In Highly Agricultural Areas,fencerows Provide Habitat and Refugia for Wildlife

Question

In highly agricultural areas,fencerows provide habitat and refugia for wildlife.You might assume:
A) Metapopulation analysis is more appropriate now than before land modification to agriculture.
B) Some species may go extinct in some fencerows but not others.
C) Smallest fencerows may see the most frequent species extinctions
D) For it to be a metapopulation organisms must be able to go from one fencerow to other fencerows.

Accepted Answer

Metapopulation analysis becomes more relevant in fragmented habitats, like those created by agricultural development, where species are distributed across discrete patches (such as fencerows). Species may indeed go extinct in some fencerows but survive in others due to varying conditions or resources. Smaller fencerows are likely to experience more frequent extinctions because they can support fewer individuals and have less diverse habitats. For a group of populations to be considered a metapopulation, there must be some level of migration or movement of organisms between the patches, allowing for recolonization of areas where species have gone extinct, which is implied by the connectivity between different fencerows.