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Data from: Anderson lab experiments from synthesizing the effects of spatial network structure on predator prey dynamics

Data files

Feb 22, 2022 version files 2.11 MB

Abstract

Predator-prey persistence is thought to be enhanced by spatial heterogeneity. Theory predicts that metacommunity size, spatial connectivity, network synchrony, predator identity, and productivity influence predator-prey persistence, through a variety of mechanisms such as statistical stabilization, colonization-extinction dynamics, and trophic interactions. However, comparative tests and synthesis of the multiple factors and mechanisms across different spatial networks are needed to understand which factors and mechanisms of spatial network structure promote predator-prey persistence. To address this gap between theory and empirical work, we synthesized data from 22 microcosm experiments of protist predator-prey communities differing the productivity, connectivity, and size of spatial habitat structure. Prey time to extinction was better explained by productivity and spatial factors than predator time to extinction. At the local and regional scale, metacommunity size and productivity had positive effects on prey occupancy, whereas connectivity negatively influenced prey occupancy. For predators, metacommunity size and connectivity had positive effects on predator occupancy, network synchrony had negative influences, and productivity showed a hump-shaped relationship with predator occupancy. Further, trophic interactions drove variation in the way species were spatially structured, where the strength and direction of predator and prey occupancy relationships varied among productivity levels and predator-prey combinations. In predator-prey interactions that were stronger, prey occupancy showed negative relationship with predator occupancy regardless of productivity. However, in predator-prey interactions that were weaker, prey occupancy was positively related to predator occupancy at low productivity, and this relationship disappeared at higher productivity treatments where prey occupancy was high regardless of predator occupancy. Predictions from metapopulation theory explained predator occupancy, while prey were better explained by trophic dynamics. Taken together, these results highlight that spatial network structure has a complex, spatially contingent relationship with predator-prey dynamics.