10.5061/DRYAD.FBG79CNRJ
Watling, James
0000-0003-4445-4808
John Carroll University
Arroyo-Rodríguez, Víctor
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Pfeifer, Marion
Newcastle University
Baeten, Lander
Ghent University
Banks-Leite, Cristina
Imperial College London
Cisneros, Laura
University of Connecticut
Fang, Rebecca
John Carroll University
Hamel-Leigue, Caroli
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Lachat, Thibault
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Leal, Inara
Federal University of Pernambuco
Lens, Luc
Ghent University
Possingham, Hugh
University of Queensland
Raheem, Dinarzarde
Natural History Museum
Ribeiro, Danilo
Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul
Slade, Eleanor
University of Oxford
Urbina-Cardona, Nicolas
Pontifical Xavierian University
Wood, Eric
California State University Los Angeles
Fahrig, Lenore
Carleton University
Support for the habitat amount hypothesis from a global synthesis of
species density studies
Dryad
dataset
2020
Deforestation
Ecology: landscape
habitat fragmentation
habitat loss
Methods: meta-analysis
2021-02-07T00:00:00Z
2020-02-11T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13471
201964603 bytes
4
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Decades of research suggest that species richness depends on spatial
characteristics of habitat patches, especially their size and isolation.
In contrast, the habitat amount hypothesis predicts that: 1) species
richness in plots of fixed size (species density) is more strongly and
positively related to the amount of habitat around the plot than to patch
size or isolation; 2) habitat amount better predicts species density than
patch size and isolation combined, 3) there is no effect of habitat
fragmentation per se on species density; and 4) patch size and isolation
effects do not become stronger with declining habitat amount. Data on
eight taxonomic groups from 35 studies around the world support these
predictions. Conserving species density requires minimizing habitat loss,
irrespective of the configuration of the patches in which that habitat is
contained.
See Watling et al. 'Support for the habitat amount hypothesis from a
global synthesis of species density studies' for complete methods.