Sutcliffe Odette L, Thomas Chris D, Yates Tina J, Greatorex-Davies J Nick
Department of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK, , , , , , GB.
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Monks Wood, Natural Environment Research Council, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE17 2LS, UK fax: (01487) 773467, e-mail:
Oecologia. 1997 Jan;109(2):235-241. doi: 10.1007/s004420050078.
The persistence of metapopulations is likely to be highly dependent on whether population dynamics are correlated among habitat patches as a result of migration between patches and spatially-correlated environmental stochasticity (weather effects). We examined whether population dynamics of the ringlet butterfly, Aphantopus hyperantus, were synchronous in an area of approximately 0.5 km, with respect to extinction, colonization and population fluctuations. Monks Wood Butterfly Monitoring Scheme transect count data from 1973 to 1995, revealed (A) a major environmental perturbation, the drought of 1976, which caused synchronized extinctions of A. hyperantus in subsequent years, (B) synchronized recolonization in years following the large number of apparent extinctions, and (C) population changes by A. hyperantus were highly correlated in many of the 14 sections of the transect, presumably reflecting similar responses to environmental stochasticity, and the exchange of individuals among sections. However, extinction and population synchrony depended on habitat type. Following the 1976 drought, A. hyperantus apparently became extinct from the most open and most shady habitats it occupied, with some persistence in habitats of intermediate shading, thus showing retraction to core populations in central parts of an environmental gradient, albeit with an average shift to relatively open habitat. Populations at extreme ends of the environmental gradient occupied by A. hyperantus fluctuated least synchronously, suggesting a potential buffering effect of habitat heterogeneity, but this was not crucial to survival after the 1976 drought. Thus, not all habitats are equally important to persistence. Correlated temporal dynamics, variation in habitat quality and the interaction between habitat quality and temporal environmental stochasticity are important determinants of metapopulation persistence and should be incorporated in metapopulation models.
集合种群的持续存在很可能高度依赖于种群动态是否由于斑块间的迁移和空间相关的环境随机性（天气影响）而在栖息地斑块间相关联。我们研究了在大约0.5平方千米的区域内，弄蝶Aphantopus hyperantus的种群动态在灭绝、定殖和种群波动方面是否同步。来自1973年至1995年的蒙克斯伍德蝴蝶监测计划样带计数数据显示：（A）1976年的干旱这一主要环境扰动，导致了随后几年中A. hyperantus的同步灭绝；（B）在大量明显灭绝事件后的年份里出现了同步再定殖；（C）在样带的14个区域中的许多区域，A. hyperantus的种群变化高度相关，大概反映了对环境随机性的相似反应以及各区域间个体的交换。然而，灭绝和种群同步性取决于栖息地类型。1976年干旱之后，A. hyperantus显然从其占据的最开阔和最阴暗的栖息地灭绝，在中等阴暗程度的栖息地有一些留存，从而显示出向环境梯度中部核心种群的收缩，尽管平均而言向相对开阔的栖息地转移。A. hyperantus所占据的环境梯度两端的种群波动同步性最低，这表明栖息地异质性可能具有缓冲作用，但这对1976年干旱后的生存并非至关重要。因此，并非所有栖息地对持续存在都同等重要。相关的时间动态、栖息地质量的变化以及栖息地质量与时间环境随机性之间的相互作用是集合种群持续存在的重要决定因素，应纳入集合种群模型中。
