Operationalizing ecological connectivity in spatial conservation planning with Marxan Connect

Abstract

tivity 23 1Operationalizing connectivity in spatial planning Abstract: 24 1. Globally, protected areas are being established to protect biodiversity and to promote ecosystem 25 resilience. The typical spatial conservation planning process leading to the creation of these protected 26 areas focuses on representation and replication of ecological features, often using decision support 27 systems such as Marxan. Unfortunately, Marxan currently requires manual input or specialised scripts 28 to explicitly consider ecological connectivity, a property critical to metapopulation persistence and 29 resilience. 30 2. "Marxan Connect" is a new open source, open access Graphical User Interface (GUI) designed to assist 31 conservation planners in the systematic operationalization of ecological connectivity in protected area 32 network planning.33 3. Marxan Connect is able to incorporate estimates of demographic connectivity (e.g. derived from 34tracking data, dispersal models, or genetics) or structural landscape connectivity (e.g. isolation by 35 resistance). This is accomplished by calculating metapopulation-relevant connectivity metrics (e.g. 36 eigenvector centrality) and treating those as conservation features, or using the connectivity data as a 37 spatial dependency amongst sites to be included in the prioritization process. 38 4. Marxan Connect allows a wide group of users to incorporate directional ecological connectivity into 39 conservation plans. The least-cost conservation solutions provided by Marxan Connect, combined with 40 ecologically relevant post-hoc testing, are more likely to support persistent and resilient metapopulations 41 (e.g. fish stocks) and provide better protection for biodiversity than if connectivity is ignored. 42 2Operationalizing connectivity in spatial planning 79 are needed. Knowing how to best identify, evaluate, and treat connectivity data to meet different objectives 80 within a given spatial planning framework is important to better capture key ecological processes in planning. 81Here, we outline potential workflows of realising connectivity in spatial planning, including the treatment of 82 various data formats, key decision points that link back to objectives, types of data related to connectivity, 83 3 Operationalizing connectivity in spatial planning

Comparing abundance distributions and range maps in spatial conservation planning for migratory species

“…, b, Daigle et al. ), and these strategies have been used in some marine and freshwater prioritizations (Hermoso et al. , Linke et al.…”

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“…This approach aligns with a broader call to incorporate dynamic processes and threats into systematic conservation planning (SCP) (Pressey et al, 2007). SCP software, such as Marxan Connect, could be used as a decision support tool to determine when dynamic conservation areas would help achieve project-specific conservation targets, e.g., by enhancing network connectivity (Daigle et al, 2018).…”

“…Second, there has been a concerted effort to shift from considering individual permanent PAs to networks of connected PAs (Kininmonth et al, 2010;Gerber et al, 2014). Designing well-connected networks has become a major goal of conservation planning because the exchange of material, individuals, and species between PAs can help maintain diversity and function within the entire network (Daigle et al, 2018). Integrating these two approaches may protect dynamic ecological processes.…”

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