Causes

Habitat fragmentation can be caused by many factors, man-made or natural, and the different types of edges that cause habitat fragmentation can have different effects on the biota living inside each fragment.  The most prominent natural causes of habitat fragmentation include volcanic activity, floods, glacial advances, tornadoes, geologic faulting, tectonic movement, wind storms, mass land slumping, forest fires, serpentinization, major sea level rise, and climate oscillations [3], [4].

Iceland: An example of natural forces causing habitat fragmentation.  A rift in the Earth causing fragmentation due to tectonic movement.

Image Obtained from Smithsonian.com (Artic Images/Alamy)

There are also many man-made factors that cause habitat fragmentation.  These include things such as agriculture, building of cities or housing, resource collection (such as logging, mining, or dam building), and travel (roads or railways) [4].

Image obtained from Probertencyclopaedia.com 

Habitat fragmentation that is man-made seems to have some fundamental impacts that are separate from naturally caused fragmentation [4], [5].  Man-made fragmentation is easier to detect, as the effects can be measured easier [5].  Man-made fragmentation also tends to have more evenly spaced as well as more clearly distinct edges than natural fragmentation [4].  The effect of these can be found on the implications page.