formed as result of ecosystem ecosystem fragment Often, ecosystem fragments are unable to sustain themselves without human intervention and management as they are not large enough to perform self-sustaining functions (e.g. nutrient recycling) or hold sufficient ecological resources such as genetic diversity of populations. An ecosystem which has been causally isolated from a larger ecosystem within which it was previously embedded, such that the direct exchange of materials, resources, and energy between these systems is severely or entirely curtailed. ecosystem fragmentation process