Assessing landscape functional connectivity in a forest carnivore using path selection functions

Carvalho, Filipe; Carvalho, Reginaldo de; Beja, Pedro

doi:10.1007/s10980-015-0326-x

Cited by 43 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The identification of important habitat patches9 and the functional connection between them510 is critical for constructing ecological networks. The resistance surface covering the entire study area, together with the least-cost paths between pairs of habitat patches, is shown in Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the main potential corridors are riparian green spaces, followed by forest and farmland, the results indicate that the resistance surfaces constructed by the habitat quality-based model are more suitable for ecological network analyses in Changzhou. Hence, under conditions with insufficiently detailed ecological data, or when it is difficult to obtain such data through experiments, it is more feasible to carry out ecological network analyses using the habitat quality-based model and the minimum cumulative resistance ( MCR ) model, rather than other methods, such as mark and capture53 and wireless wildlife tracking5.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, anthropogenic activity has facilitated the invasion of ecosystems by nonnative species and natural hazards, leading to the worsening of various environmental problems, including the degeneration of ecosystem services and a sharp decline in biodiversity12. Low continuity between habitat patches caused by the fragmentation of ecological landscapes (i.e., natural or semi-natural habitats) represents the greatest threat to biodiversity conservation345. However, growing environmental awareness and an improved understanding of how human communities interact with their environment have led to growing concerns about enhancing habitat patch continuity within ecosystems67.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, many studies construct resistance surfaces based on various methods, such as biological behavior resistance estimates, expert scoring, entropy weighing, and landscape development intensity indexing10272829. However, most studies have constructed landscape resistance surfaces based on expertise and overall ratings for certain land-use types, leading to the resulting landscape resistance surfaces being heavily dependent on grading factors526. In fact, there are differences between the same land-use types owing to their different locations and surroundings.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Constructing Ecological Networks Based on Habitat Quality Assessment: A Case Study of Changzhou, China

Gao

Liu

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Fragmentation and reduced continuity of habitat patches threaten the environment and biodiversity. Recently, ecological networks are increasingly attracting the attention of researchers as they provide fundamental frameworks for environmental protection. This study suggests a set of procedures to construct an ecological network. First, we proposed a method to construct a landscape resistance surface based on the assessment of habitat quality. Second, to analyze the effect of the resistance surface on corridor simulations, we used three methods to construct resistance surfaces: (1) the method proposed in this paper, (2) the entropy coefficient method, and (3) the expert scoring method. Then, we integrated habitat patches and resistance surfaces to identify potential corridors using graph theory. These procedures were tested in Changzhou, China. Comparing the outputs of using different resistance surfaces demonstrated that: (1) different landscape resistance surfaces contribute to how corridors are identified, but only slightly affect the assessment of the importance of habitat patches and potential corridors; (2) the resistance surface, which is constructed based on habitat quality, is more applicable to corridor simulations; and (3) the assessment of the importance of habitat patches is fundamental for ecological network optimization in the conservation of critical habitat patches and corridors.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Constructing Ecological Networks Based on Habitat Quality Assessment: A Case Study of Changzhou, China

Gao

Liu

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…The impacts of linear transportation infrastructures are generally associated with direct mortality caused by animal collisions with circulating vehicles (Loss et al 2015;Santos et al 2016), and with barrier effects and the consequent increases in habitat fragmentation and reduced landscape connectivity (Carvalho et al 2016). However, there may also be widespread indirect habitat degradation, because many animal species avoid using areas close to transportation infrastructures (Forman and Deblinger 2000;Torres et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Bird Exclusion Effects in a Wetland Crossed by a Railway (Sado Estuary, Portugal)

et al. 2017

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Linear transportation infrastructures may displace wildlife from nearby areas that otherwise would provide adequate habitat conditions. This exclusion effect has been documented in roads, but much less is known about railways. Here we evaluated the potential exclusion effect on birds of a railway crossing a wetland of international importance (Sado Estuary, Portugal). We selected 22 sectors representative of locally available wetland habitats (salt pans, rice paddy fields, and intertidal mudflats); of each, half were located either close to (0-500 m) or far from (500-1500 m) the railway line. Water birds were counted in each sector between December 2012 and October 2015, during two months per season (spring, summer, winter, and autumn) and year, at both low and high tide. We recorded 46 species, of which the most abundant (>70% of individuals) were black-headed gull, greater flamingo, northern shoveler, black-tailed godwit, and lesser black-backed gull. Peak abundances were found in autumn and winter. There was no significant variation between sectors close to and far from the railway in species richness, total abundance, and abundance of the most common species. Some species tended to be most abundant either close to or far from the railway albeit not significantly so but this often varied across the tidal and annual cycles. Overall, our study did not find noticeable exclusion effects of this railway on wetland birds, with spatial variation in abundances probably reflecting habitat selection and daily movement patterns. Information is needed on other study systems to assess the generality of our findings.

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Far from the madding crowd: Tolerance toward human disturbance shapes distribution and connectivity patterns of closely related Martes spp.

et al. 2019

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To assess niche overlap between the most similar European sympatric carnivores, the pine marten Martes martes and stone marten Martes foina, and outline their potential distributions and connectivity corridors in Central Italy, we applied a multivariate kernel density procedure which allowed to assess both species' ecological hypervolumes based on a set of 16 environmental predictors and used the resulting probability of occurrence map as a resistance surface in electrical circuit theorybased models. Distance to watercourses and percent cover of deciduous forest and shrubland were the most relevant factors shaping pine marten ecological niche, while stone marten distribution was mainly shaped by human population density and cover of both human settlements and deciduous forest. Overlap between the hypervolumes of the two martens was low-to-moderate, while, on average, landscape connectivity was higher for the stone marten. The inclusion in the models of human disturbance-related variables enabled to define a possible mechanism driving habitat partitioning in human-altered landscapes. Based on our results, increasing human density and urbanization of European lowland and hilly landscapes are expected to represent a greater threat to the pine marten than the stone marten.

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Assessing landscape functional connectivity in a forest carnivore using path selection functions

Cited by 43 publications

References 67 publications

Constructing Ecological Networks Based on Habitat Quality Assessment: A Case Study of Changzhou, China

Constructing Ecological Networks Based on Habitat Quality Assessment: A Case Study of Changzhou, China

Assessing Bird Exclusion Effects in a Wetland Crossed by a Railway (Sado Estuary, Portugal)

Far from the madding crowd: Tolerance toward human disturbance shapes distribution and connectivity patterns of closely related Martes spp.

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