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Fragmentación de Hábitat y Pérdida de Especies en Tres Niveles Tróficos Interactuantes: Efectos de la Historia de Vida y los Atributos de la Red Trófica
Author(s) -
CAGNOLO LUCIANO,
VALLADARES GRACIELA,
SALVO ADRIANA,
CABIDO MARCELO,
ZAK MARCELO
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01214.x
Subject(s) - trophic level , ecology , biology , food web , habitat , trophic cascade , habitat fragmentation , habitat destruction , mesopredator release hypothesis , abundance (ecology) , fragmentation (computing) , ecosystem , apex predator
Not all species are likely to be equally affected by habitat fragmentation; thus, we evaluated the effects of size of forest remnants on trophically linked communities of plants, leaf‐mining insects, and their parasitoids. We explored the possibility of differential vulnerability to habitat area reduction in relation to species‐specific and food‐web traits by comparing species–area regression slopes. Moreover, we searched for a synergistic effect of these traits and of trophic level. We collected mined leaves and recorded plant, leaf miner, and parasitoid species interactions in five 100‐m 2 transects in 19 Chaco Serrano woodland remnants in central Argentina. Species were classified into extreme categories according to body size, natural abundance, trophic breadth, and trophic level . Species–area slopes differed between groups with extreme values of natural abundance or trophic specialization. Nevertheless, synergistic effects of life‐history and food‐web traits were only found for trophic level and trophic breadth: area‐related species loss was highest for specialist parasitoids. It has been suggested that species position within interaction webs could determine their vulnerability to extinction. Our results provide evidence that food‐web parameters, such as trophic level and trophic breadth, affect species sensitivity to habitat fragmentation .