Effects Of Habitat Quality And Size On Extinction In Experimental Populations

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 15 Jun 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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In our world of rapidly changing environments, we need to understand how habitat size and quality influence extinction.

We examined extinction of experimental Daphnia magna populations in habitats of different size and quality.

As expected, we found that extinction was faster in small habitats with less food because these habitats supported smaller populations with lower growth rates.

Contrary to longstanding expectations, we also found that larger habitats can support higher population growth rates.

We show that improving population growth rate and population size will reduce extinction risk, and that both are possible by improving habitat quality or increasing habitat size.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

www.publishing.royalsociety.org/proceedingsb

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