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Habitat loss and change are often implicated as the primary causes of species extinction. Although any population can be instantly imperiled by catastrophe, most habitat loss occurs gradually, thus enabling affected individuals an adaptive advantage to occupy the best of their dwindling opportunities. I demonstrate how to infer the advantage between two habitats for any density and frequency‐dependent strategy of habitat selection. I explore the concept of an Adaptive Dispersal Strategy Landscape to reveal the Evolutionarily Stable Strategy separately for ideal‐free and ideal preemptive habitat selectors. Both solutions reveal an initially counterintuitive expectation that individuals living at high density gain insufficient adaptive advantage to disperse from a deteriorating habitat. Adaptive dispersal is constrained at high density because habitats of better quality are fully occupied. I test the theory with measures of movement and foraging in crossover experiments on a seminatural population of meadow voles. The experiment allowed the voles to choose among patches and between enclosures in which I differentially manipulated food and shelter. Although photographs from an infrared camera documented voles venturing from one habitat to the other, none became resident. Voles preferentially foraged in the richer of the two enclosures, even when I reversed treatments, and they foraged more in patches protected by mulched straw. The adaptive advantage of dispersal using a surrogate fitness proxy based on the voles' giving‐up densities mirrored that generated by theory. The convergence between theory and experiment yields much‐needed insight into our ability to test, predict, and hopefully resolve, the ecological, evolutionary, and conservation consequences of habitat loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical tree species are increasingly being pushed to inhabit deforested landscapes. The habitat amount hypothesis posits that, in remaining forest patches, species diversity in equal‐sized samples decreases with decreasing forest cover in the surrounding landscape. We tested this prediction by taking into account three important factors that can affect species responses to forest loss. First, forest loss effects can be linear (proportional) or nonlinear, as there can be threshold values of forest loss beyond which species extirpation may be accelerated. Second, such effects are usually scale dependent and may go unnoticed if assessed at suboptimal scales. Finally, species extirpation may take decades to become evident, so the effects of forest loss can be undetected when assessing long‐lived organisms, like adult old‐growth forest trees. Here, we evaluated the linear and nonlinear effects of landscape forest loss across different spatial scales on site‐scale abundance and diversity of old‐growth forest trees, separately for four plant‐life stages (seeds, saplings, juveniles, and adults) in two rainforest regions with different levels of deforestation. We expected stronger (and negative) forest loss effects on early plant‐life stages, especially in the region with the highest deforestation. Surprisingly, in 13 of 16 study cases (2 responses × 4 life stages × 2 regions), null models showed higher empirical support than linear and nonlinear models at any scale. Therefore, the species richness and abundance of local tree assemblages seem to be weakly affected by landscape‐scale forest loss independently of the spatial scale, life stage, and region. Yet, as expected, the predictive power of forest cover was relatively lower in the least deforested region. Our findings suggest that landscape‐scale forest loss is poorly related to site‐scale processes, such as seed dispersal and seedling recruitment, or, at least, such effects are too small to shape the abundance and diversity of tree assemblages within forest patches. Therefore, our findings do not support the most important prediction of the habitat amount hypothesis but imply that, on a per‐area basis, a unit of habitat (forest) in a highly deforested landscape has a conservation value similar to that of a more forested one, particularly in moderately deforested rainforests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how synchronous species fluctuations affect community stability is a main research topic in ecology. Yet experimental studies evaluating how changes in disturbance regimes affect the synchrony and stability of populations and communities remain rare. We hypothesized that spatially heterogeneous disturbances of moderate intensity would promote metacommunity stability by decreasing the spatial synchrony of species fluctuations. To test this hypothesis, we exposed rocky shore communities of algae and invertebrates to homogeneous and gradient-like spatial patterns of disturbance at two levels of intensity for 4 years and used synchrony networks to characterize community responses to these disturbances. The gradient-like disturbance at low intensity enhanced spatial ß diversity compared to the other treatments and produced the most heterogeneous and least synchronized network, which was also the most stable in terms of population and community fluctuations. In contrast, homogeneous disturbance destabilized the community, enhancing spatial synchronization. Intense disturbances always reduced spatial ß diversity, indicating that strong perturbations could destabilize communities via biotic homogenization regardless of their spatial structure. Our findings corroborated theoretical predictions, emphasizing the importance of spatially heterogeneous disturbances in promoting stability by amplifying asynchronous spatial and temporal fluctuations in population and community abundance. In contrast to other networks, synchrony networks are vulnerable to the removal of most peripheral nodes, which are less synchronized, but may contribute more to stability than other nodes by dampening large fluctuations in species abundance. Our findings suggest that climate change and direct anthropogenic disturbance can compromise the stability of ecological communities through combined effects on diversity and synchrony, as well as further affecting ecosystems through habitat loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has typically been assumed that habitat destruction, characterized by habitat loss and fragmentation, has consistently negative effects on biodiversity. While numerous empirical studies have shown the detrimental effects of habitat loss, debate continues as to whether habitat fragmentation has universally negative effects. To explore the effects of habitat fragmentation, we developed a simple model for site‐occupancy dynamics in fragmented landscapes. With the model, we demonstrate that a competition–colonization trade‐off can result in nonlinear oscillatory responses in biodiversity to both habitat loss and fragmentation. However, the overall pattern of habitat loss reducing species richness is still established, in line with empirical observations. Interestingly, the existence of localized oscillations in biodiversity can explain the mixed responses of species richness to habitat fragmentation per se observed in nature, thereby reconciling the debate on the fragmentation–diversity relationship. Therefore, this study offers a parsimonious mechanistic explanation for empirically observed biodiversity patterns in response to habitat destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Niche modeling is typically used to assess the effects of anthropogenic land use and climate change on species distributions and to inform spatial conservation planning. These models focus on the suitability of local biotic and abiotic conditions for a species in environmental space (E‐space). Although movements also affect species occurrence, efforts to formally integrate geographic space (G‐space) into niche modeling have been hindered by the lack of comprehensive theoretical frameworks. We propose the "functional habitat" framework to define areas that are simultaneously of high quality in E‐space, and functionally connected to other suitable habitats in G‐space. Originating in metapopulation ecology, approaches have been developed to assess the amount of suitable connected habitats, based on the proximity between pairs of locations. Using network theory, which operates in topological space (T‐space, defined by a network), we extended these metapopulation approaches to integrate movement constraints in G‐space with niche modeling in E‐space. We demonstrate the functional habitat framework using empirical data (GPS tracking and population monitoring) throughout the European wild mountain reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus) distribution range. We show that functional habitat outperforms traditional suitability in explaining the species' distribution. This approach integrates effects from habitat loss and fragmentation for spatial conservation planning, and avoids overemphasizing small, inaccessible areas with locally suitable habitats. The functional habitat framework formally integrates biotic, abiotic, and movement constraints in niche modeling using network theory, thus opening a wide range of applications in spatial conservation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global changes can lead to species declines and extinctions through their impacts on species habitats at two distinct spatial scales: habitat destruction, in which individual habitat patches are destroyed by land‐use change or natural disasters, and habitat degradation, in which larger scale changes, such as nitrogen deposition or climate change, lower mean population abundances across landscapes. We developed a theory showing that, even when these two forms of global change have an identical impact on a species' total amount of habitat, they have qualitatively different consequences for species dynamics and extinction. Using metapopulation theory and simulations, we found distinct impacts of these global changes characterized through several responses: the rate at which populations are lost from the remaining patches, extinction thresholds, and the duration of extinction debts. Habitat degradation causes a faster decline in species populations when habitat reduction is low, making it particularly detrimental for rare species. Habitat destruction has smaller impacts for low habitat reduction, but shows clear thresholds beyond which it surpasses degradation's negative impact; the location and steepness of the threshold depends on species dispersal, with poor dispersers having steeper thresholds. These results highlight the challenge of using population monitoring to assess the consequences of global changes and predict consequences of further change: extinction trajectories cannot be predicted due to thresholds (habitat destruction) and lagged dynamics that lead to extinction debts (habitat degradation). Our research clarifies why the impacts of one type of global change may poorly predict the impacts of the other and suggests general rules for predicting the long‐term impacts of global changes based on species traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent observations have found plant‐species‐specific fly‐host selection (i.e., specialization) of wasp parasitoids (wasps) in plant–fly–wasp (P–F–W) tripartite networks, yet no study has explored the dynamical implications of such high‐order specialization for the persistence of this network. Here we develop a patch‐dynamic framework for a unique P–F–W tripartite network with specialization observed in eastern Tibetan Plateau and explore its metacommunity robustness to habitat loss. We show that specialization in parasitoidism promotes fly species diversity, while the richness of both plant and wasp decreases. Compared to other two null models, real network structure favors plant species coexistence but increases the extinction risk for both flies and wasps. However, these effects of specialization and network structure would be weakened and ultimately disappear with increasing habitat loss. Interestingly, intermediate levels of habitat loss can maximize the diversity of flies and wasps, while increasing or decreasing habitat loss results in more species losses, supporting intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Finally, we observe that high levels of habitat loss initiate a bottom‐up cascade of species extinction from plants to both flies and wasps, resulting in a rapid collapse of the whole tripartite networks. Overall, this theoretical framework is the first attempt to characterize the dynamics of whole tripartite metacommunities interacting in realistic high‐order ways, offering new insights into complex multipartite networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Top‐down and bottom‐up controls regulate the structure and stability of ecosystems, but their relative roles in terrestrial systems have been debated. Here we studied a hydro‐inundated land‐bridge system in subtropical China and tested the relative importance of these two controls in determining the rodent‐mediated regeneration of a locally dominant tree species. Our results showed that both controls operated in terrestrial habitats and that their relative importance switched as habitat size changed. Habitat loss initially removed predators of rodents that released rodent populations and triggered massive seed predation (top‐down control), leading to reduced seedling establishment. A further reduction in habitat size led to decrease in rodent population that was supposed to increase seedling survival of the tree species, but the decline in habitat size deteriorated the abiotic environments (bottom‐up control) that severely prevented seedling recruitment. As the ongoing global land use change is creating increasing number of small‐sized forest fragments, our findings provide novel insights into the restoration of seriously fragmented forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The habitat-amount hypothesis challenges traditional concepts that explain species richness within habitats, such as the habitat-patch hypothesis, where species number is a function of patch size and patch isolation. It posits that effects of patch size and patch isolation are driven by effects of sample area, and thus that the number of species at a site is basically a function of the total habitat amount surrounding this site. We tested the habitat-amount hypothesis for saproxylic beetles and their habitat of dead wood by using an experiment comprising 190 plots with manipulated patch sizes situated in a forested region with a high variation in habitat amount (i.e., density of dead trees in the surrounding landscape). Although dead wood is a spatio-temporally dynamic habitat, saproxylic insects have life cycles shorter than the time needed for habitat turnover and they closely track their resource. Patch size was manipulated by adding various amounts of downed dead wood to the plots (~800 m³ in total); dead trees in the surrounding landscape (~240 km2) were identified using airborne laser scanning (light detection and ranging). Over 3 yr, 477 saproxylic species (101,416 individuals) were recorded. Considering 20-1,000 m radii around the patches, local landscapes were identified as having a radius of 40-120 m. Both patch size and habitat amount in the local landscapes independently affected species numbers without a significant interaction effect, hence refuting the island effect. Species accumulation curves relative to cumulative patch size were not consistent with either the habitat-patch hypothesis or the habitat-amount hypothesis: several small dead-wood patches held more species than a single large patch with an amount of dead wood equal to the sum of that of the small patches. Our results indicate that conservation of saproxylic beetles in forested regions should primarily focus on increasing the overall amount of dead wood without considering its spatial arrangement. This means dead wood should be added wherever possible including in local landscapes with low or high dead-wood amounts. For species that have disappeared from most forests owing to anthropogenic habitat degradation, this should, however, be complemented by specific conservation measures pursued within their extant distributional ranges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat heterogeneity is a primary mechanism influencing species richness. Despite the general expectation that increased heterogeneity should increase species richness, there is considerable variation in the observed relationship, including many studies that show negative effects of heterogeneity on species richness. One mechanism that can create such disparate results is the predicted trade-off between habitat area and heterogeneity, sometimes called the area-heterogeneity-trade-off ( AHTO) hypothesis. The AHTO hypothesis predicts positive effects of heterogeneity on species richness in large habitats, but negative effects in small habitats. We examined the interplay between habitat size and habitat heterogeneity in experimental mesocosms that mimic freshwater ponds, and measured responses in a species-rich zooplankton community. We used the AHTO hypothesis and related mechanisms to make predictions about how heterogeneity would affect species richness and diversity in large compared to small habitats. We found that heterogeneity had a positive influence on species richness in large, but not small habitats, and that this likely resulted because habitat specialists were able to persist only when habitat size was sufficiently large, consistent with the predictions of the AHTO hypothesis. Our results emphasize the importance of considering context (e.g., habitat size in this case) when investigating the relative importance of ecological drivers of diversity, like heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Our current understanding of the impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation is based largely on studies that focus on either short-term or long-term responses. Short-term responses are often used to predict long-term responses and make management decisions. The lack of studies comparing short- and long-term responses to fragmentation means we do not adequately understand when and how well short-term responses can be extrapolated to predict long-term responses, and when or why they cannot. To address this gap, we used data from one of the world's longest-running fragmentation experiments, The Wog Wog Habitat Fragmentation Experiment. Using data for carabid beetles, we found that responses in the long term (more than 22 yr post-fragmentation ≈22 generations) often contrasted markedly with those in the short term (5 yr post-fragmentation). The total abundance of all carabids, species richness and the occurrence of six species declined in the short term in the fragments but increased over the long term. The occurrence of three species declined initially and continued to decline, whilst another species was positively affected initially but decreased in the long term. Species' responses to the matrix that surrounds the fragments strongly predicted both the direction (increase/decline in occurrence) and magnitude of their responses to fragmentation. Additionally, species' responses to the matrix were somewhat predicted by their preferences for different types of native habitat (open vs. shaded). Our study highlights the degree of the matrix's influence in fragmented landscapes, and how this influence can change over time. We urge caution in using short-term responses to forecast long-term responses in cases where the matrix (1) impacts species' responses to fragmentation (by isolating them, creating new habitat or altering fragment habitat) and (2) is likely to change through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In analogy to the species-area relationship (SAR), one of the few laws in ecology, the phylogenetic diversity-area relationship (PDAR) describes the tendency of phylogenetic diversity (PD) to increase with area. Although investigating PDAR has the potential to unravel the underlying processes shaping assemblages across spatial scales and to predict PD loss through habitat reduction, it has been little investigated so far. Focusing on PD has noticeable advantages compared to species richness (SR), since PD also gives insights on processes such as speciation/extinction, assembly rules and ecosystem functioning. Here we investigate the universality and pervasiveness of the PDAR at continental scale using terrestrial mammals as study case. We define the relative robustness of PD (compared to SR) to habitat loss as the area between the standardized PDAR and standardized SAR (i.e., standardized by the diversity of the largest spatial window) divided by the area under the standardized SAR only. This metric quantifies the relative increase of PD robustness compared to SR robustness. We show that PD robustness is higher than SR robustness but that it varies among continents. We further use a null model approach to disentangle the relative effect of phylogenetic tree shape and nonrandom spatial distribution of evolutionary history on the PDAR. We find that, for most spatial scales and for all continents except Eurasia, PDARs are not different from expected by a model using only the observed SAR and the shape of the phylogenetic tree at continental scale. Interestingly, we detect a strong phylogenetic structure of the Eurasian PDAR that can be predicted by a model that specifically account for a finer biogeographical delineation of this continent. In conclusion, the relative robustness of PD to habitat loss compared to species richness is determined by the phylogenetic tree shape but also depends on the spatial structure of PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant challenge in both measuring and predicting species extinction rates at global and local scales is the possibility of extinction debt, time-delayed extinctions that occur gradually following an initial impact. Here we examine how relative abundance distributions and spatial aggregation combine to influence the likely magnitude of future extinction debt following habitat loss or climate-driven range contraction. Our analysis is based on several fundamental premises regarding abundance distributions, most importantly that species abundances immediately following habitat loss are a sample from an initial relative abundance distribution and that the long-term, steady-state form of the species abundance distribution is a property of the biology of a community and not of area. Under these two hypotheses, the results show that communities following canonical lognormal and broken-stick abundance distributions are prone to exhibit extinction debt, especially when species exhibit low spatial aggregation. Conversely, communities following a logseries distribution with a constant Fisher's α parameter never demonstrate extinction debt and often show an ''immigration credit," in which species richness rises in the long term following an initial decrease. An illustration of these findings in 25 biodiversity hotspots suggests a negligible immediate extinction rate for bird communities and eventual extinction debts of 30- 50% of initial species richness, whereas plant communities are predicted to immediately lose 5- 15% of species without subsequent extinction debt. These results shed light on the basic determinants of extinction debt and provide initial indications of the magnitude of likely debts in landscapes where few empirical data are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat degradation is predicted to exacerbate competition for critical resources; however, the relationship between habitat quality and competition is poorly understood. In this study, we used a manipulative experiment to test the effects of habitat degradation on competition between two planktivorous, coral-dwelling damselfishes, Chrysiptera parasema and Dascyllus melanurus. Experimental reefs were constructed with either healthy (100% live) or degraded (10% live) Acropora longicyathus coral, stocked with varying densities of these two fish species, and monitored for two months. On healthy habitat, the mortality of C. parasema was density dependent, and increased substantially in the presence of the dominant interspecific competitor D. melanurus. In contrast, on reefs where habitat was degraded, C. parasema mortality was highly variable, density independent, and was no longer influenced by the presence of dominant competitor D. melanurus. Behavioral observations revealed that agonistic interactions for both species increased with density on degraded habitat, but not on healthy habitat. In addition, on degraded reefs, both species displayed a reduced association with reef habitat and ventured further away from shelter with increasing densities of the dominant competitor D. melanurus. These results suggest that reduced habitat quality can have such a profound effect on reef fishes, that it eliminates density-dependent mortality and competitive dominance hierarchies, thereby substantially altering the mechanisms that structure reef fish communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss of native vegetation cover is thought to be a major driver of declines in pollination success worldwide. However, it is not well known whether reducing the fragmentation of remaining vegetation can ameliorate these negative effects. We tested the independent effects of composition vs. configuration on the reproductive success of a keystone tropical forest herb (Heliconia tortuosa). To do this we designed a large-scale mensurative experiment that independently varied connected forest-patch size (configuration) and surrounding amount of forest (composition). In each patch, we tested whether pollen tubes, fruit, and seed set were associated with these landscape variables. We also captured hummingbirds as an indication of pollinator availability in a subset of patches according to the same design. We found evidence for an effect of configuration on seed set of H. tortuosa, but not on other aspects of plant reproduction; proportion of seeds produced increased 40% across the gradient in patch size we observed (0.64 to >1300 ha), independent of the amount of forest in the surrounding landscape at both local and landscape scales. We also found that the availability of pollinators was dependent upon forest configuration; hummingbird capture rates increased three and one-half times across the patch size gradient, independent of forest amount. Finally, pollinator availability was strongly positively correlated with seed set. We hypothesize that the effects of configuration on plant fitness that we observed are due to reduced pollen quality resulting from altered hummingbird availability and/or movement behavior. Our results suggest that prioritizing larger patches of tropical forest may be particularly important for conservation of this species [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleucd) was taken to the brink of extinction in the 1980s through a combination of deforestation, large-scale loss of bamboo in the core of its range, poaching, and zoo collection, causing over 1000 deaths from the 1950s. It was thought that the drastic population decline was likely to impose a severe impact on population viability. Here, based on temporal genotyping of individuals, we show that this rapid decline did not significantly reduce the overall effective population size and genetic variation of this species, or of the two focal populations (Minshan and Qionglai) that declined the most. These results are contrary to previously assumptions, probably because the population decline has not produced the expected negative impact due to the short time scale involved (at most 10 generations), or because previous surveys underestimated the population size at the time of decline. However, if present-day habitat fragmentation and limited migration of giant pandas remains, we predict a loss of genetic diversity across the giant pandas' range in the near future. Thus, our findings highlight the substantial resilience of this species when facing demographic and environmental stochasticity, but key conservation strategies, such as enhancing habitat connectivity and habitat restoration should be immediately implemented to retain the extant genetic variation and maintain long-term evolutionary potential of this endangered species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With global increases in human impacts, invasive species have become a major threat to ecosystems worldwide. While they have been traditionally viewed as harmful, invasive species may facilitate the restoration of degraded ecosystems outside their native ranges. In New England (USA) overfishing has depleted salt marsh predators, allowing the herbivorous crab Sesarma reticulatum to denude hundreds of hectares of low marsh. Here, using multiple site surveys and field caging experiments, we show that the subsequent invasion of green crabs, Carduus maenas, into heavily burrowed marshes partially reverses decades of cordgrass die-off. By consuming Sesarma, eliciting a nonlethal escape response, and evicting Sesarma from burrows, Carcinus reduces Sesarma herbivory and promotes cordgrass recovery. These results suggest that invasive species can contribute to restoring degraded ecosystems and underscores the potential for invasive species to return ecological functions lost to human impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although negative relationships between diversity (frequently measured as species richness) and invasibility at neighborhood or community scales have often been reported, realistic natural diversity gradients have rarely been studied at this scale. We recreated a naturally occurring gradient in species richness to test the effects of species richness on community invasibility. In central Texas savannas, as the proportion of woody plants increases (a process known as woody plant encroachment), herbaceous habitat is both lost and fragmented, and native herbaceous species richness declines. We examined the effects of these species losses on invasibility in situ by removing species that occur less frequently in herbaceous patches as woody plant encroachment advances. This realistic species removal was accompanied by a parallel and equivalent removal of biomass with no changes in species richness. Over two springs, the nonnative bunchgrass Bothriochloa ischaemum germinated significantly more often in the biomass-removal treatment than in unmanipulated control plots, suggesting an effect of native plant density independent of diversity. Additionally, significantly more germination occurred in the species-removal treatment than in the biomass-removal treatment. Changes in species richness had a stronger effect on B. ischaemum germination than changes in plant density, demonstrating that niche-related processes contributed more to biotic resistance in this system than did species-neutral competitive interactions. Similar treatment effects were found on transplant growth. Thus we show that woody plant encroachment indirectly facilitates the establishment of an invasive grass by reducing native diversity. Although we found a negative relationship between species richness and invasibility at the scale of plots with similar composition and environmental conditions, we found a positive relationship between species richness and invasibility at larger scales. This apparent paradox is consistent with reports from other systems and may be the result of variation in environmental factors at larger scales similarly influencing both invasibility and richness. The habitat loss and fragmentation associated with woody plant encroachment are two of many processes that commonly threaten biodiversity, including climate change. Many of these processes are similarly likely to increase invasibility via their negative effects on native diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communities in fragmented landscapes are often assumed to be structured by species extinction due to habitat loss, which has led to extensive use of the species-area relationship (SAR) in fragmentation studies. However, the use of the SAR presupposes that habitat loss leads species to extinction but does not allow for extinction to be offset by colonization of disturbed-habitat specialists. Moreover, the use of SAR assumes that species richness is a good proxy of community changes in fragmented landscapes. Here, we assessed how communities dwelling in fragmented landscapes are influenced by habitat loss at multiple scales; then we estimated the ability of models ruled by SAR and by species turnover in successfully predicting changes in community composition, and asked whether species richness is indeed an informative community metric. To address these issues, we used a data set consisting of 140 bird species sampled in 65 patches, from six landscapes with different proportions of forest cover in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. We compared empirical patterns against simulations of over 8 million communities structured by different magnitudes of the power-law SAR and with species-specific rules to assign species to sites. Empirical results showed that, while bird community composition was strongly influenced by habitat loss at the patch and landscape scale, species richness remained largely unaffected. Modeling results revealed that the compositional changes observed in the Atlantic Forest bird metacommunity were only matched by models with either unrealistic magnitudes of the SAR or by models ruled by species turnover, akin to what would be observed along natural gradients. We show that, in the presence of such compositional turnover, species richness is poorly correlated with species extinction, and z values of the SAR strongly underestimate the effects of habitat loss. We suggest that the observed compositional changes are driven by each species reaching its individual extinction threshold: either a threshold of forest cover for species that disappear with habitat loss, or of matrix cover for species that benefit from habitat loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is accumulating evidence from artificially assembled commu-nities that reductions of species diversity result in diminished ecosystem functioning, it is not yet clear how real-world changes in diversity affect the flow of energy between trophic levels in multi-trophic contexts. In central Argentina, forest fragmentation has led to species loss of plants, herbivore and parasitoid insects, decline in trophic processes (herbivory and parasitism), and food web contraction. Here we examine if and how loss of parasitoid species following fragmentation causes decreased parasitism rates, by analyzing food webs of leaf miners and parasitoids from 19 forest fragments of decreasing size. We asked three questions: Do reductions in parasitoid richness following fragmentation directly or indirectly affect parasitism rate? Are changes in community parasitism rate driven by changes in the parasitism rate of individual leaf miner species, or changes in leaf miner composition, or both? Which traits of species determine the effects of food web change on parasitism rates? We found that habitat loss initiated a bottom-up cascade of extinctions from plants to leaf miners to parasitoids, with reductions in parasitoid richness ultimately driving decreases in parasitism rates. This relationship between parasitoid richness and parasitism depended on changes in the relative abundance (but not occurrence) of leaf miners such that parasitoid-rich fragments were dominated by leaf miner species that supported high rates of parasitism. Surprisingly, we found that only a small subset of species in the food web could account for much of the increase in parasitism with parasitoid richness: lepidopteran miners that attained exceptionally high densities in some fragments and their largely specialist parasitoids. How specialized a parasitoid is, and the relative abundance of leaf miners, had important effects on the diversity-parasitism rate relationship, but not other leaf miner traits including trophic breadth, body size, and mine shape. Our results show that a full understanding of the functional consequences of perturbations and species loss requires both a multi-trophic perspective and a trait-based approach, which together capture some of the biological complexity of natural systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased habitat diversity is often predicted to promote the diversity of animal communities because a greater variety of habitats increases the opportunities for species to specialize on different resources and coexist. Although positive correlations between the diversities of habitat and associated animals are often observed, the underlying mechanisms are only now starting to emerge, and none have been tested specifically in the marine environment. Scieractinian corals constitute the primary habitat-forming organisms on coral reefs and, as such, play an important role in structuring associated reef fish communities. Using the same field experimental design in two geographic localities differing in regional fish species composition, we tested the effects of coral species richness and composition on the diversity, abundance, and structure of the local fish community. Richness of coral species overall had a positive effect on fish species richness but had no effect on total fish abundance or evenness. At both localities, certain individual coral species supported similar levels of fish diversity and abundance as the high coral richness treatments, suggesting that particular coral species are disproportionately important in promoting high local fish diversity. Furthermore, in both localities, different microhabitats (coral species) supported very different fish communities, indicating that most reef fish species distinguish habitat at the level of coral species. Fish communities colonizing treatments of higher coral species richness represented a combination of those inhabiting the constituent coral species. These findings suggest that mechanisms underlying habitat-animal interaction in the terrestrial environment also apply to marine systems and highlight the importance of coral diversity to local fish diversity. The loss of particular key cOral species is likely to have a disproportionate impact on the biodiversity of associated fish communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major landscape changes caused by humans may create strong selection pressures and induce rapid evolution in natural populations. In the last 100 years, eastern North America has experienced extensive clear-cutting in boreal areas, while afforestation has occurred in most temperate areas. Based on museum specimens, I show that wings of several boreal forest songbirds and temperate songbirds of non-forest habitats have become more pointed over the last 100 years. In contrast, wings of most temperate forest and early-successional boreal forests species have become less pointed over the same period. In contrast to wing shape, the bill length of most species did not change significantly through time. These results are consistent with the "habitat isolation hypothesis," i.e., songbirds evolved in response to recent changes in the amount of available habitat and associated implications for mobility. Rapid morphological evolution may mitigate, without necessarily preventing, negative consequences of habitat loss caused by humans through direct exploitation or climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat loss is widely considered the greatest threat to biodiversity. However, habitat loss brings with it myriad other threats that exacerbate impacts to biodiversity. For instance, altered fire regime is associated with habitat loss and fragmentation with unknown consequences to biodiversity. Plant functional groups that rely on fire to complete their life cycle may be adversely affected by disruptions to the natural fire regime, particularly when coupled with population declines due to habitat loss. We used a spatially explicit stochastic population model linked with fire hazard functions to investigate the cumulative effects of habitat loss, fragmentation, and altered fire regime on the expected minimum abundance of a long-lived obligate-seeding shrub, Ceanothus greggii var. perplexans. This species is endemic to the California Floristic Province, a biodiversity hotspot, and is representative of a functional group of plants found in many fire-prone ecosystems. We tested the impact of a range of different fire frequencies under three different combinations of fuel accumulation and weather. The best average fire return interval for population abundance was consistently in the range of 30-50 years. However, observed average fire return intervals in highly fragmented areas can be approximately 20 years or less, and model results show this to be detrimental to C. greggii populations. Results also show that if fires are uncorrelated across habitat fragments then the impact of altered fire regime on populations is worse than the impact of habitat fragmentation because of spatial and temporal decoupling of fire events across the landscape. However, the negative impacts of altered fire regime are outweighed by habitat loss as fragmentation increases. Our results show that large unplanned fires, operating under an altered fire regime, are ultimately detrimental to perennial obligate-seeding shrubs in fragmented landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinators may be declining globally, a matter of concern because animal pollination is required by most of the world's plant species, including many crop plants. Human land use and the loss of native habitats is thought to be an important driver of decline for wild, native pollinators, yet the findings of published studies on this topic have never been quantitatively synthesized. Here we use meta-analysis to synthesize the literature on how bees, the most important group of pollinators, are affected by human disturbances such as habitat loss, grazing, logging, and agriculture. We obtained 130 effect sizes from 54 published studies recording bee abundance and/or species richness as a function of human disturbance. Both bee abundance and species richness were significantly, negatively affected by disturbance. However, the magnitude of the effects was not large. Furthermore, the only disturbance type showing a significant negative effect, habitat loss and fragmentation, was statistically significant only in systems where very little natural habitat remains. Therefore, it would be premature to draw conclusions about habitat loss having caused global pollinator decline without first assessing the extent to which the existing studies represent the status of global ecosystems. Future pollinator declines seem likely given forecasts of increasing land-use change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although predators affect prey both via consumption and by changing prey migration behavior. the interplay between these two effects is rarely incorporated into spatial models of predator prey dynamics and competition among prey. We develop a model where generalist predators have consumptive effects (i.e . altering the likelihood of local prey extinction) as well as nonconsumptive effects (altering the likelihood of colonization) on spatially separated prey populations (metapopulations). We then extend this model to explore the effects of predators an competition among prey. We find that generalist predators can promote persistence of prey metapopulations by promoting prey colonization, but predators can also hasten system-wide extinction by either increasing local extinction or reducing prey migration. By altering rates of prey migration, predators in one location can exert remote control over prey dynamics in another location via predator-mediated chances in prey has. Thus, the effect of predators may extend well beyond the proportion of patches they visit. In the content of prey metacommunities, predator-mediated shifts in prey migration and mortality can shift the competition-colonization trade-off among competing prey, leading to changes in the prey community as well as changes in the susceptibility of prey species to habitat loss. Consequently, native prey communities may be susceptible to invasion not only by exotic prey species that experience reduced amounts if mortality from resident predators, but also by exotic prey species that exhibit strong dispersal in response to generalist native predators. Ultimately, our work suggests that the consumptive and nonconsumptive effects of generalist predators may have strong, yet potentially cryptic, effects on competing prey capable of mediating coexistence, fostering invasion, and interacting with anthropogenic habitat alteration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimum patch size for a viable population can be estimated in several ways. The density—area method estimates minimum patch size as the smallest area in which no new individuals are encountered as one extends the arbitrary boundaries of a study area outward. The density—area method eliminates the assumption of no variation in density with size of habitat area that accompanies other methods, but it is untested in situations in which habitat loss has confined populations to small areas. We used a variant of the density—area method to study the minimum patch size for the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) in Florida, USA, where this keystone species is being confined to ever smaller habitat fragments. The variant was based on the premise that individuals within populations are likely to occur at unusually high densities when confined to small areas, and it estimated minimum patch size as the smallest area beyond which density plateaus. The data for our study came from detailed surveys of 38 populations of the tortoise. For all 38 populations, the areas occupied were determined empirically, and for 19 of them, duplicate surveys were undertaken about a decade apart. We found that a consistent inverse density—area relationship was present over smaller areas. The minimum patch size estimated from the density-area relationship was at least 100 ha, which is substantially larger than previous estimates. The relative abundance of juveniles was inversely related to population density for sites with relatively poor habitat quality, indicating that the estimated minimum patch size could represent an extinction threshold. We concluded that a negative density—area relationship may be an inevitable consequence of excessive habitat loss. We also concluded that any detrimental effects of an inverse density—area relationship may be exacerbated by the deterioration in habitat quality that often accompanies habitat loss. Finally, we concluded that the value of any estimate of minimum patch size as a conservation tool is compromised by excessive habitat loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity is a balance between processes that add and limit species (e.g., dispersal vs. competition), but reconciling their contributions remains a challenge. Recruitment-based models predict that dispersal barriers are most limiting for diversity, while competition-based models predict that dispersal matters only when competition is minimized. Testing these models is difficult because their influence varies with scale and site productivity. In a degraded oak savanna, we used plot-level (seed additions, burning) and site-level (proportions of regional functional groups found locally) analyses in areas with variable soil depth to examine how dispersal and competition influence diversity. At the plot level, added species persisted where they were formerly absent, but few established naturally despite fire-induced resource enrichment and nearby populations, revealing the importance of dispersal limitation for diversity. This result did not vary with soil depth or standing crop. Although competition could not prevent establishment in unburned plots, it significantly lowered survival, indicating that resource limitations exacerbate dispersal inefficiencies. At the site level, the concordance between regional and local diversity for native species was associated with soil depth heterogeneity, not dispersal or competition. This suggests that persistence is determined primarily by the influence of the environment on population demographics. Given that the formation of new populations is unlikely, those remaining appear to be confined to optimal habitat where they resist competitive or stochastic displacement, possibly explaining why species loss is rare despite substantial habitat loss and invasion. For exotics, there was no relationship between diversity and soil depth heterogeneity. Annuals with presumed dispersal capabilities were significantly overrepresented in all sites while perennial forbs, the largest regional functional group, were significantly underrepresented. We interpret the native—exotic discrepancies as reflecting the recent arrival of exotics (150 years ago), suggesting that local establishment occurs slowly even for species with regional prevalence. The accumulation lag may be explained by the need for founder populations to be demographically stable; otherwise persistence requires continual immigration favoring overrepresentation by dispersers. Our findings support the view that dispersal limitation restricts diversity within plant communities, but suggests that the impacts of environment on demographic performance ultimately determine the pattern and rate of community assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive empirical research and previous reviews, no clear patterns regarding the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on predator-prey interactions have emerged. We suggest that this is because empirical researchers do not design their studies to test specific hypotheses arising from the theoretical literature. In fact, theoretical work is almost completely ignored by empirical researchers, perhaps because it may be inaccessible to them. The purpose of this paper is to review theoretical work on the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on predator-prey interactions. We provide a summary of clear, testable theoretical predictions for empirical researchers. To test one or more of these predictions, an empiricist will need certain information on the predator and prey species of interest. This includes: (I) whether the predator is a specialist on one prey species or feeds on many kinds of prey (omnivore and generalist); (2) whether the predator is restricted to the same habitat type as the focal prey (specialist), can use a variety of habitats but has higher survival in the prey habitat (omnivore), or lives primarily outside of the focal prey's habitat (generalist); (3) whether prey-only patches have lower prey extinction rates than predator-prey patches; and (4) whether the prey emigrate at higher rates from predator-prey patches than from prey-only patches. Empiricists also need to be clear on whether they are testing a prediction about habitat loss or habitat fragmentation and need to conduct empirical studies at spatial scales appropriate for testing the theoretical prediction(s). We suggest that appropriate use of the theoretical predictions in future empirical research will resolve the apparent inconsistencies in the empirical literature on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major challenge facing conservation biologists and wildlife managers is to predict how fauna will respond to habitat loss. Different species require different amounts of habitat for population persistence, and species' reproductive rates have been identified as one of the major factors affecting these habitat-amount requirements. The purpose of this study was to test the prediction that species with higher reproductive rates require less habitat for population persistence than species with lower reproductive rates. We used 41 species of forest breeding birds to test for a relationship between the annual reproductive output and the amount of forest cover at which each species has a 50% probability of presence in the landscape. To look at the presence of species over landscapes with varying amounts of forest cover, we combined two large-scale independent data sets: the North American Breeding Bird Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) digital data. Species presence/absence information was determined over a 10-year window for 779 circular landscapes that surround each Breeding Bird Survey route in the central and eastern USA region. Annual reproductive rates were obtained from the literature. There was a significant negative (interspecies) relationship between the estimated minimum habitat amount at which there was a 50% probability of presence in the landscape and annual reproductive output (F[SUB]1,39[SUB] = 7.71, P = 0.008, r[SUP]2[SUP] = 0.16). This is the first direct test for a negative relationship between minimum habitat requirements and annual reproductive rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat destruction is the single greatest anthropogenic threat to biodiversity. Decades of research on this issue have led to the accumulation of hundreds of data sets comparing species assemblages in larger, intact, habitats to smaller, more fragmented, habitats. Despite this, little synthesis or consensus has been achieved, primarily because of non‐standardized sampling methodology and analyses of notoriously scale‐dependent response variables (i.e., species richness). To be able to compare and contrast the results of habitat fragmentation on species' assemblages, it is necessary to have the underlying data on species abundances and sampling intensity, so that standardization can be achieved. To accomplish this, we systematically searched the literature for studies where abundances of species in assemblages (of any taxa) were sampled from many habitat patches that varied in size. From these, we extracted data from several studies, and contacted authors of studies where appropriate data were collected but not published, giving us 117 studies that compared species assemblages among habitat fragments that varied in area. Less than one‐half (41) of studies came from tropical forests of Central and South America, but there were many studies from temperate forests and grasslands from all continents except Antarctica. Fifty‐four of the studies were on invertebrates (mostly insects), but there were several studies on plants (15), birds (16), mammals (19), and reptiles and amphibians (13). We also collected qualitative information on the length of time since fragmentation. With data on total and relative abundances (and identities) of species, sampling effort, and affiliated meta‐data about the study sites, these data can be used to more definitively test hypotheses about the role of habitat fragmentation in altering patterns of biodiversity. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper and the associated Dryad data set if the data are used in publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xenarthrans—anteaters, sloths, and armadillos—have essential functions for ecosystem maintenance, such as insect control and nutrient cycling, playing key roles as ecosystem engineers. Because of habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting pressure, and conflicts with domestic dogs, these species have been threatened locally, regionally, or even across their full distribution ranges. The Neotropics harbor 21 species of armadillos, 10 anteaters, and 6 sloths. Our data set includes the families Chlamyphoridae (13), Dasypodidae (7), Myrmecophagidae (3), Bradypodidae (4), and Megalonychidae (2). We have no occurrence data on Dasypus pilosus (Dasypodidae). Regarding Cyclopedidae, until recently, only one species was recognized, but new genetic studies have revealed that the group is represented by seven species. In this data paper, we compiled a total of 42,528 records of 31 species, represented by occurrence and quantitative data, totaling 24,847 unique georeferenced records. The geographic range is from the southern United States, Mexico, and Caribbean countries at the northern portion of the Neotropics, to the austral distribution in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. Regarding anteaters, Myrmecophaga tridactyla has the most records (n = 5,941), and Cyclopes sp. have the fewest (n = 240). The armadillo species with the most data is Dasypus novemcinctus (n = 11,588), and the fewest data are recorded for Calyptophractus retusus (n = 33). With regard to sloth species, Bradypus variegatus has the most records (n = 962), and Bradypus pygmaeus has the fewest (n = 12). Our main objective with Neotropical Xenarthrans is to make occurrence and quantitative data available to facilitate more ecological research, particularly if we integrate the xenarthran data with other data sets of Neotropical Series that will become available very soon (i.e., Neotropical Carnivores, Neotropical Invasive Mammals, and Neotropical Hunters and Dogs). Therefore, studies on trophic cascades, hunting pressure, habitat loss, fragmentation effects, species invasion, and climate change effects will be possible with the Neotropical Xenarthrans data set. Please cite this data paper when using its data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using these data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the long‐term consequences of habitat alteration for the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem function requires an understanding of how ecological filters drive taxonomic and functional biodiversity loss. Here, we test a set of predictions concerning the role of ecological filters in restructuring native bee assemblages inhabiting fragmented coastal sage scrub ecosystems in southern California, USA. In 2011 and 2012, we collected native bees in scrub habitat belonging to two treatment categories: large natural reserves and small habitat fragments embedded in an urban landscape. We compared bee assemblages in reserve and fragment sites with respect to their taxonomic and functional alpha diversity, beta diversity, assemblage composition, and mean geographical range size estimated via distribution maps compiled for this study from digitized specimen records. We found multiple lines of evidence that ecological filtering drove bee diversity loss in fragments: a disproportionate loss of functional diversity relative to taxonomic diversity, shifts in assemblage composition driven largely by the preferential extirpation of reserve‐associated indicator species, and disproportionate loss of range‐restricted species. However, we found no evidence of taxonomic or functional homogenization across fragment bee assemblages, suggesting that filtering was not sufficiently strong to cause a subset of functional traits (and their associated species) to dominate assemblages in fragments. Our results suggest that ecological filtering altered bee assemblages in habitat fragments, even when such fragments contained well‐preserved native plant assemblages, underscoring the importance of preserving large areas of natural habitat for the conservation of bees (especially range‐restricted taxa) and their associated ecological functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat conversion and fragmentation threaten biodiversity and disrupt species interactions. While parasites are recognized as ecologically important, the impacts of fragmentation on parasitism are poorly understood relative to other species interactions. This lack of understanding is in part due to confounding landscape factors that accompany fragmentation. Fragmentation experiments provide the opportunity to fill this knowledge gap by mechanistically testing how fragmentation affects parasitism while controlling landscape factors. In a large‐scale, long‐term experiment, we asked how fragmentation affects a host–parasite interaction between a skink and a parasitic nematode, which is trophically transmitted via a terrestrial amphipod intermediate host. We expected that previously observed amphipod declines resulting from fragmentation would result in decreased transmission of nematodes to skinks. In agreement, we found that nematodes were absent among skinks in the cleared matrix and that infections in fragments were about one quarter of those in continuous forest. Amphipods found in gut contents of skinks and collected from pitfall traps mirrored this pattern. A structural equation model supported the expectation that fragmentation disrupted this interaction by altering the abundance of amphipods and suggested that other variables are likely also important in mediating this effect. These findings advance understanding of how landscape change affects parasitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]