Supporting Adaptive Connectivity in Dynamic Landscapes

Jennings, Megan K.; Zeller, Katherine A.; Lewison, Rebecca L.

doi:10.3390/land9090295

Cited by 25 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…With increased computational power, we expect to see rapid progress in dynamic connectivity modeling with Circuitscape and Omniscape. As we see such advances, we recognize it is critical to keep building bridges between scientists, governments, and stakeholders [189][190][191], even as our increasing use of complex modeling approaches and new technology may make our work more challenging for partners to understand. Rather than complicating these important interactions, we hope these advances provide connectivity modelers with critical opportunities to iterate and learn more quickly, and to collaborate more broadly with practitioners and stakeholders.…”

Section: Faster Software Facilitates Data Exploration and Stakeholder Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Circuitscape in Julia: Empowering Dynamic Approaches to Connectivity Assessment

Hall

Anantharaman

Landau

et al. 2021

Land

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The conservation field is experiencing a rapid increase in the amount, variety, and quality of spatial data that can help us understand species movement and landscape connectivity patterns. As interest grows in more dynamic representations of movement potential, modelers are often limited by the capacity of their analytic tools to handle these datasets. Technology developments in software and high-performance computing are rapidly emerging in many fields, but uptake within conservation may lag, as our tools or our choice of computing language can constrain our ability to keep pace. We recently updated Circuitscape, a widely used connectivity analysis tool developed by Brad McRae and Viral Shah, by implementing it in Julia, a high-performance computing language. In this initial re-code (Circuitscape 5.0) and later updates, we improved computational efficiency and parallelism, achieving major speed improvements, and enabling assessments across larger extents or with higher resolution data. Here, we reflect on the benefits to conservation of strengthening collaborations with computer scientists, and extract examples from a collection of 572 Circuitscape applications to illustrate how through a decade of repeated investment in the software, applications have been many, varied, and increasingly dynamic. Beyond empowering continued innovations in dynamic connectivity, we expect that faster run times will play an important role in facilitating co-production of connectivity assessments with stakeholders, increasing the likelihood that connectivity science will be incorporated in land use decisions.

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Section: Faster Software Facilitates Data Exploration and Stakeholder Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Circuitscape in Julia: Empowering Dynamic Approaches to Connectivity Assessment

Hall

Anantharaman

Landau

et al. 2021

Land

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“…-Multiple focal species approaches, which separately model connectivity for a set of species representing diverse ecological needs and combine them post hoc to identify shared connectivity priorities (e.g., Albert et al 2017;Meurant et al 2018;Jennings, Zeller, and Lewison 2020;Williamson et al 2019).…”

Section: Brennan Et Al 2020); Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Missing interactions: the current state of multispecies connectivity analysis

Wood¹,

Martins²,

Dumais-Lalonde³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Designing effective habitat and protected area networks, which sustain species-rich communities is a critical conservation challenge. Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of new computational methods for analyzing and prioritizing the connectivity needs of multiple species. We argue that the goal of multispecies connectivity prioritizations be the long-term persistence of a set of species in a landscape and suggest the index of metapopulation capacity as one metric by which to assess and compare the effectiveness of proposed network designs. Here we present a review of the literature based on 77 papers published between 2010 and 2020, in which we assess the current state and recent advances in multispecies connectivity analysis in terrestrial ecosystems. We summarize the four most employed analytical methods, compare their data requirements, and provide an overview of studies comparing results from multiple methods. We explicitly look at approaches for integrating multiple species considerations into reserve design and identify novel approaches being developed to overcome computational and theoretical challenges posed by multispecies connectivity analyses. We conclude that, while advances have been made over the past decade, the field remains nascent in its ability to integrate multiple species interactions into analytical approaches to connectivity. Furthermore, the field is hampered in its ability to provide robust connectivity assessments for lack of a clear definition and goal for multispecies connectivity, as well as a lack of common metrics for their comparison.

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“…Specific attention to protecting and enhancing connectivity is necessary to increase the resilience of conservation areas and networks (Rudnick et al., 2012). Habitat connectivity is a central tenet of conservation planning (Boitani et al., 2007; Jennings et al., 2020) and is key for population viability (Correa et al., 2016) because it allows for ecological processes such as dispersal, movement, gene flow, migrations and repopulation of areas (Gilbert‐Norton et al., 2010; Rudnick et al., 2012). Connectivity also improves the chances that species will be able to adapt to changing climatic conditions (DeFries et al., 2005; Heller & Zavaleta, 2009; Krosby et al, 2010), which reduces extinction risks and minimizes the effects of environmental variability on small populations (Brown et al, 1977; Newmark, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connectivity and conservation of Western Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) habitat in Liberia

Frazier

Honzák

Hudson

et al. 2021

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim As part of the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa, Liberia has pledged to include the value of nature in national decision making through natural capital accounting. Surveying species of concern, such as the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), which was recently reclassified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and identifying protection priority areas are critical first steps towards achieving Liberia's goal to conserve 30% of its remaining forests and supporting the wave of conservation projects taking place in the country. Location Liberia, Africa. Methods We modelled western chimpanzee habitat suitability, focusing on determining relevant environmental predictors and the most appropriate scale for modelling species–habitat relationships. We built models at six resolutions (30–960 m) to identify scale domains where relationships remain constant. We include several habitat variables that have not been included in prior modelling efforts. We then used the suitability map as the conductance input into a connectivity analysis using Circuitscape. Results The amount of forest within 1–3 km was the most important predictor of chimpanzee occurrence. Variable ranks and importance shifted considerably between modelling scales, supporting the need for multiscale investigations, but scale domains were present. Several important corridors for chimpanzee habitat and movement overlap considerably with existing timber and palm oil concessions and overlap mining and rubber concessions to a lesser degree. Main conclusions The proportion of primary forest within 1–3 km is critically important for chimpanzee habitat. Ongoing conservation projects and efforts taking place in Liberia including the Good Growth Partnership and the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa can utilize the spatial findings on connectivity provided by this study to inform future conservation decisions, particularly expanding exiting protected areas.

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Supporting Adaptive Connectivity in Dynamic Landscapes

Cited by 25 publications

References 59 publications

Circuitscape in Julia: Empowering Dynamic Approaches to Connectivity Assessment

Circuitscape in Julia: Empowering Dynamic Approaches to Connectivity Assessment

Missing interactions: the current state of multispecies connectivity analysis

Connectivity and conservation of Western Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) habitat in Liberia

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