Malaria Drug Resistance: The Impact of Human Movement and Spatial Heterogeneity

Human habitat connectivity, movement rates, and spatial heterogeneity have tremendous impact on malaria transmission. In this paper, a deterministic system of differential equations for malaria transmission incorporating human movements and the development of drug resistance malaria in an \(n\) patch system is presented. The disease-free equilibrium of the model is globally asymptotically stable when the associated reproduction number is less than unity. For a two patch case, the boundary equilibria (drug sensitive-only and drug resistance-only boundary equilibria) when there is no movement between the patches are shown to be locally asymptotically stable when they exist; the co-existence equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable whenever the reproduction number for the drug sensitive malaria is greater than the reproduction number for the resistance malaria. Furthermore, numerical simulations of the connected two patch model (when there is movement between the patches) suggest that co-existence or competitive exclusion of the two strains can occur when the respective reproduction numbers of the two strains exceed unity. With slow movement (or low migration) between the patches, the drug sensitive strain dominates the drug resistance strain. However, with fast movement (or high migration) between the patches, the drug resistance strain dominates the drug sensitive strain.     

Integrating individual behavior and population ecology: the potential for habitat-dependent population regulation in a reef fish

We used the predictions of the ideal free and ideal despoticdistributions (IFD and IDD, respectively) as a basis to evaluatethe link between spatial heterogeneity, behavior, and populationdynamics in a Caribbean coral reef fish. Juvenile three-spotdamselfish (Stegastes planifrons) were more closely aggregatedin patch reef habitat than on continuous back reef. Agonisticinteractions were more frequent but feeding rates were lowerin the patch versus the continuous reef habitat. Growth rateswere lower in patch reef habitat than on the continuous reef,but mortality rates did not differ. A separate experiment usingstandard habitat units demonstrated that the patterns observedin natural habitat were the result of the spatial distributionof the habitat patches rather than resource differences between habitats. Our results do not follow the predictions of simpleIFD or IDD models. This deviation from IFD and IDD predictionsmay be the result of a number of factors, including lack ofperfect information about habitat patches, high movement costs,and higher encounter rates of dispersed patches. Our resultsdemonstrate that behavioral interactions are an integral partof population dynamics and that it is necessary to considerthe spatial organization of the habitat in both behavioraland ecological investigations.     

Heterogeneity in patch quality buffers metapopulations from pathogen impacts

Many wildlife species persist on a network of ephemerally occupied habitat patches connected by dispersal. Provisioning of food and other resources for conservation management or recreation is frequently used to improve local habitat quality and attract wildlife. Resource improvement can also facilitate local pathogen transmission, but the landscape-level consequences of provisioning for pathogen spread and habitat occupancy are poorly understood. Here, we develop a simple metapopulation model to investigate how heterogeneity in patch quality resulting from resource improvement influences long-term metapopulation occupancy in the presence of a virulent pathogen. We derive expressions for equilibrium host–pathogen outcomes in terms of provisioning effects on individual patches (through decreased patch extinction rates) and at the landscape level (the fraction of high-quality, provisioned patches), and highlight two cases of practical concern. First, if occupancy in the unprovisioned metapopulation is sufficiently low, a local maximum in occupancy occurs for mixtures of high- and low-quality patches, such that further increasing the number of high-quality patches both lowers occupancy and allows pathogen invasion. Second, if the pathogen persists in the unprovisioned metapopulation, further provisioning can result in all patches becoming infected and in a global minimum in occupancy. This work highlights the need for more empirical research on landscape-level impacts of local resource provisioning on pathogen dynamics.     

Extinction-colonization dynamics and host-plant choice in butterfly metapopulations

Species living in highly fragmented landscapes often occur as metapopulations with frequent population turnover. Turnover rate is known to depend on ecological factors, such as population size and connectivity, but it may also be influenced by the phenotypic and genotypic composition of populations. The Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) in Finland uses two host-plant species that vary in their relative abundances among distinct habitat patches (dry meadows) in a large network of approximately 1,700 patches. We found no effect of host species use on local extinction. In contrast, population establishment was strongly influenced by the match between the host species composition of an empty habitat patch and the relative host use by larvae in previous years in the habitat patches that were well connected to the target patch. This "colonization effect" could be due to spatially variable plant acceptability or resistance or to spatially variable insect oviposition preference or larval performance. We show that spatial variation in adult oviposition preference occurs at the relevant spatial scale and that the other possible causes of the colonization effect can be discounted. We conclude that the colonization effect is generated by host preference influencing the movement patterns of ovipositing females. Migrant females with dissimilar host preferences have different perceptions of relative patch quality, which influences their likelihood of colonizing patches with particular host composition.     

