When land is cleared for human activities, any remaining habitat is often found in isolated patches surrounded by very distinct land cover. This process, commonly referred to as ‘habitat fragmentation’, is hypothesized to be a major threat to the integrity of ecosystems worldwide. Studies to date have documented a wide variety of biological and environmental changes in habitat fragments, which is why many have concluded that the ecological consequences of habitat fragmentation will be severe, detrimental, and long-lasting. Whether the effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity are indeed detrimental, however, has emerged as one of the most contentious contemporary debates in ecology. At the core of this debate is that while habitat loss and fragmentation often occur simultaneously, they are actually distinct processes with potentially unique impacts on biodiversity. This means that detrimental effects attributed to fragmentation could instead be due to habitat loss. To address this contentious topic, the research team will synthesize multiple data sets collected over the course of two decades on the biology of the Amazonian understory plant Heliconia acuminata. In addition to generating a novel understanding of the relative impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on biodiversity, it will also motivate future population-focused research on how these impacts might differ between functional groups. In doing so the researchers will also be generating publicly available da