Population and individual‐scale responses to patch size, isolation and quality in the hazel dormouse

Mortelliti, Alessio; Sozio, Giulia; Driscoll, Don A.; Bani, Luciano; Boitani, Luigi; Lindenmayer, David B.

doi:10.1890/es14-00115.1

Cited by 35 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Numerous studies have documented the important role of patch quality in colonization rate both in terrestrial (Rausher 1983, 1993, Singer 1984, Thompson and Pellmyr 1991, Renwick 1994, Mortelliti et al 2014, and aquatic systems (Resetarits and Wilbur 1989, Resetarits 2001, Kiflawi et al 2003, 2007, Vonesh and Buck 2007, Vonesh et al 2009, Deans and Chalcraft 2017, review: Blaustein 1999. However, these studies typically manipulate quality while holding size (and isolation) constant and are rarely designed to compare relative importance.…”

Section: Patch Quality Vs Patch Size In Community Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Predation risk and patch size jointly determine perceived patch quality in ovipositing treefrogs,Hyla chrysoscelis

Resetarits

Bohenek

Breech

et al. 2018

Ecology

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Two of the most important factors determining community structure and diversity within and among habitat patches are patch size and patch quality. Despite the importance of patch size in existing paradigms in island biogeography, metapopulation biology, landscape ecology, and metacommunity ecology, and growing conservation concerns with habitat fragmentation, there has been little investigation into how patch size interacts with patch quality. We crossed three levels of patch size (1.13 m , 2.54 m and 5.73 m ) with two levels of patch quality (fish presence/absence, green sunfish [Lepomis cyanellus] and golden shiners [Notemigonus crysoleucus]) in six replicate experimental landscapes (3 × 2 × 6 = 36 patches). Both fish predators have been previously shown to elicit avoidance in ovipositing treefrogs. We examined how patch size and patch quality, as well as the interaction between size and quality, affected female oviposition preference and male calling site choice in a natural population of treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis). Females almost exclusively oviposited in the largest fishless patches, indicating that females use both risk, in the form of fish predators, and size itself, as components of patch quality. Females routinely use much smaller natural and experimental patches, suggesting that the responses to patch size are highly context dependent. Responses to fish were unaffected by patch size. Male responses largely mimicked those of females, but did not drive female oviposition. We suggest that patch size itself functions as another aspect of patch quality for H. chrysoscelis, and serves as another niche dimension across which species may behaviorally sort in natural systems. Because of strong, shared avoidance of fish (as well as other predators), among many colonizing taxa, patch size may be a critical factor in species sorting and processes of community assembly in freshwater habitats, allowing species to behaviorally segregate along gradients of patch size in fishless ponds. Conversely, lack of variation in patch size may concentrate colonization activity, leading to intensification of species interactions and/or increased use of lesser quality patches.

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Section: Patch Quality Vs Patch Size In Community Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Predation risk and patch size jointly determine perceived patch quality in ovipositing treefrogs,Hyla chrysoscelis

Resetarits

Bohenek

Breech

et al. 2018

Ecology

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show abstract

“…The last two decades have seen a large body of ecological theory and field research highlighting the role of large patches of vegetation in enabling habitat-dependent species persistence (Andren 1994;Bender, Contreras & Fahrig 1998;Fischer et al 2009). The importance of maintaining large patches is repeatedly emphasized in theory (MacArthur & Wilson 1967) and practice (Ferraz et al 2007;Mortelliti et al 2014). Species-area relationships (Rosenzweig 1995), patch size-population density relationships (Connor, Courtney & Yoder 2000) and assessments of the impact of edge effects on patch size (Beier, Van Drielen & Kankam 2002;Watson, Whittaker & Dawson 2004) all support large contiguous habitat blocks.…”

