Abstract
Anthropogenic land use has led to the loss and fragmentation of native habitats and disruption to ecosystem processes, resulting in a decline in landscape connectivity and biodiversity. Here, in order to find the potentials of improvements in ecological connectivity, we provide a spatial analysis to present differences in ecological connectivity based on land cover maps and urban habitat maps in Suwon city, Republic of Korea. We generated two permeability maps for use in a network analysis, one being land cover and the other urban habitat, including a 5-km buffer area from the city boundary. We then determined the current-flow betweenness centrality (CFBC) for each map. Our results indicate that forests are typically the most highly connected areas in both maps. However, in the land cover map results, nearly all high-priority areas were in the mountainous region (CFBC value: 0.0100 ± 0.0028), but the urban habitat indicated that grasslands and rivers within the city also significantly contribute to connectivity (CFBC value: 0.0071 ± 0.0022). The CFBC maps developed here could be used as a reference when introducing green infrastructure in cities. Before establishing ecological networks for urban areas, future work should integrate the land use and ecological data of different administrative districts with continuous ecological connection.
Highlights
Expanding and intensifying anthropogenic land use has led to the loss and fragmentation of natural ecosystems, dramatic alterations in ecological functions and processes, and resultantly, a considerable decline in biodiversity [1,2,3]
Gene flow between populations may be disturbed by local extinction events and colonization dynamics
Green spaces are crucial for accommodating species by preserving their network or habitats [9]
Summary
Expanding and intensifying anthropogenic land use has led to the loss and fragmentation of natural ecosystems, dramatic alterations in ecological functions and processes, and resultantly, a considerable decline in biodiversity [1,2,3]. Changes in land use causing the disconnection have been intensively occurring in cities [4,5]. Given that 55% of the world’s population lives in cities, changes in natural dynamics due to urban land use are widespread and will likely increase, as this percentage is projected to reach 68% by 2050 [6]. An uneven distribution of parks and green areas within cities causes inequality in accessibility for humans, and reduces biodiversity [8,9]. Green spaces are crucial for accommodating species by preserving their network or habitats [9]. Green spaces act as a tool to prevent the loss of biodiversity by keeping gene flow among populations [9]
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