With an increasing worldwide infrastructure more habitats are fragmented by roads and buildings, which can cause a reduction in biodiversity up to 75%. One way to counteract this is by predicting the outcome, with the help of theoretical models, before it happens. In this study I used a Bayesian network model on a fragmented landscape, to test how well trophic metacommunities are able to persist habitat loss, when increasing dispersal between the fragments in the landscapes by implementing corridors. By implementing just three corridors, the species with the highest trophic level went extinct at a considerable later stage, and by just implementing 10 corridors, the metapopulation capacity for all species in all trophic levels increased. Similar results were obtained when changing the way the species extinction probabilities react to their resources being extinct, which further strengthen the efficacy of corridors. The results from this study suggests that increasing connectivity between landscape fragments, and therefore promoting dispersal of organisms, would help the conservation of biodiversity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-176548 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Bogstedt, Carl |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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