Spread of networked populations is determined by the interplay between dispersal behavior and habitat configuration

Abstract

Predicting the spread of populations across fragmented habitats is vital if we are to manage their persistence in the long term. We applied network theory with a model and an experiment to show that spread rate is jointly defined by the configuration of habitat networks (i.e., the arrangement and length of connections between habitat fragments) and the movement behavior of individuals. We found that population spread rate in the model was well predicted by algebraic connectivity of the habitat network. A multigeneration experiment with the microarthropod Folsomia candida validated this model prediction. The realized habitat connectivity and spread rate were determined by the interaction between dispersal behavior and habitat configuration, such that the network configurations that facilitated the fastest spread changed depending on the shape of the species’ dispersal kernel. Predicting the spread rate of populations in fragmented landscapes requires combining knowledge of species-specific dispersal kernels and the spatial configuration of habitat networks. This information can be used to design landscapes to manage the spread and persistence of species in fragmented habitats.

Integrating learning into animal range dynamics under rapid human‐induced environmental change

“…Our model results offer an intriguing novel perspective on functional landscape connectivity under HIREC (Littlefield et al, 2019;Rayfield et al, 2023). If animals learn to use novel resources, they can disperse to, and thrive in, areas that do not host ancestral consumables but only novel resources.…”

Habitat restoration and the recovery of metacommunities

“…Species that are able to traverse long distances may be affected by fragmentation to a lesser extent; thus, we expect smaller restoration lags and differences between spatial restoration strategies (Emer et al, 2018; Forup et al, 2008; Gawecka & Bascompte, 2021). Species dispersal and persistence are also affected by the heterogeneity of the landscape in terms of the spatial distribution of habitat patches and connections between them (Gilarranz & Bascompte, 2012; Rayfield et al, 2023; Urban & Keitt, 2001). While our findings are based on landscape discretised as a regular grid of patches (each connected to its closest neighbours), we expect patch connectivity to play an important role in both landscape fragmentation (Liao et al, 2020) and restoration.…”

Rapid evaluation of habitat connectivity change to safeguard multispecies persistence in human-transformed landscapes

“…Hence, our approach lies between quantifying the capacity of a landscape to foster potential species movement (structural connectivity; Calabrese & Fagan, 2004) and expected realized species movement (functional connectivity; Salgueiro et al, 2021; Tischendorf & Fahrig, 2000). Realized species movement does not only depend on the structure of habitat networks, but also on other external factors such as population dynamics (Chu & Claramunt, 2023), and the behavior of individuals (Nathan et al, 2008; Rayfield et al, 2023). To generate more realistic connectivity estimates, movement traits could be estimated from species traits (e.g.…”

“…To generate more realistic connectivity estimates, movement traits could be estimated from species traits (e.g. body mass or wing length; Chu & Claramunt, 2023; Hartfelder et al, 2020) and included in more sophisticated dispersal probability kernels with resistance-weighted distance (McRae et al, 2016; Rayfield et al, 2023) or even in trait-based movement models (Hirt et al, 2018). Alternatively, dispersal could be derived empirically from realized movement trajectories (e.g.…”