Landscape configuration affects probability of apex predator presence and community structure in experimental metacommunities.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, highlighting the urgent requirement for well-designed protected areas. Design tactics previously proposed to promote biodiversity include enhancing the number, connectivity, and heterogeneity of reserve patches. However, how the importance of these features changes depending on what the conservation objective is remains poorly understood. Here we use experimental landscapes containing ciliate protozoa to investigate how the number and heterogeneity in size of habitat patches, rates of dispersal between neighbouring patches, and mortality risk of dispersal across the non-habitat 'matrix' interact to affect a number of diversity measures. We show that increasing the number of patches significantly increases γ diversity and reduces the overa

SUBMITTER: Wolfe E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9120115 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature