Both population size and patch quality affect local extinctions and colonizations
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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Measuring the Structure, Composition, and Change of Underwater Environments with Large-area Imaging
Published on: April 18, 2025
Markus Franzén1, Sven G Nilsson
1Department of Animal Ecology, Lund University, Ecology Building, 22362 Lund, Sweden. markus.franzen@ufz.de
Abstract:
Currently, the habitat of many species is fragmented, resulting in small local populations with individuals occasionally dispersing between the remaining habitat patches. In a solitary bee metapopulation, extinction probability was related to both local bee population sizes and pollen resources measured as host plant population size. Patch size, on the other hand, had no additional predictive power. The turnover rate of local bee populations in 63 habitat patches over 4 years was high, with 72 extinction events and 31 colonization events, but the pollen plant population was stable with no extinctions or colonizations. Both pollen resources and bee populations had strong and independent effects on extinction probability, but connectivity was not of importance. Colonizations occurred more frequently within larger host plant populations. For metapopulation survival of the bee, large pollen plant populations are essential, independent of current bee population size.
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