Habitat Suitability and the Distribution of Species

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

0075313 Pulliam Metapopulation theory posits that suitable habitat may frequently be unoccupied. Furthermore, source-sink theory predicts that species may often occupy unsuitable habitat, given that immigration from source areas is sufficiently high. This project addresses the crucial question of how to identify suitable, unoccupied habitat and distinguish it from unsuitable habitat. The proposed research focuses on six species of forest understory herbs. The species were chosen to represent a broad range of habitat distribution and dispersal characteristics appropriate for testing the specific hypotheses to be addressed. This study is being conducted at the Coweeta LTER site. The approach includes experimental field tests of specific hypotheses about the role of soil moisture and temperature in determining the geographic and altitudinal ranges of the study species. Overall, the study will both further conceptual understanding of the relationships between habitat requirements and species distributions and will provide a practical approach to operationalizing the concept of suitable habitat. The study should also prove useful in predicting and monitoring changes in species distributions in response to climate change.