Department of Watershed Sciences and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, 5210 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, USA.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK.
Ecol Lett. 2020 Apr;23(4):682-691. doi: 10.1111/ele.13475. Epub 2020 Feb 11.
Designing protected area configurations to maximise biodiversity is a critical conservation goal. The configuration of protected areas can significantly impact the richness and identity of the species found there; one large patch supports larger populations but can facilitate competitive exclusion. Conversely, many small habitats spreads risk but may exclude predators that typically require large home ranges. Identifying how best to design protected areas is further complicated by monitoring programs failing to detect species. Here we test the consequences of different protected area configurations using multi-trophic level experimental microcosms. We demonstrate that for a given total size, many small patches generate higher species richness, are more likely to contain predators, and have fewer extinctions compared to single large patches. However, the relationship between the size, number of patches, and species richness was greatly affected by insufficient monitoring, and could lead to incorrect conservation decisions, especially for higher trophic levels.
设计保护区配置以最大化生物多样性是一个关键的保护目标。保护区的配置会对那里发现的物种的丰富度和特征产生重大影响；一个大斑块可以支持更大的种群，但可能会促进竞争排斥。相反，许多小栖息地会分散风险，但可能会排斥通常需要大片栖息地的捕食者。监测计划未能检测到物种，这使得如何最好地设计保护区变得更加复杂。在这里，我们使用多营养级实验微宇宙来测试不同保护区配置的后果。我们证明，在给定的总大小下，许多小斑块产生更高的物种丰富度，更有可能包含捕食者，与单个大斑块相比，灭绝的可能性更小。然而，大小、斑块数量和物种丰富度之间的关系受到监测不足的极大影响，可能导致错误的保护决策，尤其是对于更高的营养级。
