Maguire Dorothy Y, Buddle Christopher M, Bennett Elena M
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, St-Anne-De-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada.
School of Environment, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
PLoS One. 2016 Mar 3;11(3):e0150843. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150843. eCollection 2016.
Fragmentation changes the spatial patterns of landscapes in ways that can alter the flow of materials and species; however, our understanding of the consequences of this fragmentation and flow alteration for ecosystem processes and ecosystem services remains limited. As an ecological process that affects many ecosystem services and is sensitive to fragmentation, insect herbivory is a good model system for exploring the role of fragmentation, and the resulting spatial patterns of landscapes, in the provision of ecosystem services. To refine our knowledge of how changes in landscape pattern affect insect herbivory, we quantified the combined influence of among patch (patch area and patch connectivity) and within patch (location within patch; canopy, edge, interior) factors on amounts of insect herbivory in a fragmented forest landscape. We measured herbivory in 20 forest patches of differing size and connectivity in southern Quebec (Canada). Within each patch, herbivory was quantified at the interior, edge, and canopy of sugar maple trees during the spring and summer of 2011 and 2012. Results show that connectivity affects herbivory differently depending on the location within the patch (edge, interior, canopy), an effect that would have gone unnoticed if samples were pooled across locations. These results suggest considering structure at both the patch and within patch scales may help to elucidate patterns when studying the effects of fragmentation on ecosystem processes, with implications for the services they support.
破碎化以能够改变物质和物种流动的方式改变了景观的空间格局；然而，我们对这种破碎化及其导致的流动改变对生态系统过程和生态系统服务的影响的理解仍然有限。作为一种影响多种生态系统服务且对破碎化敏感的生态过程，昆虫食草作用是探索破碎化以及由此产生的景观空间格局在生态系统服务提供中所起作用的良好模型系统。为了深化我们对景观格局变化如何影响昆虫食草作用的认识，我们量化了斑块间因素（斑块面积和斑块连通性）和斑块内因素（斑块内位置；树冠层、边缘、内部）对破碎森林景观中昆虫食草量的综合影响。我们在加拿大魁北克南部测量了20个大小和连通性不同的森林斑块中的食草情况。在每个斑块内，于2011年和2012年的春季和夏季对糖枫树的内部、边缘和树冠层的食草情况进行了量化。结果表明，连通性对食草作用的影响因斑块内位置（边缘、内部、树冠层）而异，如果将不同位置的样本合并起来，这种影响就会被忽略。这些结果表明，在研究破碎化对生态系统过程的影响时，考虑斑块尺度和斑块内尺度的结构可能有助于阐明格局，这对它们所支持的服务具有重要意义。
