The consequences of disrupted dispersal in fragmented red-cockaded woodpecker Picoides borealis populations.

Abstract

1. Habitat fragmentation may adversely affect animal populations through several mechanisms. However, little is known about how the impacts of some of these mechanisms are manifested in altered dynamics of wild populations. 2. We used a spatially explicit individual-based simulation model to examine the potential effects of disrupted dispersal due to fragmentation on the population dynamics of the endangered, co-operatively breeding, red-cockaded woodpecker Picoides borealis. 3. We simulated population dynamics as a function of Show more