9311208 Geber This study examines the roles of habitat fragmentation and host-parasitiod interactions in influencing the distribution and population dynamics of a geometrid moth living in a naturally patchy habitat. It examine the habitat structure, synchrony of local populations, dispersal between populations, and impact of host-parastoid interactions. The work combines field experiments and observations with the development of a discrete time simulation model on a spatially explicit landscape to examine and intergrate the influences of habitat subdivision and host-parasitoid interactions. Understanding the population dynamics and distribution of species occupying subdivided habitats is critical to both the fields of population biology and conservation biology. The dynamics of colonization, extinction and dispersal interacts with predator-prey dynamics to determine population processes for species living in patchily distributed habitats. Theoretical work exists in both the areas of habitat fragmentation and predator-prey interactions. yet, little empirical work stands behind these bodies of theory, and very little theoretical and almost no empirical work has attempted to intergrate the two fields. %%% Metapopulation dynamic's are being increasingly used for models if population structure in both theoretical & conservation contexts, yet there are few examples showing time metapopulation structure. This study offers the potential of establishing an example of a metapopulation. ***
