Immigration rates in fragmented landscapes--empirical evidence for the importance of habitat amount for species persistence.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The total amount of native vegetation is an important property of fragmented landscapes and is known to exert a strong influence on population and metapopulation dynamics. As the relationship between habitat loss and local patch and gap characteristics is strongly non-linear, theoretical models predict that immigration rates should decrease dramatically at low levels of remaining native vegetation cover, leading to patch-area effects and the existence of species extinction thresholds across fragmented landscapes with different proportions of remaining native vegetation. Although empirical patterns of species distribution and richness give support to these models, direct measurements of immigration rates across fragmented landscapes are still lacking.

Methodology/princ

SUBMITTER: Puttker T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3220714 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature