragmented agricultural landscapes (Carri é et al. 2017), models comparing patchmatrix with mosaic approaches (Leroux et al. 2017), and ecological responses in fragments created by people centuries ago (Reynolds et al. 2017). Our feature articles are followed in this same issue of Ecography by a number of others that accomplish objectives not possible in controlled experiments, for example understanding fragmentation ’ s eff ects over large geographic regions within continents. Indeed, one fruitful potential direction in research will be the integration of experimental landscape studies with analyses conducted at larger spatial scales, where experiments are well-nigh impossible.

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