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Updated: May 19, 2026

Quantification of the Potential Impact of Glyphosate-Based Products on Microbiomes
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Published on: January 10, 2022

Critical patch sizes for food-web modules.

Holly M Martinson1, William F Fagan, Robert F Denno

  • 1Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. hmartins@umd.edu

Ecology
|August 30, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Patch size and connectivity shape salt-marsh food webs. Larger, connected habitats support complex interactions, while smaller patches favor generalist predators, impacting prey distribution.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Community Ecology
  • Landscape Ecology

Background:

  • Spatial structure, including patch size and connectivity, significantly influences species composition on habitat patches.
  • These spatial factors can, in turn, affect the types of food-web interactions present within ecological communities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how food-web interactions among salt-marsh arthropods vary with patch size and connectivity.
  • To determine if changes in trophic structure due to spatial variation feedback to influence prey distribution.

Main Methods:

  • A multiyear field survey of salt-marsh arthropod communities.
  • Analysis of species occupancy-patch-size relationships and food-web module structures.
  • Assessment of predator-prey interactions and their influence on prey spatial distribution.

Main Results:

  • Patch-restricted predators showed stronger relationships between occupancy and patch size than herbivores.
  • Complex food-web modules were found in large, well-connected patches; only simple modules with abundant species occurred in small patches.
  • Habitat-generalist spiders dominated small patches, potentially reducing mesopredator densities.

Conclusions:

  • Patch size and connectivity dictate food-web module composition by differentially affecting rare, patch-restricted predators.
  • Predation by generalist predators on small patches is a key mechanism influencing the spatial structure of specific prey species.