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Landscape context outweighs local habitat quality in its effects on herbivore dispersal and distribution

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Abstract

Past studies with spatially structured herbivore populations have emphasized the primacy of intrinsic factors (e.g., patch quality), patch geometry (e.g., patch size and isolation), and more recently landscape context (e.g., matrix composition) in affecting local population abundance and dispersal rate. However, few studies have examined the relative importance of each factor, or how they might interact to affect herbivore abundance or dispersal. Here, we performed a factorial field experiment to examine the independent and interactive effects of patch quality (plant biomass, leaf protein, leaf phenolics) and matrix composition [mudflat or non-host grass (Bromus inermis)] on planthopper (Prokelisia crocea) emigration from host-plant patches (prairie cordgrass, Spartina pectinata). In addition, a field survey was conducted to examine the relative importance of patch quality, geography, and matrix composition on planthopper occupancy and density. In the experiment, we found that rates of emigration from low and intermediate quality patches were, on average, 21% percent higher for patches embedded in brome than mudflat. In contrast, the emigration rate was unaffected by matrix composition in nutrient-rich patches. Within matrix types, plant quality had little effect on emigration. In the survey, planthopper density and the patch occupancy rate of planthoppers increased nonadditively with increasing patch size and the percentage of the surrounding matrix composed of mudflat. This study suggests that landscape-level factors, such as the matrix, may be more important than factors intrinsic to the patches.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M. Stout for generously providing guidance and laboratory facilities for plant chemistry assays. K. Baum, E. Bless and C. Nelson provided assistance in the field. R. Hendrickson kindly granted access to the field site. J. Constible, T. Crist, and two anonymous reviewers gave valuable comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Funding was provided by Louisiana State University, a Louisiana State University Board of Regents Fellowship (K. J. Haynes), a Louisiana State University Bio-Grads Research Award (K. J Haynes), a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research (K. J. Haynes), a Miami University Postdoctoral Research Scholarship (K. J. Haynes), and NSF grant DEB 0211359 (J. T. Cronin).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 45056, USA

    Kyle J. Haynes

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Forrest P. Dillemuth, Bryan J. Anderson, Alyssa S. Hakes, Heather B. Jackson, S. Elizabeth Jackson & James T. Cronin

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  1. Kyle J. Haynes
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  2. Forrest P. Dillemuth
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  7. James T. Cronin
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Correspondence to Kyle J. Haynes.

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Communicated by Andrew Gonzales.

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Haynes, K.J., Dillemuth, F.P., Anderson, B.J. et al. Landscape context outweighs local habitat quality in its effects on herbivore dispersal and distribution. Oecologia 151, 431–441 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0600-3

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