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confidence: 99%

Understanding the importance of small patches of habitat for conservation

Tulloch

Barnes

Ringma

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Ecology

130

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Summary Conservation activities in fragmented landscapes have largely focused on keeping remaining large patches intact, often disregarding the increasingly important role of smaller patches in the conservation of remaining vegetation. As habitat loss proceeds in fragmented landscapes, there is an increasing need to measure the relative contribution of all patches (large and small) to overall ecosystem persistence, in a way that helps deliver effective conservation strategies aimed at preventing the death of ecosystems by a thousand cuts. Using Australian vegetation communities as a case study, we calculated the historical change in the contribution of patches below different sized thresholds to overall extent. We introduced a new patch assessment metric based on the Gini coefficient that indicates how unequal the distribution of patch sizes is relative to historical distributions. At least 22% of major vegetation communities in Australia have >50% of their remaining extent in patches <1000 ha. Loss does not always match fragmentation status: though some vegetation communities are exposed to the double jeopardy of high loss and high fragmentation, others are far more affected by fragmentation than loss of extent. For some communities, actions focused on protecting large patches are critical but for many others, protecting and managing small patches is crucial for community persistence. Synthesis and applications. Arbitrary patch size thresholds for permitting native vegetation clearing are dangerous for ecosystems whose distribution is now restricted to small patches. We recommend that clearing thresholds be scaled to reflect the fact that some ecosystems are more dominated by small patches than others. With a renewed focus on formally assessing the threat status of ecosystems as well as species, ecosystem accounts such as those demonstrated in this study are the first step to reliably assessing vulnerability. Measures of ecosystem vulnerability that only consider the extent of vegetation loss and not the size of remaining patches are likely to be ineffective for impact assessment, conservation planning and preventing ecosystem loss.

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“…) and mean temperature has also been shown to affect detection probability (Mortelliti et al. ). Juškaitis () found, however, that all dormice surveyed by trapping are also found in nest boxes over longer time‐frames of several years.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voluntary recording scheme reveals ongoing decline in the United Kingdom hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius population

Goodwin

Hodgson

Al-Fulaij³

et al. 2017

Mammal Review

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In order to conserve threatened species, knowledge of the status, trends and trajectories of populations is required. Co‐ordinating collection of these data is challenging, especially for inconspicuous species such as the hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius. The UK National Dormouse Monitoring Programme (NDMP) is comprised of nest box recording schemes organised by volunteers. The number, size, and coverage of these schemes has varied over time. Such changes risk conflation of genuine population trends with covarying artefacts, including survey effort and expansion into sites of variable quality. We provide a robust analysis of count data from 400 NDMP sites from 1993 to 2014 and demonstrate that changes in counts are not an artefact of survey characteristics. In relation to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria, we conclude that dormouse counts in nest boxes are an index of abundance appropriate to the taxon and allow the inference of population reduction of 72% (95% confidence intervals 62–79%) over the 22 years from 1993 to 2014, equivalent to a mean annual rate of decline of 5.8% (4.5–7.1%). This decline is ongoing. We highlight difficulties in assigning an IUCN Red List conservation category to a population, given variation in apparent trends over consecutive time‐periods. In eight out of 13 sliding window intervals of 10 years from 1993 to 2014, the 95% confidence intervals overlap a decline of 50%. While average population decline over 10‐year periods suggests that the hazel dormouse should be classified as Vulnerable, a precautionary approach would not rule out the category of Endangered in the United Kingdom, given the lower bounds of population change estimates, the mean annual rate of decline and ongoing decline. Ongoing decline in the hazel dormouse population is despite a high level of species protection and widespread conservation measures. The hazel dormouse is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species and a European Protected Species, and the causes of population reduction are not well understood and may not have ceased. An urgent appraisal of dormouse conservation is required to ensure the species’ favourable conservation status.

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Population and individual‐scale responses to patch size, isolation and quality in the hazel dormouse

Cited by 35 publications

References 56 publications

Predation risk and patch size jointly determine perceived patch quality in ovipositing treefrogs,Hyla chrysoscelis

Predation risk and patch size jointly determine perceived patch quality in ovipositing treefrogs,Hyla chrysoscelis

Understanding the importance of small patches of habitat for conservation

Voluntary recording scheme reveals ongoing decline in the United Kingdom hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius population

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