Environmental heterogeneity has been shown to have a profound effect on population dynamics and biological invasions, yet the effect of its spatial structure on the dynamics of disease invasion in a spatial hostparasite system has received little attention. Here we explore the effect of environment heterogeneity using the pair approximation and the stochastic spatially explicit simulation in which the lost patches are clustered in a fragmented landscape. The intensity of fragmentation is defined by the amount and spatial autocorrelation of the lost habitat. More fragmented landscape (high amount of habitat loss, low clustering of lost patches) was shown to be detrimental to the parasitic disease invasion and transmission, which implies that the potential of using artificial disturbances as a disease-control agency in biological conservation and management. Two components of the spatial heterogeneity (the amount and spatial autocorrelation of the lost habitat) formed a trade-off in determining the host-parasite dynamics. An extremely high degree of habitat loss was, counter-intuitively, harmful to the host. These results enrich our understanding of eco-epidemiological, host-parasite systems, and suggest the possibility of using the spatial arrangement of habitat patches as a conservation tool for guarding focal species against parasitic infection and transmission.
Spatial synchrony can increase extinction risk and undermines metapopulation persistence. Both dispersal and biotic interactions can strongly affect spatial synchrony. Here, we explore the spatial synchrony of a tri‐trophic food chain in two patches connected by density‐dependent dispersal, namely the strategies of prey evasion (PE) and predator pursuit (PP). The dynamics of the food chain are depicted by both the Hastings–Powell model and the chemostat model, with synchrony measured by the Pearson correlation coefficient. We use the density‐independent dispersal in the system as a baseline for comparison. Results show that the density‐independent dispersal of a species in the system can promote its dynamic synchrony. Dispersal of intermediate species in the tri‐trophic food chain is the strongest synchronizer. In contrast, the density‐dependent PP and PE of intermediate species can desynchronize the system. Highly synchronized dynamics emerged when the basal species has a strong PE strategy or when the top species has a moderate PP strategy. Our results reveal the complex relationship between density‐dependent dispersal and spatial synchrony in tri‐trophic systems.
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