Flight morphology corresponds to both surrounding landscape structure and local patch conditions in a highly specialized peatland butterfly (Lycaena epixanthe)

1. Movement mediates the response of populations and communities to landscape and habitat spatial structure, yet movement capability may itself be modified by selection pressures accompanying landscape change. Insect flight morphology can be affected by both the landscape surrounding habitat patches and the distribution of resources within habitat patches. 2. This study investigated the relative influence of local habitat patch conditions and surrounding landscape structure on variation in morphological traits associated with flight in the bog copper (Lycaena epixanthe), a butterfly endemic to temperate Nearctic peatlands. 3. Eight habitat patches were sampled to assess the influence of the surrounding landscape (connectivity of potential habitat and matrix composition) and patch size (an integrated proxy of resource density and spatial distribution) on investment into flight, measured by thorax and abdomen mass, and wing area. 4. The results revealed an effect of both local habitat conditions and landscape structure on flight‐related morphological traits. Increasing forest cover in the surrounding landscape, indicative of increased habitat patch isolation, corresponded with less mobile phenotypes in both sexes. Surrounding landscapes with more water were also generally associated with less mobile phenotypes. Investment into flight was greater in smaller peatlands in which host plant density is higher and more homogeneously distributed. 5. The present study highlights that morphological traits associated with mobility may be responding to both local habitat patch characteristics and surrounding landscape structure. It also supports the hypothesis that local habitat conditions contribute to morphological variation in butterflies.     

Habitat quality of source patches and connectivity in fragmented landscapes

Because spatial connectivity is critical to dispersal success and persistence of species in highly fragmented landscapes, the way that we envision and measure connectivity is consequential for biodiversity conservation. Connectivity metrics used for predictive modeling of spatial turnover and patch occupancy for metapopulations, such as with Incidence Function Models (IFM), incorporate distances to and sizes of possible source populations. Here, our focus is on whether habitat quality of source patches also is considered in these connectivity metrics. We propose that effective areas (weighted by habitat quality) of source patches should be better surrogates for population size and dispersal potential compared to unadjusted patch areas. Our review of a representative sample of the literature revealed that only 12.5% of studies incorporated habitat quality of source patches into IFM-type connectivity metrics. Quality of source patches generally was not taken into account in studies even if habitat quality of focal patches was included in analyses. We provide an empirical example for a metapopulation of a rare wetland species, the round-tailed muskrat (Neofiber alleni), demonstrating that a connectivity metric based on effective areas of source patches better predicts patch colonization and occupancy than a metric that used simple patch areas. The ongoing integration of landscape ecology and metapopulation dynamics could be hastened by incorporating habitat quality of source patches into spatial connectivity metrics applied to species conservation in fragmented landscapes.     

Habitat Deterioration, Habitat Destruction, and Metapopulation Persistence in a Heterogenous Landscape

Levins's unstructured metapopulation model predicts that the equilibrium fraction of empty habitat patches is a constant function of the fractionhof suitable patches in the landscape and that this constant equals the threshold value for metapopulation persistence. Levins's model thus suggests that the minimum amount of suitable habitat necessary for metapopulation persistence can be estimated from the fraction of empty patches at steady state. In this paper we construct several more realistic structured metapopulation models that include variation in patch quality and the rescue effect. These models predict both positive and negative correlations between the fractions of suitable patches and empty patches. The type of correlation depends in an intricate manner on the strength of the rescue effect and on the quality distribution of the patches to be destroyed. Empty patches can be considered as the resource limiting metapopulation growth. Our results demonstrate that the correlation between the fractions of suitable patches and empty patches is positive if and only if the average value of the resource decreases as the number of patches increases.     

