title: Survival in patchy landscapes: the interplay between dispersal, habitat loss and fragmentation.
abstract: Habitat loss and fragmentation are important factors determining animal population dynamics and spatial distribution. Such landscape changes can lead to the deleterious impact of a significant drop in the number of species, caused by critically reduced survival rates for organisms. In order to obtain a deeper understanding of the threeway interplay between habitat loss, fragmentation and survival rates, we propose here a spatially explicit multi-scaled movement model of individuals that search for habitat. By considering basic ecological processes, such as predation, starvation (outside the habitat area), and competition, together with dispersal movement as a link among habitat areas, we show that a higher survival rate is achieved in instances with a lower number of patches of larger areas. Our results demonstrate how movement may counterbalance the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation in altered landscapes. In particular, they have important implications for conservation planning and ecosystem management, including the design of specific features of conservation areas in order to enhance landscape connectivity and population viability.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Dinâmica Evolutiva e Sistemas Complexos, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19020, 81531-980, Curitiba-PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Bernardo B S
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Niebuhr
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19044, 81531-980, Curitiba-PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marina E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Wosniack
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19044, 81531-980, Curitiba-PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcos C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Física Teórica e Computacional, Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901, Recife-PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ernesto P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Raposo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and National Institute of Science and Technology of Complex Systems, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59078-970 Natal-RN, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gandhimohan M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Viswanathan
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19044, 81531-980, Curitiba-PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcos G E
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: da Luz
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Dinâmica Evolutiva e Sistemas Complexos, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19020, 81531-980, Curitiba-PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcio R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Pie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D008962:Models, Theoretical