Functional connectivity as an indicator for patch occupancy in grassland specialists |
| |
| Institution: | 1. DBU Natural Heritage, German Federal Foundation for the Environment, An der Bornau 2, 49090 Osnabrück, Germany;2. Ecology Group, Department of Biology and Chemistry, University of Osnabrück, Barbarastraße 13, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany;3. WoltersPartner – Architekten & Stadtplaner, Daruper Straße 15, 48653 Coesfeld, Germany;4. Environmental Resources Management (ERM), Siemensstr. 9, 63263 Neu-Isenburg, Germany;1. School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland;2. IKBSAS Unit 5, University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Kelowna B.C. V1V 1V7, Canada;1. WoltersPartner Architekten & Stadtplaner GmbH, Daruper Straße 15, 48653 Coesfeld, Germany;2. Landscape Ecology, Institute of Ecology, University of Lüneburg, Scharnhorststraße 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany;3. Department of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology, Faculty of Biology/Chemistry, University of Osnabrück, Barbarastraße 13, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany;4. Institute of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology (IBL), Hafenweg 31, 48155 Münster, Germany;5. Applied Landscape Ecology and Ecological Planning, Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstraße 2, D-48149 Münster, Germany;1. Northern Arizona University, 2727 N Jamison Blvd., Flagstaff, AZ 86004, United States;2. Northern Arizona University, United States;3. University of Maryland, United States;1. Department of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology, Osnabrück University, Barbarastraße 11, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany;2. Institute of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology (IBL), Hafenweg 31, 48155 Münster, Germany |
| |
| Abstract: | Habitat specialists living in metapopulations are sensitive to habitat fragmentation. In most studies, the effects of fragmentation on such species are analyzed based on Euclidean inter-patch distances. This approach, however, ignores the role of the landscape matrix. Recently, therefore, functional distances that account for the composition of the landscape surrounding the habitat patches have been used more frequently as indicators for patch occupancy. However, the performance of functional and non-functional connectivity measures in predicting patch occupancy of such species has never been compared in a multi-species approach.Here we evaluate the effect of habitat connectivity on the patch occupancy of 13 habitat specialists from three different insect orders (Auchenorrhyncha, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera) in fragmented calcareous grasslands. In order to calculate functional distances we used four different sets of resistance values and rankings. We then modelled species’ occurrence using both Euclidean and functional (based on least-cost modelling) inter-patch distances as predictors.We found that functional connectivity measures provided better results than the non-functional approach. However, a functional connectivity measure that was based on very coarse land-cover data performed even better than connectivity measures that were based on much more detailed land-use data.In order to take into account possible effects of the landscape matrix on patch occupancy by habitat specialists, future metapopulation studies should use functional rather than Euclidean distances whenever possible. For practical applications, we recommend a ‘simple approach’ which requires only coarse land-cover data and in our study performed better than all other functional connectivity measures, even more complex ones. |
| |
| Keywords: | Calcareous grassland Dispersal Habitat fragmentation Invertebrate Landscape matrix Least-cost modelling |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