Area-dependent migration by ringlet butterflies generates a mixture of patchy population and metapopulation attributes

Interpretation of spatially structured population systems is critically dependent on levels of migration between habitat patches. If there is considerable movement, with each individual visiting several patches, there is one ”patchy population”; if there is intermediate movement, with most individuals staying within their natal patch, there is a metapopulation; and if (virtually) no movement occurs, then the populations are separate (Harrison 1991, 1994). These population types actually represent points along a continuum of much to no mobility in relation to patch structure. Therefore, interpretation of the effects of spatial structure on the dynamics of a population system must be accompanied by information on mobility. We use empirical data on movements by ringlet butterflies, Aphantopus hyperantus, to investigate two key issues that need to be resolved in spatially-structured population systems. First, do local habitat patches contain largely independent local populations (the unit of a metapopulation), or merely aggregations of adult butterflies (as in patchy populations)? Second, what are the effects of patch area on migration in and out of the patches, since patch area varies considerably within most real population systems, and because human landscape modification usually results in changes in habitat patch sizes? Mark-release-recapture (MRR) data from two spatially structured study systems showed that 63% and 79% of recaptures remained in the same patch, and thus it seems reasonable to call both systems metapopulations, with some capacity for separate local dynamics to take place in different local patches. Per capita immigration and emigration rates declined with increasing patch area, while the resident fraction increased. Actual numbers of emigrants either stayed the same or increased with area. The effect of patch area on movement of individuals in the system are exactly what we would have expected if A. hyperantus were responding to habitat geometry. Large patches acted as local populations (metapopulation units) and small patches simply as locations with aggregations (units of patchy populations), all within 0.5 km². Perhaps not unusually, our study system appears to contain a mixture of metapopulation and patchy-population attributes.     

Effects of matrix heterogeneity on animal dispersal: from individual behavior to metapopulation-level parameters

Mounting theoretical and empirical evidence shows that matrix heterogeneity may have contrasting effects on metapopulation dynamics by contributing to patch isolation in nontrivial ways. We analyze the movement properties during interpatch dispersal in a metapopulation of Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). On a daily temporal scale, lynx habitat selection defines two types of matrix habitats where individuals may move: open and dispersal habitats (avoided and used as available, respectively). There was a strong and complex impact of matrix heterogeneity on movement properties at several temporal scales (hourly and daily radiolocations and the entire dispersal event). We use the movement properties on the hourly temporal scale to build a simulation model to reconstruct individual dispersal events. The two most important parameters affecting model predictions at both the individual (daily) and metapopulation scales were related to the movement capacity (number of movement steps per day and autocorrelation in dispersal habitat) followed by the parameters representing the habitat selection in the matrix. The model adequately reproduced field estimates of population-level parameters (e.g., interpatch connectivity, maximum and final dispersal distances), and its performance was clearly improved when including the effect of matrix heterogeneity on movement properties. To assume there is a homogeneous matrix results in large errors in the estimate of interpatch connectivity, especially for close patches separated by open habitat or corridors of dispersal habitat, showing how important it is to consider matrix heterogeneity when it is present. Movement properties affect the interaction of dispersing individuals with the landscape and can be used as a mechanistic representation of dispersal at the metapopulation level. This is so when the effect of matrix heterogeneity on movement properties is evaluated under biologically meaningful spatial and temporal scales.     

Habitat patch size alters the importance of dispersal for species diversity in an experimental freshwater community

Increased dispersal of individuals among discrete habitat patches should increase the average number of species present in each local habitat patch. However, experimental studies have found variable effects of dispersal on local species richness. Priority effects, predators, and habitat heterogeneity have been proposed as mechanisms that limit the effect of dispersal on species richness. However, the size of a habitat patch could affect how dispersal regulates the number of species able to persist. We investigated whether habitat size interacted with dispersal rate to affect the number of species present in local habitats. We hypothesized that increased dispersal rates would positively affect local species richness more in small habitats than in large habitats, because rare species would be protected from demographic extinction. To test the interaction between dispersal rate and habitat size, we factorially manipulated the size of experimental ponds and dispersal rates, using a model community of freshwater zooplankton. We found that high‐dispersal rates enhanced local species richness in small experimental ponds, but had no effect in large experimental ponds. Our results suggest that there is a trade‐off between patch connectivity (a mediator of dispersal rates) and patch size, providing context for understanding the variability observed in dispersal effects among natural communities, as well as for developing conservation and management plans in an increasingly fragmented world.     

