Habitat Suitability and Landscape Connectivity of Laristan Mouflon (Ovis Orientalis Laristanica)

AbstractHabitat loss and fragmentation are a leading cause of vertebrate population declines and extinction. Urbanization and natural disasters disrupt landscape connectivity, effectively isolating populations and increasing the risk of local extirpation particularly in island systems. Puerto Rico, one of the most isolated islands in the Caribbean, is home to 13 bat species that have been differentially affected by disturbance during the Anthropocene. We used circuit theory to model the landscape connectivity within Puerto Rico with the goal of understanding how fragmentation affects corridors among forested areas. Models combined species occurrences, land use, habitat suitability, and vegetation cover data to examine connectivity in the endemic bat Stenoderma rufum, and also at the bat community level across the island. Urbanization in Puerto Rico affected bat connectivity overall from east to west and underscored protected and rustic areas for the maintenance of forest corridors. Suitable habitat provided a reliable measure of connectivity among potential movement corridors that connected more isolated areas. We found that intense hurricanes can disrupt forest integrity and affect connectivity of suitable habitat. Some of the largest protected areas in the east of Puerto Rico are at an increasing risk of becoming disconnected from more continuous forest patches. The disruption of corridors that maintain connectivity on the island could explain previous findings of the slow post-hurricane population recovery of S. rufum. Given the increasing rate of urbanization, this pattern could also apply to other vertebrates not analyzed in this study. Our findings show the importance of maintaining forest integrity, emphasizing the considerable conservation value of rustic areas for the preservation of local biodiversity.

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Global patterns of fragmentation and connectivity of mammalian carnivore habitat

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2011.0120 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 366 (1578) ◽

pp. 2642-2651 ◽

Cited By ~ 149

Author(s):

Kevin R. Crooks ◽

Christopher L. Burdett ◽

David M. Theobald ◽

Carlo Rondinini ◽

Luigi Boitani

Keyword(s):

Habitat Suitability ◽

Lower Risk ◽

Landscape Connectivity ◽

Extinction Risk ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Habitat Isolation ◽

High Quality ◽

Carnivore Conservation ◽

Risk Of Extinction ◽

Global Patterns

Although mammalian carnivores are vulnerable to habitat fragmentation and require landscape connectivity, their global patterns of fragmentation and connectivity have not been examined. We use recently developed high-resolution habitat suitability models to conduct comparative analyses and to identify global hotspots of fragmentation and connectivity for the world's terrestrial carnivores. Species with less fragmentation (i.e. more interior high-quality habitat) had larger geographical ranges, a greater proportion of habitat within their range, greater habitat connectivity and a lower risk of extinction. Species with higher connectivity (i.e. less habitat isolation) also had a greater proportion of high-quality habitat, but had smaller, not larger, ranges, probably reflecting shorter distances between habitat patches for species with restricted distributions; such species were also more threatened, as would be expected given the negative relationship between range size and extinction risk. Fragmentation and connectivity did not differ among Carnivora families, and body mass was associated with connectivity but not fragmentation. On average, only 54.3 per cent of a species' geographical range comprised high-quality habitat, and more troubling, only 5.2 per cent of the range comprised such habitat within protected areas. Identification of global hotspots of fragmentation and connectivity will help guide strategic priorities for carnivore conservation.

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Effect of land use, habitat suitability, and hurricanes on the population connectivity of an endemic insular bat

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-88616-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Camilo A. Calderón-Acevedo ◽

Armando Rodríguez-Durán ◽

J. Angel Soto-Centeno

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Puerto Rico ◽

Habitat Suitability ◽

Vegetation Cover ◽

Landscape Connectivity ◽

Population Connectivity ◽

Suitable Habitat ◽

Forest Patches ◽

Continuous Forest ◽

Forested Areas

AbstractUrbanization and natural disasters can disrupt landscape connectivity, effectively isolating populations and increasing the risk of local extirpation particularly in island systems. To understand how fragmentation affects corridors among forested areas, we used circuit theory to model the landscape connectivity of the endemic bat Stenoderma rufum within Puerto Rico. Our models combined species occurrences, land use, habitat suitability, and vegetation cover data that were used either as resistance (land use) or conductance layers (habitat suitability and vegetation cover). Urbanization affected connectivity overall from east to west and underscored protected and rustic areas for the maintenance of forest corridors. Suitable habitat provided a reliable measure of connectivity among potential movement corridors that connected more isolated areas. We found that intense hurricanes that disrupt forest integrity can affect connectivity of suitable habitat. Some of the largest protected areas in the east of Puerto Rico are at an increasing risk of becoming disconnected from more continuous forest patches. Given the increasing rate of urbanization, this pattern could also apply to other vertebrates. Our findings show the importance of maintaining forest integrity, emphasizing the considerable conservation value of rustic areas for the preservation of local biodiversity.

