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Robustness of metacommunities with omnivory to habitat destruction: disentangling patch fragmentation from patch loss

Liao, J., Bearup, Daniel, Wang, Y., Nijs, I., Bonte, D., Li, Y., Brose, U., Wang, S., Blasius, B. (2017) Robustness of metacommunities with omnivory to habitat destruction: disentangling patch fragmentation from patch loss. Ecology, 98 (6). pp. 1631-1639. ISSN 0012-9658. (doi:10.1002/ecy.1830) (KAR id:64310)

Abstract

Habitat destruction, characterized by patch loss and fragmentation, is a major driving force of species extinction, and understanding its mechanisms has become a central issue in biodiversity conservation. Numerous studies have explored the effect of patch loss on food web dynamics, but ignored the critical role of patch fragmentation. Here we develop an extended patch-dynamic model for a tri-trophic omnivory system with trophic-dependent dispersal in fragmented landscapes. We found that species display different vulnerabilities to both patch loss and fragmentation, depending on their dispersal range and trophic position. The resulting trophic structure varies depending on the degree of habitat loss and fragmentation, due to a tradeoff between bottom-up control on omnivores (dominated by patch loss) and dispersal limitation on intermediate consumers (dominated by patch fragmentation). Overall, we find that omnivory increases system robustness to habitat destruction relative to a simple food chain.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1002/ecy.1830
Additional information: cited By 1
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science)
Q Science > QH Natural history > QH541 Ecology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Depositing User: Daniel Bearup
Date Deposited: 30 Nov 2017 12:26 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 18:57 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/64310 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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