Corridor quality buffers extinction under extreme droughts in experimental metapopulations.

ABSTRACT: Corridors with good-quality habitats maintain the spatial dynamics of metapopulations by promoting dispersal between habitat patches, potentially buffering populations, and communities against continued global change. However, this function is threatened by habitats becoming increasingly fragmented, and habitat matrices becoming increasingly inhospitable, potentially reducing the resilience and persistence of populations. Yet, we lack a clear understanding of how reduced corridor quality interacts with rates of environmental change to destabilize populations. Using laboratory microcosms containing metapopulations of the Collembola Folsomia candida, we investigate the impact of corridor quality on metapopulation persistence under a range of simulated droughts, a key stressor for this

SUBMITTER: Li D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10234780 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature