NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Oxfordshire, UK.
Ecol Lett. 2010 Apr;13(4):473-84. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01441.x. Epub 2010 Feb 8.
Habitat heterogeneity is often suggested as being important for the stability of populations, and promoted as a means to aid the conservation of species, but the evidence for such an assumption is poor. Here we show that heterogeneous landscapes that contain a variety of suitable habitat types are associated with more stable population dynamics for 35 British butterfly species from 166 sites. In addition, topographic heterogeneity may also promote stability. Our results were robust to different measures of population variability, differences in mean abundance among sites, and to the spatial scale (radius 1-5 km around the centres of sites) at which landscapes were analysed. Responses to landscape heterogeneity differed among species; for more mobile 'wider-countryside' species, habitat heterogeneity at larger landscape scales had the strongest effect on population dynamics. We suggest that heterogeneous landscapes offer a greater range of resources and microclimates, which can buffer populations against climatic variation and generate more stable population dynamics.
生境异质性常被认为对种群稳定性很重要，并被提倡作为物种保护的一种手段，但这种假设的证据是不足的。在这里，我们表明，包含多种适宜生境类型的异质景观与来自 166 个地点的 35 种英国蝴蝶的更稳定的种群动态有关。此外，地形异质性也可能促进稳定性。我们的结果对于不同的种群变异性度量、不同地点的平均丰度差异以及景观分析的空间尺度（地点中心周围 1-5 公里半径）都是稳健的。对景观异质性的反应在物种之间存在差异；对于更具流动性的“更广泛的乡村”物种，较大景观尺度上的生境异质性对种群动态的影响最大。我们认为，异质景观提供了更多的资源和微气候，可以缓冲种群免受气候变化的影响，并产生更稳定的种群动态。
