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Pedley, Scott and Dolman, Paul 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9340-2791
(2020)
Arthropod traits and assemblages differ between core patches, transient stepping-stones and landscape corridors.
Landscape Ecology, 35 (4).
937–952.
ISSN 0921-2973
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Abstract
Context: Restoring landscape connectivity can mitigate fragmentation and improve population resilience, but functional equivalence of contrasting elements is poorly understood. Evaluating biodiversity outcomes requires examining assemblage-responses across contrasting taxa. Objectives: We compared arthropod species and trait composition between contrasting open-habitat network elements: core patches, corridors (allowing individual dispersal and population percolation), and transient stepping-stones (potentially enhancing meta-population dynamics). Methods: Carabids and spiders were sampled from core patches of grass-heath habitat (n=24 locations across eight sites), corridors (trackways, n=15) and recently-replanted clear-fells (transient patches, n=19) set in a forest matrix impermeable to open-habitat arthropods. Species and trait (habitat association, diet, body size, dispersal ability) composition were compared by ordination and fourth corner analyses. Results: Each network element supported distinct arthropod assemblages with differing functional trait composition. Core patches were dominated by specialist dry-open habitat species while generalist and woodland species contributed to assemblages in connectivity elements. Nevertheless, transient patches (and to a lesser degree, corridors) supported dry-open species characteristic of the focal grass-heath sites. Trait associations differed markedly among the three elements. Dispersal mechanisms and their correlates differed between taxa, but dry-open species in transient patches were characterised by traits favouring dispersal (large running hunter spiders and large, winged, herbivorous carabids), in contrast to wingless carabids in corridors. Conclusions: Core patches, dispersal corridors and transient stepping-stones are not functionally interchangeable within this system. Semi-natural core patches supported a filtered subset of the regional fauna. Evidence for enhanced connectivity through percolation (corridors) or meta-population dynamics (stepping stones) differed between the two taxa.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | carabid beetle,dispersal corridors,ecological networks,environmental-change,ecological network,functional-responses,ground beetles coleoptera,habitat fragmentation,life-history traits,landscape connectivity,movement corridors,open-habitat network,plantation forest,population-densities,species traits |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Mar 2020 01:31 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Oct 2022 05:57 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/74582 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10980-020-00991-0 |
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