Abstract

Neutral landscape models predict that habitat loss will abruptly disrupt landscape connectivity. We performed a series of simulation experiments to explore whether thresholds in landscape connectivity affect movement attributes (path length, net displacement, and fractal dimension of pathway) within fractal neutral landscapes. We then tested these assumptions by generating fractal landscape patterns in the field across a range of habitat abundances (0%, 20%, 50%, and 80% grass) and patchiness (clumped vs. patchy) and quantified how patch structure affected movement behavior in a generic organism, the common cricket Acheta domestica (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). In the simulation experiment, individuals constrained to move only through adjacent grass cells (neighborhood size = 4 cells) exhibited abrupt thresholds between 50% and 80% grass cover for all movement parameters in clumped fractal landscapes but exhibited a linear decline in movement with decreasing habitat in patchy landscapes. Individuals constraine...

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