Dynamics of metapopulations : habitat destruction and competitive coexistence

1. We take a previously studied model for two species one of which is competitively inferior coexisting in a patchy environment, and examine the effects of removing patches (that is, of decreasing the amount of available habitat). 2. Habitat destruction or patch removal reduces the number (and proportion) of patches occupied by the superior competitor, but can result in an increase in the total number of patches occupied by the inferior competitor (even though there are fewer patches in total). 3. It has long been appreciated that disturbance and destruction of habitat can create edge effects and other ecological changes favouring 'weedy' species. The present study suggests that patch removal can by itself favour such species, even in the absence of other, concomitant changes. 4. An implication relevant to conservation biology is that habitat loss can bring about changes in community composition in remaining patches, even if such patches themselves undergo no intrinsic changes whatsoever.

[1]  J. Bengtsson.  Interspecific competition in metapopulations , 1991 .

[2]  P. Marino.  Coexistence in patchy environments: the local, regional and continental coexistence of mosses in the family Splachnaceae , 1988 .

[3]  R. Lande,et al.  Extinction Thresholds in Demographic Models of Territorial Populations , 1987, The American Naturalist.

[4]  I. Hanski.  Carrion fly community dynamics: patchiness, seasonality and coexistence , 1987 .

[5]  R. May,et al.  Competition within and between species in a patchy environment: Relations between microscopic and macroscopic models , 1985 .

[6]  Roy M. Anderson,et al.  Vaccination and herd immunity to infectious diseases , 1985, Nature.

[7]  B. Shorrocks,et al.  Aggregation of Larval Diptera Over Discrete and Ephemeral Breeding Sites: The Implications for Coexistence , 1984, The American Naturalist.

[8]  Ilkka Hanski,et al.  Coexistence of Competitors in Patchy Environment , 1983 .

[9]  I. Hanski,et al.  Coexistence in a Patchy Environment: Three Species of Daphnia in Rock Pools , 1983 .

[10]  B. Shorrocks,et al.  Competition on a Divided and Ephemeral Resource: A Simulation Model , 1981 .

[11]  A. Hastings.  Disturbance, coexistence, history, and competition for space , 1980 .

[12]  Montgomery Slatkin,et al.  Competition and Regional Coexistence , 1974 .

[13]  R. Macarthur,et al.  Competition among Fugitive Species in a Harlequin Environment , 1972 .

[14]  R. Levins,et al.  Regional Coexistence of Species and Competition between Rare Species. , 1971, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  R. Levins.  Some Demographic and Genetic Consequences of Environmental Heterogeneity for Biological Control , 1969 .

[16]  R. Macarthur,et al.  The Theory of Island Biogeography , 1969 .

[17]  G. E. Hutchinson,et al.  Copepodology for the Onithologist , 1951 .

[18]  J. G. Skellam.  Random dispersal in theoretical populations , 1951, Biometrika.