Ecology 5th Edition by Manuel Molles

Exercise 7

Analyses such as Milne's comparison (1993) of bald eagles and barnacles demonstrate that organisms of different sizes inter­act with the environment at very different spatial scales. With this in mind consider the experiments of Diffendorfer and col­leagues (1995) on the influence of habitat fragmentation on movement patterns of small mammals. Think about the size of their experimental study area (see fig. 21.10). How might a manipulation of this size have affected the movements of prairie birds? How would their manipulation have affected the movements of ground-dwelling beetles?
Figure 21.10 Experimental landscape for the study of small mammal movements (data from Diffendorfer, Gaines, and Holt 1995).