The Relative Importance of Small-Scale and Landscape-Level Heterogeneity in Structuring Small Mammal Distributions
Schweiger EW, Diffendorfer JE, Pierotti R, Holt RD. 1999. The Relative Importance of Small-Scale and Landscape-Level Heterogeneity in Structuring Small Mammal Distributions. Landscape Ecology of Small Mammals. :175-207
Landscape characteristics, such as the spatial arrangement and size of habitat patches, can affect localized ecological patterns and processes (Forman and Gordon 1986, Usher 1987, Danielson 1991, Saunders et al. 1991, Wiens et al. 1993, Brown 1995, Turner et al. 1995, Wiens 1995, Holt and Debinski 1999). Small scale patterns in abundance or reproductive performance, therefore, may not tightly match local variation in ecological factors. For example, mobile species can exhibit local densities deviating far from that expected based on local births and deaths (e.g., sink populations, Holt 1985, 1993, Pulliam 1988, Diffendorfer 1998). Even the abundance of sedentary consumers can differ from that expected given local distributions of their resources if their diets are supplemented by spatial flows of nutrients (Polis et al. 1998).
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Schweiger, E; Diffendorfer, James; Pierotti, Raymond; Holt, Robert
- Units
- ROMN