Multi-scale effects of habitat loss and the role of trait variation

Multi-scale effects of habitat loss and the role of trait variation

Alarming effects of climate change and habitat loss are increasingly becoming apparent. Loss of local habitats, e.g. losing rain forests, can have effects over larger scales than the local habitat itself, e.g. rise in global average temperatures. Realising the importance of this issue, one must investigate the effects of habitat loss not only in the focal habitat patch, where habitat loss actually occurs, but also over a larger scale which includes the neighbouring patches. One can also study whether the presence and absence of the neighbouring patch has any effect on the survival of the focal patch. I try to answer these questions in a two patches system where the patches are related by cross-foraging and cross-mating, and one of the patch experiences habitat loss. I also investigate how these scenarios pan out under heritable or non-heritable trait variation.