Data from: Time since disturbance affects colonization dynamics in a metapopulation

1. Disturbances are widespread in nature and can have substantial
population-level consequences. Most empirical studies on the effects of
disturbance track population recovery within habitat patches, but have an
incomplete representation of the recolonization process. Additionally,
recent metapopulation models represent post-disturbance colonization with
a recovery state or time-lag for disturbed (“focal”) patches, thus
assuming that recolonization rates are uniform. 2. However, the
availability of colonists in neighboring “source” patches can vary,
especially in frequently-disturbed landscapes such as fire-managed forests
that have a mosaic of patches that differ in successional state and
undergo frequent local extinctions. To determine how time since
disturbance in both focal and neighboring source patches might affect
metapopulations, we studied the effects of time since fire (TSF) on
abundances of a specialist palmetto beetle within and between fire
management units in Apalachicola National Forest, Florida. 3. We measured
beetle abundances at three distances from the shared edge of paired units,
with units ranging from 0-64 months since fire and the difference in time
since burning for a focal-source pair ranging from 3-58 months. 4. Soon
after fire, beetle abundances within management units were highest near
the unit edge, but this pattern changed with increasing TSF. Between
paired units, the more recently-disturbed (“focal”) unit’s beetle
abundance was positively related to source unit abundance, but the shape
of this relationship differed based on focal unit TSF and the units’
difference in time since burning. 5. Results suggest that both focal and
source habitat history can influence recolonization of recently-disturbed
patches and that these effects may persist over years. Thus, when
predicting metapopulation dynamics, variation in habitat characteristics
should be considered not only for patches receiving colonists, but for
patches supplying colonists as well.