Intermediate landscape disturbance maximizes metapopulation density |
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| Authors: | Ádám Kun Beáta Oborny Ulf Dieckmann |
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| Institution: | 1.Evolution and Ecology Program,International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis,Laxenburg,Austria;2.Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology,Loránd E?tv?s University,Budapest,Hungary |
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| Abstract: | The viability of metapopulations in fragmented landscapes has become a central theme in conservation biology. Landscape fragmentation
is increasingly recognized as a dynamical process: in many situations, the quality of local habitats must be expected to undergo
continual changes. Here we assess the implications of such recurrent local disturbances for the equilibrium density of metapopulations.
Using a spatially explicit lattice model in which the considered metapopulation as well as the underlying landscape pattern
change dynamically, we show that equilibrium metapopulation density is maximized at intermediate frequencies of local landscape
disturbance. On both sides around this maximum, the metapopulation may go extinct. We show how the position and shape of the
intermediate viability maximum is responding to changes in the landscape’s overall habitat quality and the population’s propensity
for local extinction. We interpret our findings in terms of a dual effect of intensified landscape disturbances, which on
the one hand exterminate local populations and on the other hand enhance a metapopulation’s capacity for spreading between
habitat clusters. |
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