Synchrony in population counts predicts butterfly movement frequencies |
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Authors: | TOM H OLIVER GARY D POWNEY MICHEL BAGUETTE NICOLAS SCHTICKZELLE |
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Institution: | 1. School of Biological Sciences, Harborne Building, Whiteknights, University of Reading, U.K.;2. NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, U.K.;3. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, UMR 7205 Institut de Systématique, Evolution et Biodiversité, France;4. Station d'Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale (SETE), UMR 5321, National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France;5. Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium |
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Abstract: | 1. Measuring functional connectivity, the ability of species to move between resource patches, is essential for conservation in fragmented landscapes. However, current methods are highly time consuming and expensive. 2. Population synchrony‐ the correlation in time series of counts between two long‐term population monitoring sites, has been suggested as a possible proxy measure of functional connectivity. To date, population synchrony has been shown to correlate with proxies for movement frequency such as the coverage of suitable habitat types in intervening landscapes, and also least cost distances around hostile land cover types. 3. This provides tentative evidence that synchrony is directly driven by movements of the focal species, but an alternative explanation is that these land cover types affect the movement of interacting species (e.g. natural enemies of the focal species) which can also drive synchronous population dynamics. Therefore, what is needed is a test directly relating population synchrony to movement frequencies of a focal species. 4. Here we use data from a 21 year mark‐release‐recapture study and show that population synchrony does indeed predict movements of a focal butterfly species Boloria eunomia (Esper). 5. There is growing evidence that population synchrony can be a useful conservation tool to measure functional connectivity. |
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Keywords: | Boloria eunomia functional connectivity habitat fragmentation landscape permeability long‐term monitoring data mark release recapture |
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