Description: Population viability, evaluated with landscape evaluations tools like LARCH en METAPHORE considering single species, will always increase when the connectivity in the landscape increased. However, when antagonistic species, like predators, competing species and diseases play a key role in the dynamics of a target species this might be different. If we evaluate population viability in landscapes with a metacommunity approach (adding species interactions) we expect that some species might profited from isolation. We especially expect this in species that have a high dispersal rate and a low competitive ability. These species might escape to patches where antagonists are not able to come or have not yet arrived.
Research objectives:
The objective of our study is to get insight in: how antagonistic species might affect population viability of a target species, we specifically ask:
1. Which species traits and trait combinations will profit from isolation? 2. Which landscape configurations are especially sensitive to this effect? 3. What is the order of magnitude of the error made ignoring this effect? 4. Can we improve currently use tools to account for this effect?
Results and products:
The method comprised three phases.
1. A literature study to evaluate whether its important to replace the metapopulation concept by a metacommunity concept. Additionally we will study the effect of species interactions in spatial explicit metapopulation models. 2. A simulations study using the relatively simple metapopulation environment, METAPOP. Here we explore the metapopulation dynamics of two species that compete in a Lotka Volterra like way. By increasing the species interaction at various levels of dispersal and landscape fragmentation we can discover in what conditions species interactions give deviating results from the single species approach. 3. Writing a short report.
Results The structure of currently used landscape evaluation tools will always give the same result: a better connectivity is better for all species. Consequently optimal landscape configurations are always well connected landscapes. But when the effect of antagonistic species on the survival of the target species is important these results might not be realistic. Here the result might be the opposite; some species need some degree of isolation to survive. In these kinds of cases we should replace the metapopulation concepts by a more metacommunity based approach and evaluation models should be adapted to evaluate these cases. |