Population resilience to an extreme drought is influenced by habitat area and fragmentation in the local landscape

Tom H. Oliver, Tom Brereton, David B. Roy
2012 Ecography  
Article (refereed) -postprint Oliver, Tom H.; Brereton, Tom; Roy, David B. 2013. Population resilience to an extreme drought is influenced by habitat area and fragmentation in the local landscape. Ecography, 36 (5). Abstract 2 Most studies on the biological impact of climate change have focussed on incremental 3 climate warming, rather than extreme events. Yet responses of species' populations to 4 climatic extremes may be one of the primary drivers of ecological change. We assess the 5
more » ... ce of individual populations in terms of their sensitivity to-and ability to recover 6 from-environmental perturbation. We demonstrate the method using a model species, the 7 Ringlet butterfly Aphantopus hyperantus, and analyse the effects of an extreme drought event 8 using data from 79 British sites over 10 years. We find that populations crashed most 9 severely in drier regions but, additionally, the landscape structure around sites influenced 10 population responses. Larger and more connected patches of woodland habitat reduced 11 population sensitivity to the drought event and also facilitated faster recovery. Having 12 enough, sufficiently connected habitat appears essential for species' populations to be 13 resilient to the increased climatic variability predicted under future scenarios.
doi:10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07665.x fatcat:cfeh5eedgvagblwxogpo46ky2e