e-journal

Urbanization and wetland communities: applying metacommunity theory to understand the local and landscape effects

---

Summary
1. Urbanization is a growing threat to ecological communities and has become a leading
cause of population extirpations in a wide range of taxa. Because the effects of urbanization
are often multifaceted, identifying the pathways through which changes in communities occur
has remained a persistent challenge.
2. We draw upon metacommunity theory to evaluate competing explanations for the effects
of urbanization, focusing on the relative importance of processes at local (e.g. abiotic and
biotic characteristics) and regional (e.g. habitat connectivity and dispersal) scales. Over
4 years, we sampled 201 wetlands in the Front Range region of Colorado, which is one of
the most rapidly developing areas in the USA.
3. Wetlands embedded within urban areas exhibited significantly lower taxonomic richness
and diversity compared to those in agricultural or grassland areas. Relative to grassland
wetlands, urban wetlands supported a 60% lower richness of amphibians and aquatic reptiles
and a 33% lower richness of aquatic insects, molluscs and crayfish. These patterns were
associated with changes in biotic factors (introduced fishes and bullfrogs), abiotic factors
(nutrients, conductivity and vegetation) and landscape characteristics (road density and
surrounding wetland area).
4. The use of an information-theoretic approach and structural equation modelling suggested
that the effects of urbanization on richness were mainly driven by changes in road density.
Analyses of community composition indicated that discrete communities formed along the
urban systems gradient, such that actively dispersing predators associated more negatively
with urban system relative to herbivores with passive dispersal.
5. Synthesis and applications. These results highlight the importance of considering both local
and regional factors in addressing conservation-related challenges and underscore the benefits
of linking conceptual work on metacommunity theory with applied efforts to mitigate the
effects of urbanization.

Key-words: amphibian decline, aquatic conservation, community ecology, global change,
habitat loss, trait-based approach

---

Ketersediaan

Tidak ada salinan data

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

Journal of Applied Ecology

No. Panggil

-

Penerbit

London : British Ecological Society., 2013

Deskripsi Fisik

Journal of Applied Ecology 2013, 50, 34–42

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

-

Klasifikasi

-

Tipe Isi

-

Tipe Media

-

Tipe Pembawa

-

Edisi

-

Subjek

BIOLOGI

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

agus

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

Komentar

---

Anda harus masuk sebelum memberikan komentar