Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China.
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Ecology. 2023 Dec;104(12):e4177. doi: 10.1002/ecy.4177. Epub 2023 Oct 17.
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.
人们通常认为，以栖息地丧失和破碎化为特征的栖息地破坏对生物多样性具有持续的负面影响。尽管许多实证研究表明了栖息地丧失的有害影响，但关于栖息地破碎化是否普遍具有负面影响的争论仍在继续。为了探讨栖息地破碎化的影响，我们开发了一个简单的斑块生境中局域种群动态模型。通过该模型，我们证明了竞争-扩散权衡作用可以导致生物多样性对栖息地丧失和破碎化的非线性波动响应。然而，栖息地丧失降低物种丰富度的总体模式仍然成立，与实证观察结果一致。有趣的是，生物多样性中局部波动的存在可以解释自然中观察到的物种丰富度对栖息地破碎化本身的混合响应，从而调和关于破碎化-多样性关系的争论。因此，本研究为实证观察到的生物多样性对栖息地破坏的响应模式提供了一个简约的机制解释。
