Studying how habitat loss affects the tolerance of ecological networks to species extinction (i.e. their robustness) is key for our understanding of the influence of human activities on natural ecosystems. With networks typically occurring as local interaction networks interconnected in space (a meta‐network), we may ask how the loss of specific habitat fragments affects the overall robustness of the meta‐network. To address this question, for an empirical meta‐network of plants, herbivores and natural enemies we simulated the removal of habitat fragments in increasing and decreasing order of area, age and connectivity for plant extinction and the secondary extinction of herbivores, natural enemies and their interactions. Meta‐network robustness was characterized as the area under the curve of remnant species or interactions at the end of a fragment removal sequence. To pinpoint the effects of fragment area, age and connectivity, respectively, we compared the observed robustness for each removal scenario against that of a random sequence. The meta‐network was more robust to the loss of old (i.e. long‐fragmented), large, connected fragments than of young (i.e. recently fragmented), small, isolated fragments. Thus, young, small, isolated fragments may be particularly important to the conservation of species and interactions, while contrary to our expectations larger, more connected fragments contribute little to meta‐network robustness. Our findings highlight the importance of young, small, isolated fragments as sources of species and interactions unique to the regional level. These effects may largely result from an unpaid extinction debt, whereby younger fragments are likely to lose species over time. Yet, there may also be more long‐lasting effects from cultivated lands (e.g. water, fertilizers and restricted cattle grazing) and network complexity in small, isolated fragments. Such fragments may sustain important biological diversity in fragmented landscapes, but maintaining their conservation value may depend on adequate restoration strategies.

中文翻译：

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元网络对替代生境丧失情景的稳健性

研究生境丧失如何影响生态网络对物种灭绝的耐受性（即其健壮性）对于我们理解人类活动对自然生态系统的影响至关重要。随着网络通常作为本地交互网络在空间中互连（一个元网络）而出现，我们可能会问，特定栖息地碎片的损失如何影响元网络的整体健壮性。为了解决这个问题，对于植物，食草动物和天敌的经验元网络，我们模拟了按面积，年龄和连通性的递增和递减顺序去除栖息地碎片，从而使植物灭绝以及食草动物，天敌及其继发性生物的次生灭绝互动。元网络鲁棒性的特征是碎片去除序列末尾的残留物种或相互作用曲线下的面积。为了准确确定碎片面积，年龄和连接性的影响，我们将观察到的每种去除方案的稳健性与随机序列的稳健性进行了比较。元网络对于旧的（即长碎片）的，大的，相连的碎片的丢失比年轻的（即最近碎的），小，孤立的碎片的丢失更健壮。因此，小的，小的，孤立的片段对于保护物种和相互作用可能特别重要，而与我们的预期相反，更大，更多的连接片段对元网络的健壮性贡献很小。我们的发现凸显了年轻，小，孤立的碎片作为物种的来源和区域一级独特的相互作用。这些影响可能主要是由于未偿还的灭绝债务造成的，因此，随着时间的流逝，年轻的碎片可能会失去物种。但是，耕地（例如水，化肥和限制放牧的牲畜）和网络的复杂性也可能会产生更持久的影响，这些微小的孤立碎片会造成影响。这些碎片可能在破碎的景观中维持重要的生物多样性，但维持其保护价值可能取决于适当的恢复策略。化肥和限制放牧的牲畜）和较小的孤立碎片中的网络复杂性。这些碎片可能在破碎的景观中维持重要的生物多样性，但维持其保护价值可能取决于适当的恢复策略。化肥和限制放牧的牲畜）和较小的孤立碎片中的网络复杂性。这些碎片可能在破碎的景观中维持重要的生物多样性，但维持其保护价值可能取决于适当的恢复策略。