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Direct submissions to PCI Ecology from bioRxiv.org are possible using the B2J service

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Three points of consideration before testing the effect of patch connectivity on local species richness: patch delineation, scaling and variability of metricsuse asterix (*) to get italics
F. Laroche, M. Balbi, T. Grébert, F. Jabot & F. ArchauxPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"
2020
<p>The Theory of Island Biogeography (TIB) promoted the idea that species richness within sites depends on site connectivity, i.e. its connection with surrounding potential sources of immigrants. TIB has been extended to a wide array of fragmented ecosystems, beyond archipelagoes, surfing on the analogy between habitat patches and islands and on the patch-matrix framework. However, patch connectivity often little contributes to explaining species richness in empirical studies. Before interpreting this trend as questioning the broad applicability of TIB principles, one first needs a clear identification of methods and contexts where strong effects of patch structural connectivity are likely to occur. Here, we use spatially explicit simulations of neutral metacommunities to show that patch connectivity effect on local species richness is maximized under a set of specific conditions: (i) patch delineation should be fine enough to ensure that no dispersal limitation occurs within patches, (ii) patch connectivity indices should be scaled according to target organisms’ dispersal distance and (iii) the habitat amount around sampled sites (within a distance adapted to organisms’ dispersal) should be highly variable. When those three criteria are met, the absence of an effect of connectivity on species richness should be interpreted as contradicting TIB hypotheses</p>
You should fill this box only if you chose 'All or part of the results presented in this preprint are based on data'. URL must start with http:// or https://
You should fill this box only if you chose 'Scripts were used to obtain or analyze the results'. URL must start with http:// or https://
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3756712You should fill this box only if you chose 'Codes have been used in this study'. URL must start with http:// or https://
Landscape ecology; Structural connectivity; Virtual ecologist; Neutral landscapes; Dispersal; Diversity patterns; Habitat amount hypothesis
NonePlease indicate the methods that may require specialised expertise during the peer review process (use a comma to separate various required expertises).
Biodiversity, Community ecology, Dispersal & Migration, Landscape ecology, Spatial ecology, Metacommunities & Metapopulations
No need for them to be recommenders of PCIEcology. Please do not suggest reviewers for whom there might be a conflict of interest. Reviewers are not allowed to review preprints written by close colleagues (with whom they have published in the last four years, with whom they have received joint funding in the last four years, or with whom they are currently writing a manuscript, or submitting a grant proposal), or by family members, friends, or anyone for whom bias might affect the nature of the review - see the code of conduct
e.g. John Doe [john@doe.com]
2019-05-20 16:03:47
Damaris Zurell