Thus, considering the practically irreversible fragmentation of populations around agricultural areas at Cerrado Biome, landscape management strategies for C. brasiliense should be considered to protect the still existent populations.
The strong biogeographic affinities of the study area with the North Island reflect climate-related distributional limits of plant species and repeated isolation and fragmentation of populations during Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles; this has facilitated the disjunct distribution of many plant species (McGlone 1985).
The fragmentation of populations is also of concern, as it causes the genetic diversity of the species to decline, potentially reducing vigour.
Reduction in habitat for a variety of reasons, fragmentation of populations in Europe due to intense agriculture practices, and collection for the pet trade or for venom extraction have been recorded as major contributing factors for its decline.
Most of the negative genetic effects caused by decline and fragmentation of populations of A. angustifolia are expected to become evident only after several tree generations (de Sousa, 2000).
This is perhaps not surprising given that phenotypic responses to local environmental circumstances may occur rapidly regardless of historical fragmentation of populations (e.g., [ 79, 80]).
The resulting fragmentation of populations may have led to widespread allopatric speciation and the formation of numerous narrowly-distributed endemic species.
For species that live exclusively on land, most niches would naturally have patchy distributions, providing an automatic enforcement of a fragmentation of populations.
The shifts in temperature and humidity, and the expansion of glaciers, resulted in the fragmentation of populations of many taxa, complete or local extinction, and the loss of genetic variation due to bottlenecks [ 3].