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Resistance-Based Connectivity Model to Construct Corridors of the Przewalski’s Gazelle (Procapra Przewalskii) in Fragmented Landscape

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13041656 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 1656

Author(s):

Jingjie Zhang ◽

Feng Jiang ◽

Zhenyuan Cai ◽

Yunchuan Dai ◽

Daoxin Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Habitat Suitability ◽

Landscape Connectivity ◽

Qinghai Lake ◽

Fragmented Landscape ◽

Least Cost Path ◽

Habitat Patches ◽

Maxent Model ◽

Living Space ◽

Fundamental Goal ◽

Procapra Przewalskii

Habitat connectivity is indispensable for the survival of species that occupy a small habitat area and have isolated habitat patches from each other. At present, the development of human economy squeezes the living space of wildlife and interferes and hinders the dispersal of species. The Przewalski’s gazelle (Procapra przewalskii) is one of the most endangered ungulates, which has experienced a significant reduction in population and severe habitat shrinkage. Although the population of this species has recovered to a certain extent, human infrastructure severely hinders the gene flow between several patches of this species. Therefore, we used the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model to simulate the habitat suitability of the Przewalski’s gazelle. In addition, we combined habitat suitability and ecological characteristics of the species to obtain eight habitat patches. Finally, we used the least-cost path (LCP) and circuit theory based on the resistance model to simulate the landscape network of this species. The results showed that habitat patches and connectivity in the east of the Qinghai Lake were crucial to the communication between populations of the Przewalski gazelle, and our study provided important reference for the distribution of important habitats and the construction of corridor between patches. Our study aimed to provide habitat networks and maintain landscape connectivity for achieving the fundamental goal of protecting and revitalizing populations of the Przewalski’s gazelle.

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Making the connection: combining habitat suitability and landscape connectivity to understand species distribution in an agricultural landscape

Landscape Ecology ◽

10.1007/s10980-021-01295-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Melissa B. Youngquist ◽

Michelle D. Boone

Keyword(s):

Species Distribution ◽

Habitat Suitability ◽

Agricultural Landscape ◽

Landscape Connectivity

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Integrating animal movement with habitat suitability for estimating dynamic landscape connectivity

10.1101/224766 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Mariëlle L. van Toor ◽

Bart Kranstauber ◽

Scott H. Newman ◽

Diann J. Prosser ◽

John Y. Takekawa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Habitat Suitability ◽

Disease Ecology ◽

Animal Movement ◽

Landscape Connectivity ◽

Population Level ◽

Tracking Data ◽

Migratory Connectivity ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

Movement Model ◽

Movement Data

AbstractContextHigh-resolution animal movement data are becoming increasingly available, yet having a multitude of empirical trajectories alone does not allow us to easily predict animal movement. To answer ecological and evolutionary questions at a population level, quantitative estimates of a species’ potential to link patches or populations are of importance.ObjectivesWe introduce an approach that combines movement-informed simulated trajectories with an environment-informed estimate of the trajectories’ plausibility to derive connectivity. Using the example of bar-headed geese we estimated migratory connectivity at a landscape level throughout the annual cycle in their native range.MethodsWe used tracking data of bar-headed geese to develop a multi-state movement model and to estimate temporally explicit habitat suitability within the species’ range. We simulated migratory movements between range fragments, and calculated a measure we called route viability. The results are compared to expectations derived from published literature.ResultsSimulated migrations matched empirical trajectories in key characteristics such as stopover duration. The viability of the simulated trajectories was similar to that of the empirical trajectories. We found that, overall, the migratory connectivity was higher within the breeding than in wintering areas, corresponding to previous findings for this species.ConclusionsWe show how empirical tracking data and environmental information can be fused for meaningful predictions of animal movements throughout the year and even outside the spatial range of the available data. Beyond predicting connectivity, our framework will prove useful for modelling ecological processes facilitated by animal movement, such as seed dispersal or disease ecology.

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