Variability in primary productivity determines metapopulation dynamics

Temporal variability in primary productivity can change habitat quality for consumer species by affecting the energy levels available as food resources. However, it remains unclear how habitat quality fluctuations may determine the dynamics of spatially structured populations, where the effects of habitat size, quality, and isolation have been customarily assessed assuming static habitats. We present the first empirical evaluation on the effects of stochastic fluctuations in primary productivity —a major outcome of ecosystem functions— on the metapopulation dynamics of a primary consumer. A unique 13-year dataset from an herbivore rodent was used to test the hypothesis that inter-annual variations in primary productivity determine habitat occupancy patterns and colonization and extinction processes. Inter-annual variability in productivity and in the growing season phenology significantly influenced habitat colonization patterns and occupancy dynamics. These effects lead to changes in c...

初级生产力的时间变异性可通过影响作为食物资源的可利用能量水平，改变消费者物种的栖息地质量。然而，目前尚不清楚栖息地质量波动如何决定空间结构化种群的动态——传统上，人们在评估栖息地大小、质量和隔离度的影响时，均假设栖息地是静态的。我们首次开展了关于初级生产力随机波动（stochastic fluctuations）——生态系统功能的核心产出之一——对初级消费者集合种群动态（metapopulation dynamics）影响的实证评估。我们利用一个独特的、长达13年的草食性啮齿动物数据集，验证了初级生产力年际变化决定栖息地占据模式及定居和灭绝过程这一假设。生产力的年际变异性及生长季物候显著影响了栖息地定居模式和占据动态。这些效应导致c...的变化。