EXTINCTION DEBT OF FOREST PLANTS PERSISTS FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY FOLLOWING HABITAT FRAGMENTATION

• DOI: 10.1890/05-1182
• Publication Date: 2007-06-04T19:36:50Z
• Authors: Mark Vellend; Kris Verheyen; Hans Jacquemyn; Annette Kolb; Hans Van Calster; George Peterken; Martin Hermy
• Keywords: Extinction debt; Extinction (optical mineralogy); Local extinction; Fragmentation; Occupancy; Habitat Fragmentation

Following habitat fragmentation individual patches may lose species over time as they pay off their "extinction debt." Species with relatively low rates of population extinction and colonization ("slow" species) maintain debts for particularly prolonged periods, but few data are available to test this prediction. We analyzed two unusually detailed sets on forest plant distributions land-use history from Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium, an debt in relation species-specific rates. Logistic regression models predicting the presence–absence 36 were first parameterized using where cover has been (∼5–8%) past 1000 years. Consistent theory, slow (but not fast these systematically underpredicted levels patch occupancy was reduced ∼25% <10% between 1775 1900 (it is presently 6.5%). As a consequence, ability Lincolnshire predict Vlaams-Brabant worse than species. Thus, more century after reached its current level persists turnover.