The influence of habitat heterogeneity on host-pathogen population dynamics

The influence of spatial heterogeneity on the population dynamics of a naturally occurring invertebrate host-pathogen system was experimentally investigated. At ten week intervals over a two year period, I quantified the spatial distribution of natural populations of the terrestrial isopod crustacean Porcellio scaber infected with the isopod iridescent virus (IIV). During the seasonally dry periods of summer and early fall in central California, isopod populations were highly aggregated and the degree of patchiness and distance between inhabited patches was greatest. Coincident with increased patchiness and patch spacing was an increase in isopod density within patches. During the wet seasons of winter and spring, isopod population patchiness, inter-patch spacing, and within-patch density was low. Seasonal changes in virus prevalence were negatively correlated with within-patch density, patchiness, and inter-patch spacing. The influence of the spatial distribution of isopods on virus prevalence was also tested in field experiments. The virus was introduced into arrays of artificial habitat patches colonized by isopods in which interpatch distance was varied. The prevalence of resulting infections was monitored at weekly intervals. In addition, dispersal rates between artificial patches and natural patches were quantified and compared. The results showed that isopods in treatments with the smallest inter-patch spacing had the highest virus prevalence, with generally lower prevalence among isopods in more widely spaced patches. The spacing of experimental patches significantly affected virus prevalence, although the experiments did not resolve a clear relationship between patch spacing and virus prevalence. Rates of dispersal between patches decreased with increased patch spacing, and these rates did not differ significantly from dispersal between natural patches. The results suggest that rates of dispersal between isopod subpopulations may be an important component of the infection dynamics in this system. I discuss the consequences of these findings for host-pathogen dynamics in fragmented habitats, and for other ecological interactions in spatially heterogeneous habitats.     

Identifying multiscale habitat factors influencing koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) occurrence and management in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

Summary   Modelling for the conservation of koala ( Phascolarctos cinereus ) populations has primarily focused on natural habitat variables (e.g. tree species, soil types and soil moisture). Until recently, limited consideration has been given to modelling the effects of the landscape context (e.g. habitat area, habitat configuration and roads). Yet, the combined influence of natural habitats and anthropogenic impacts at multiple spatial scales are likely to be important determinants of where koala populations occur and remain viable in human-modified landscapes. The study tested the importance of multiscale habitat variables on koala occurrence in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The models focused at three spatial scales: site ( <  1 ha), patch (1–100 ha), and landscape (100–1000 s ha). Logistic regression and hierarchical partitioning analyses were used to rank alternative models and key explanatory variables.
The results showed that an increased likelihood of koala presence in fragmented landscapes in the urban–forest interface (as opposed to larger blocks of forest habitat) can best be explained by the positive effects of soil fertility and the presence of preferred koala tree species in these fragmented areas. If koalas are to be effectively conserved in Ballarat, it is critical to (i) protect remaining core areas of high-quality habitat, including regenerating areas; (ii) protect scattered habitat patches which provide connectivity; and (iii) develop and implement habitat restoration programmes to improve habitat connectivity and enhance opportunities for safe koala movement between habitat patches intersected by main roads.     

Search mechanism of a stream grazer in patchy environments: the role of food abundance

Summary The search behavior of the grazing stream insect Baetis tricaudatus (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae) was examined in field and laboratory experiments. Regardless of food abundance in experimental habitats, nymphs spent significantly more time in food patches than predicted if they had moved randomly with respect to patches. A significant reduction in movement rate within patches relative to movement rate between patches largely accounted for these results. The movement pattern within patches was highly systematic and in agreement with predictions of optimal foraging theory since food was uniformly distributed within patches. Between-patch search movements were affected by food abundance in the most recently grazed patch. Search intensity after departure from a patch was positively related to food abundance in the patch while movement rate after patch departure was inversely related to patch food level. These effects produced between-patch movement patterns that were suboptimal in the experimental habitats because they resulted in revisitation of previously depleted patches. However, differences between experimental and natural habitats in the spatial occurrence of patch types suggest that Baetis between-patch search behavior may be adaptive in natural habitats.     

The limiting behaviour of a mainland-island metapopulation

Stochastic patch occupancy models (SPOMs) are a class of discrete time Markov chains used to model the presence/absence of a population in a collection of habitat patches. This class of model is popular with ecologists due to its ability to incorporate important factors of the habitat patch network such as connectivity and distance between patches as well as heterogeneity in patch characteristics. We present an asymptotic examination of a simple type of SPOM called the mainland-island model. In this model a single patch called the mainland is connected to a large number of smaller patches called islands and each island is only connected to the mainland. We discuss the limiting behaviour of the SPOM as the number of islands increases and the size of the islands decrease relative to the mainland. We demonstrate that a variety of limiting behaviours is possible depending on the scaling of the island size and on the heterogeneity of habitat quality.     

