The effects of spatial patterns in habitat quality on community dynamics within a site

Abstract

Metapopulation studies of single species have shown that the size and spatial arrangement of patches of assumed uniformly ‘suitable’ habitat can influence their population dynamics and persistence. We investigated whether variation in the spatial arrangement of ‘suitable’ habitat of varied quality within a single site can affect the abundance and persistence of interacting species. We accomplished this by extending a field–based spatial simulation model of four interacting species at two trophic levels (an endangered butterfly, its larval food–plant, and two ants). The habitat on sites with the same average and range of qualities was rearranged to give varying degrees of local spatial heterogeneity or ‘site ruggedness’. We found that the ant species that acts as host to the butterfly caterpillars decreased with site ruggedness. The impact on the butterfly was more substantial: it often failed to persist on very rugged sites. Despite being free–ranging over the whole area, the butterfly9s persistence depends on the arrangement of habitat quality at a finer spatial scale, due to its interactions with species possessing narrower habitat niches and more localized dispersal. Ruggedness also influenced the rate of recovery of the host ant, and hence community structure, for more than a century following the butterfly9s extinction.