Assessment of Habitat Fragmentation and Corridors for an Isolated Subspecies of the Sichuan Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey, Rhinopithecus roxellana hubeiensis

Abstract

Understanding habitat quality and landscape connectivity and exploring corridors connecting habitat patches are crucial for conservation, particularly for species distributed among isolated populations. The Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey, Rhinopithecus roxellana, is an Endangered primate species endemic to mountainous forests in China. Its easternmost distribution lies in the Shennongjia area, which harbors an isolated subspecies, R. roxellana hubeiensis. Unfortunately, it has experienced significant habitat loss, fragmentation, and dramatic population decline in recent decades, primarily due to increased human disturbance. To quantify habitat quality, identify suitable habitat patches, and detect possible linkages among these patches for R. roxellana hubeiensis, we conducted habitat suitability assessments and landscape connectivity analyses in the Shennongjia area based on a set of environmental factors. We created a habitat quality model and a movement cost surface for the Shennongjia area based on a habitat suitability index, graph theory, expert knowledge, field experience, and information from the literature. Our results show that suitable habitat for Int J Primatol R. roxellana hubeiensis in Shennongjia is fragmented and limited, and that this is particularly true for highly suitable habitats. We detected six core habitat patches and six least-cost paths and corridors. Our study does not provide accurate distributions of the monkeys and their habitat use. However, it identifies the most feasible and traversable habitats and corridors, which should be conservation priorities for this subspecies, and provides valuable guidance for reevaluating habitat conservation plans.

Realized niche shift of an invasive widow spider: drivers and impacts of human activities

“…We deleted the records with latitude/longitude coordinates with less than two decimal places because of their coarse resolution (models were at a 1 km × 1 km resolution, see below). To avoid geo-referencing errors and over-fitting the models, we checked locations of the occurrence records in ArcGIS 10.0 (ESRI, Redlands, USA) and removed duplicate occurrences at a spatial resolution of 1 km × 1 km so that each grid cell had only a single record [ 75 – 79 ]. Finally, 859 and 82 occurrence records for Australia and the other countries, respectively, were used for modeling (Fig.…”

Identifying potential refugia and corridors under climate change: A case study of endangered Sichuan golden monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) in Qinling Mountains, China

“…At present, most pre‐existing key threats and limiting factors for the species have been mitigated, and populations are now beginning to increase (Chang et al, ). However, climate change will pose serious threats that will degrade and fragment suitable habitat for Sichuan golden monkey (Li et al, ; Luo et al, ). The consequences of climate change on Sichuan golden monkey may pose major challenges to current conservation efforts (Luo, Liu, Pan, Zhao, & Li, ; Luo et al, ), but are poorly understood.…”

Combining the responses of habitat suitability and connectivity to climate change for an East Asian endemic frog

“…Regardless of the exact maximum length of dispersal, frogs may not use these paths due to the limited mobility and strict physiological constraints of anurans. As a result, additional research is needed to more fully inform the population management of Q. spinosa [ 15 , 71 ]. Even assuming we correctly identified inter-patch passageways with the highest potential and permeability for individuals to disperse successfully, constraints to animal movements are complex, with a number of stochastic ecological and landscape factors that may have important effects [ 15 , 19 ].…”