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Continuity of vegetation in space and time: A comparison of insects' habitat templet in different successional stages
Author(s) -
Southwood T. R. E.,
Brown V. K.,
Reader P. M.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
population ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1438-390X
pISSN - 1438-3896
DOI - 10.1007/bf02539630
Subject(s) - biology , habitat , ecology , biological dispersal , propagule , host (biology) , vegetation (pathology) , larva , sensu , population , demography , medicine , pathology , sociology , genus
Conslusions and Summary This paper shows how dynamic are patterns of host plant distribution in space and time and indicates methods of assessing these features of the habitat templet that will play a major role in the evolution of the optimal migratory (sensu lat.) strategy. The actual spatial patterns of host plants vary according to the growth form, environmental tolerance and propagule dispersal of the particular species. This study was not sufficiently extensive to detect trends in these features in relation to successional age. However, the length of time the host plant remains in the same location ( H in the calculation of durational stability= H /τ), increases with the successional age of habitat, as does the size of patches of hsot plants, particularly when these are due to modular growth. Therefore the probability of an insect being able to oviposit on or near the host plant on which it fed as a larva increases with the successional age of the habitat.