Use of multiple habitat types with asymmetric dispersal affects patch occupancy of the damselfly Indolestes peregrinus in a fragmented landscape

To appropriately predict the patch occupancy of animals, it is often essential to consider not only the habitat structure but also shifts in the habitat requirements of animals with changes in life stage. In addition, asymmetric dispersal among different types of habitat patches is likely to accompany use of multiple habitat types due to differences in the ease with which migrants can find the habitats, to changes in the dispersal ability of animals according to their life stage, or to both factors. However, few studies have explicitly elucidated the contribution of these processes to patch connectivity and to predictions of patterns of patch occupancy. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of multi-type habitat use on patch connectivity of the damselfly Indolestes peregrinus. After emergence, adults of this species move from their native ponds to woodlands for hibernation and return to aquatic habitats for oviposition in the next spring. We recorded the occurrence of I. peregrinus at newly created artificial ponds and attempted to explain patch occupancy using a series of Bayesian statistical models, which incorporate (1) local environment only, (2) both local environment and single-type habitat use connectivity, and (3) both local environment and multi-type habitat use connectivity. In addition, we considered two situations in the third model: symmetric or asymmetric dispersal. Comparing the performance of the candidate models revealed that the best model was the third model assuming asymmetric dispersal and it explained 18.8% of the deviance. The result suggests that multi-type habitat use is important for determining patch connectivity of I. peregrinus, and that there is asymmetry in the connectivity from pond to woodland patches and vice versa for the damselfly. Both multi-type habitat use and asymmetric dispersal processes are likely to apply to many other taxa and landscapes.     

Prior knowledge about spatial pattern affects patch assessment rather than movement between patches in tactile-feeding mallard

1. Heterogeneity in food abundance allows a forager to concentrate foraging effort in patches that are rich in food. This might be problematic when food is cryptic, as the content of patches is unknown prior to foraging. In such case knowledge about the spatial pattern in the distribution of food might be beneficial as this enables a forager to estimate the content of surrounding patches. A forager can benefit from this pre-harvest information about the food distribution by regulating time in patches and/or movement between patches. 2. We conducted an experiment with mallard Anas platyrhynchos foraging in environments with random, regular, and clumped spatial configurations of full and empty patches. An assessment model was used to predict the time in patches for different spatial distributions, in which a mallard is predicted to remain in a patch until its potential intake rate drops to the average intake rate that can be achieved in the environment. A movement model was used to predict lengths of interpatch movements for different spatial distributions, in which a mallard is predicted to travel to the patch where it expects the highest intake rate. 3. Consistent with predictions, in the clumped distribution mallard spent less time in an empty patch when the previously visited neighbouring patch had been empty than when it had been full. This effect was not observed for the random distribution. This shows that mallard use pre-harvest information on spatial pattern to improve patch assessment. Patch assessment could not be evaluated for the regular distribution. 4. Movements that started in an empty patch were longer than movements that started in a full patch. Contrary to model predictions this effect was observed for all spatial distributions, rather than for the clumped distribution only. In this experiment mallard did not regulate movement in relation to pattern. 5. An explanation for the result that pre-harvest information on spatial pattern affected patch assessment rather than movement is that mallard move to the nearest patch where the expected intake rate is higher than the critical value, rather than to the patch where the highest intake rate is expected.     

Butterfly abundance and movements among prairie patches: the roles of habitat quality, edge, and forest matrix permeability

The spatial distribution of patchy insect populations is partly caused by behavioral patterns of insect movement that are influenced by habitat quality, isolation, and the permeability of the surrounding matrix. We recorded insect movements, abundance, and edge behaviors in two species of butterflies, the great-spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele F., Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) and the pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos Drury, Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), inhabiting remnant prairies surrounded by a forest matrix in south-central Ohio. We also determined the number of forest matrix types present and recorded the permeability of the different types to butterfly movement. The great-spangled fritillary exhibited a relatively high number of interpatch movements, a higher abundance at patch edges, and a propensity to cross the prairie-forest edges, and the forest matrix had a high permeability to butterfly movement. The pearl crescent, in contrast, rarely crossed edge boundaries, moved infrequently among patches, and was more abundant within the patch interior and in patches with high host-plant and flower densities. There were three structurally different forest matrix types separating habitat patches, which in previous studies would have been classified as a single deciduous forest matrix. Butterfly movement and edge behaviors mechanistically interact with patch quality, isolation, and the matrix permeability to determine the spatial structure of these populations in fragmented habitats.     

