Multi-habitat landscapes are more diverse and stable with improved function
Talya D. Hackett, Alix Sauve, Kate P. Maia, Daniel Montoya, Nancy Davies, Rose Archer, Simon G. Potts, Jason M. Tylianakis, Ian P. Vaughan, Jane Memmott
Abstract
. However, because species interaction data are typically habitat- and/or guild-specific, exactly how those interactions connect habitats and affect the stability and function of communities at landscape scales remains poorly understood. We combine multi-guild species interaction data (plant-pollinator and three plant-herbivore-parasitoid communities, collected from landscapes with one, two or three habitats), a field experiment and a modelling approach to show that multi-habitat landscapes support higher species and interaction evenness, more complementary species interactions and more consistent robustness to species loss. These emergent network properties drive improved pollination success in landscapes with more habitats and are not explained by simply summing component habitat webs. Linking landscape composition, through community structure, to ecosystem function, highlights mechanisms by which several contiguous habitats can support landscape-scale ecosystem services.