RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Metacommunity in dynamic landscapes
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 021220
DO 10.1101/021220
A1 Charles Novaes de Santana
A1 Jan Klecka
A1 Gian M. Palamara
A1 Carlos J. Melián
YR 2015
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/06/26/021220.abstract
AB Predictions from theory, field data, and experiments have shown that high landscape connectivity promotes higher species richness than low connectivity. However, examples demonstrating high diversity in low connected landscapes also exist. Here we describe the many factors that drive landscape connectivity at different spatiotemporal scales by varying the amplitude and frequency of changes in the dispersal radius of spatial networks. We found that the fluctuations of landscape connectivity support metacommunities with higher species richness than static landscapes. Our results also show a dispersal radius threshold below which species richness drops dramatically in static landscapes. Such a threshold is not observed in dynamic landscapes for a broad range of amplitude and frequency values determining landscape connectivity. We conclude that merging amplitude and frequency as drivers of landscape connectivity together with patch dynamics into metacommunity theory can provide new testable predictions about species diversity in rapidly changing landscapes.