Mobile species are ‘glue’ which connect different habitats together, study finds - University of Bristol

A groundbreaking study conducted across 30 field sites in the southwest UK has revealed the importance of incorporating varied habitats into the landscape at large.

The research, published today in Nature and led by ecologists at the University of Bristol, addresses critical questions in conservation and land management, shedding new light on species interactions and how food chains operate across multiple habitats.

The study found significant differences in food web structures among landscapes with one, two, or three habitats, including a more evenly distributed abundance of species. Multi-habitat landscapes host a higher number of species, including habitat specialists, leading to greater overall biodiversity.

Lead author Dr Talya Hackett, who ran the project from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences and is currently at University of Oxford, explained: “Conservation and restoration projects increasingly focus on landscape-scale efforts, however, data on species interactions are often limited to specific habitats, such as woodlands, farmland or urban areas.”

The team found that multiple habitats demonstrated enhanced resistance to species loss, offering unexpected insights into ecosystem stability. They also discovered improved ecological functions since multi-habitat landscapes were associated with better pollination services, likely due to the complementary roles of diverse pollinator communities.

Project leader and co-lead author Professor Jane Memmott explained: "Landscapes are more than the sum of their parts; they exhibit properties such as increased buffering against species loss and improved pollination that cannot be predicted from the component habitats."