Ten years of the resource based habitat paradigm the biotope…十年的资源为基础的栖息地范式的生物群落.pdfVIP

Journal of Insect Biodiversity 2(8): 1 -32, 2014 REVIEW ARTICLE Ten years of the resource-based habitat paradigm: the biotope- habitat issue and implications for conserving butterfly diversity Roger L. H. Dennis1,2 Leonardo Dapporto1 John W. Dover2 1Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK. 2Institute for Environment, Sustainability and Regeneration, Room 113, The Science Centre, Staffordshire University, Leek Road, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2DF, UK. Corresponding author: Dr R. L. H. Dennis 4 Fairfax Drive, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 6EY, UK. e-mail: rlhdennis@ Abstract: The widely used term ‘habitat’ underlies all aspects of a species’ (and community’s) population size, consequently population changes, distribution and range size and changes; ultimately, habitat parameters determine the status of species, whether thriving or threatened with extinction. Habitat parameters also lie at the root of species’ evolution (speciation) involving cycles of resource specialism/generalism. A basic problem is that habitat has long been treated as synonymous with biotope. But, the two variable terms habitat and biotope describe very different phenomena and we make a case for clarity in the use of the term ‘habitat’, especially when the focus is conserving biodiversity. In this review, in reference to butterflies, we distinguish habitat from biotope as a real, grounded resources- based and conditions-based entity, and explain how usage of the terms greatly affects our perception of population status, and of population, distribution, range and speciation processes, central to conserving bio