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Complexity in the relationship between matrix composition and inter-patch distance in fragmented habitats

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Abstract

The connectivity of fragmented landscapes is a function of the physical distance between suitable habitats and the characteristics of the habitat through which the animal is moving, i.e. the matrix. Experimental manipulations done to explain how spatial arrangement and composition of habitats affects biota remain scarce, particularly in marine systems. Holdfasts of the common kelp, Ecklonia radiata, are discrete units of habitat for small invertebrates (e.g. amphipods, isopods, molluscs, annelids) that can be isolated from other holdfasts by habitat, which may be less suitable (e.g. other species of algae or relatively bare space). We compared assemblages, which colonised defaunated holdfasts in experimentally created small-scale landscapes where patches of habitat (holdfasts) were distant versus close together and which had Sargassum spp. versus relatively bare space in the matrix. We also compared colonisation across matrices of crushed fucoid algae to assess whether the structural or chemical nature of algae in the matrix had the most influence on the colonisation. Assemblages in defaunted holdfasts differed between those that were close to and those that were distant from undisturbed holdfasts, where the matrix was devoid of vegetation. Where Sargassum spp. was present in the matrix, however, this difference disappeared and was possibly due to the chemical, rather than structural, characteristics of the fucoid matrix. The extent to which matrix habitat is a barrier to movement of invertebrates among holdfasts thus depends on not only how extensive it is but what type of habitat it contains. As within terrestrial systems, the nature of the matrix is also likely to be a fundamental component of the connectivity within marine systems.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to E. Vytopil, P. Anderson and K. Rouse for help with the painstaking fieldwork. Thanks to M. Thiel and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved the manuscript. This research was supported by postgraduate awards to PJG and an Australian Research Council grant to SDC. The research complies with the current laws of Australia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences DP 418, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia

    P. J. Goodsell & S. D. Connell

  2. Centre for Research on Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities, Marine Ecology Laboratories A11, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    P. J. Goodsell

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  1. P. J. Goodsell
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  2. S. D. Connell
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Correspondence to P. J. Goodsell.

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Communicated by M. Wahl.

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Goodsell, P.J., Connell, S.D. Complexity in the relationship between matrix composition and inter-patch distance in fragmented habitats. Mar Biol 154, 117–125 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-008-0906-2

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