A fundamental problem in landscape ecology is understanding the isolating effects of different patterns of habitat loss and fragmentation on species and ecosystems. In the 21st century, urban development and sea level rise (SLR) are predicted to affect large areas of the United States, further exacerbating already fragmented and densely populated landscapes. Increasing or restoring habitat connectivity may ameliorate these effects, but the broad-reaching efforts required to assess current and future changes to connectivity, especially in low-lying areas vulnerable to SLR, are still under development. To address these issues, we strategically identified a small group of regionally significant species that represent a range of characteristics and ecological requirements useful for examining landscape connectivity. We used expert opinion to parameterize divergent species responses (i.e. resistance) to landscape features and to assess permeability of the landscape. From this, we estimated contemporary and future low-resistance habitat cores in the year 2100. We modeled six species for habitat connectivity using a multiscaled circuit theory-based approach and analysed them collectively to indicate landscape connectivity across the Southeastern United States. Using this approach, we were able to forecast changing connectivity patterns based on predicted urbanization and SLR. Our results suggest that there will be a 41% reduction in the number of low-resistance cores and a 35% decrease in mean area of remaining cores. In addition, current areas of high landscape connectivity will become more fragmented as future connectivity values indicate a more homogenized landscape structure. In the future landscape, pathways for connectivity are likely to move inland and northward as sea level and urbanization pressures increase. Our results may inform more comprehensive planning initiatives regionally or nationally, while simultaneously providing a multiscaled context for localized planning efforts.

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Camera trap surveys are useful to understand animal species population trends, distribution, habitat preference, behavior, community dynamics, periods of activity, and species associations with environmental conditions. This information is ecologically important since many species play important roles in local ecosystems as predators, herbivores, seed dispersers, and disease vectors. Additionally, many of the larger wildlife species detected by camera traps are economically important through hunting, trapping, or ecotourism. Here we present a data set of camera trap surveys from 6,043 locations across all 100 counties of North Carolina, USA from 2009 to 2019. These data come from 26 survey initiatives and contain 215,108 records of 36 mammal species and three species of terrestrial birds. This large data set increases the geographical distribution data for these 39 mammal and bird species by >500% over what is available for North Carolina in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). These data can be used to conduct inquiries about species, populations, communities, or ecosystems, and to produce useful information on wildlife behavior, distribution, and interactions. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this paper when using the data for publication.