The effects of the number, size and isolation of patches along a gradient of native vegetation cover: how can we increment habitat availability?

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Habitat availability—or how much habitat species can reach at the landscape scale—depends primarily on the percentage of native cover. However, attributes of landscape configuration such as the number, size and isolation of habitat patches may have complementary effects on habitat availability, with implications for the management of landscapes. Here, we determined whether, and at which percentages of native cover, the number, size and isolation of patches contribute for habitat availability. We quantified habitat availability in 325 landscapes spread across the state of Rio de Janeiro, in the Atlantic Forest hotspot, with either high (>50 %), intermediate (50–30 %), low (30–10 %) or very low ( 50 % of native cover, conservation actions are probably sufficient to guarantee habitat availability, whereas in the remaining landscapes additional restoration efforts are needed, especially to reconnect and/or enlarge remaining habitat patches.