Connectivity conservation priorities for individual patches evaluated in the present landscape: how durable and effective are they in the long term?

One of the most widespread approaches for setting spatially‐explicit priorities for connectivity conservation consists in evaluating the effects of the individual removal of each habitat patch (one at a time) from the landscape. It however remains unknown the degree to which such priorities are valid and reliable in the longer term, as subsequent habitat losses and other disruptions accumulate in the landscape. We compared the patch prioritizations and estimated connectivity losses resulting from individual patch removals and from a more exhaustive assessment accounting for the potentially synergistic impacts of multiple habitat losses by testing all possible combinations of patch removals. Habitat availability (reachability) metrics and metapopulation capacity were calculated in purposefully simulated landscapes and in habitat distribution data for three bird species (NE Spain). We found that 1) individual patch removals allowed identifying areas of low contribution to connectivity that remained so after subsequent network modifications, 2) the most important patches identified through individual removals often did not coincide with those patches whose removal would actually be most detrimental after multiple habitat losses. However, these differences were smaller for the habitat reachability metrics, as well as for very mobile species that were largely insensitive to habitat spatial arrangement. If many patch losses over time are likely, it might be a more robust and fruitful conservation strategy for managers to pinpoint those patches that, with a low negative impact on connectivity, can be converted to other land uses, instead of trying to elucidate through individual patch removals which subset of protected patches would be the most effective for conserving as much connectivity as possible in the long term. Individual patch removals provide useful but non‐permanent guidelines that may need to be reassessed when substantial landscape modifications occur, which requires dynamic strategies for connectivity conservation in the face of global change.     

Coexistence of competitors in metacommunities due to spatial variation in resource growth rates; does R * predict the outcome of competition?

Simple mathematical models are used to investigate the coexistence of two consumers using a single limiting resource that is distributed over distinct patches, and that has unequal growth rates in the different patches. Relatively low movement rates or high demographic rates of an inefficient resource exploiter allow it to coexist at a stable equilibrium with a more efficient species whose ratio of movement to demographic rates is lower. The range of conditions allowing coexistence depends on the between‐patch heterogeneity in resource growth rates, but this range can be quite broad. The between‐patch movement of the more efficient consumer turns patches with high resource growth rates into sources, while low‐growth‐rate patches effectively become sinks. A less efficient species can coexist with or even exclude the more efficient species from the global environment if it is better able to bias its spatial distribution towards the source patches. This can be accomplished with density independent dispersal if the less efficient species has a lower ratio of per capita between‐patch movement rate to demographic rates. Conditions that maximize the range of efficiencies allowing coexistence of two species are: a relatively high level of heterogeneity in resource growth conditions; high dispersal (or low demographic rates) of the superior competitor; and low dispersal (or high demographic rates) of the inferior competitor. Global exclusion of the more efficient competitor requires that the inferior competitor have sufficient movement to also produce a source‐sink environment.     

The importance of forest patch networks for the conservation of the Thorn-tailed Rayaditos in central Chile

Conservation of forest birds in fragmented landscapes requires not only determining the critical patch characteristics influencing local population persistence but also identifying patch networks providing connectivity and suitable habitat conditions necessary to ensure regional persistence. In this study, we assessed the importance of patch attributes, patch connectivity, and network components (i.e., groups of interconnected patches) in explaining the occupancy pattern of the Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda), a forest bird species of central Chile. Using a daily movement threshold distance, we identified a total of 16 network components of sclerophyllous forest within the study area. Among those components, patch area and vegetation structure-composition were important predictors of patch occupancy. However, the inclusion of patch connectivity and component size (i.e., the area of a network component) into the models greatly increases the models’ accuracy and parsimony. Using the best-fitted model, a total of 33 patches were predicted to be occupied by rayaditos within the study area, but such occupied patches were distributed in only six network components. These results suggest that persistence of rayaditos in central Chile requires the maintenance of large single patches and patch networks providing habitat and connectivity.