Abstract
Abstract Globally, protected areas are being established to protect biodiversity and to promote ecosystem resilience. The typical spatial conservation planning process leading to the creation of these protected areas focuses on representation and replication of ecological features, often using decision support tools such as Marxan. Yet, despite the important role ecological connectivity has in metapopulation persistence and resilience, Marxan currently requires manual input or specialized scripts to explicitly consider connectivity. ‘Marxan Connect’ is a new open source, open access Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool designed to assist conservation planners with the appropriate use of data on ecological connectivity in protected area network planning. Marxan Connect can facilitate the use of estimates of demographic connectivity (e.g. derived from animal tracking data, dispersal models, or genetic tools) or structural landscape connectivity (e.g. isolation by resistance). This is accomplished by calculating metapopulation‐relevant connectivity metrics (e.g. eigenvector centrality) and treating those as conservation features or by including the connectivity data as a spatial dependency amongst sites in the prioritization process. Marxan Connect allows a wide group of users to incorporate directional ecological connectivity into conservation planning with Marxan. The solutions provided by Marxan Connect, combined with ecologically relevant post‐hoc testing, are more likely to support persistent and resilient metapopulations (e.g. fish stocks) and provide better protection for biodiversity.
Highlights
IntroductionConnectivity, in its most general form, refers to the exchange of individuals (including genes, traits, disease, etc.), energy or materials among habitat patches, populations, communities or ecosystems
Connectivity, in its most general form, refers to the exchange of individuals, energy or materials among habitat patches, populations, communities or ecosystems
Marxan Connect can facilitate the use of estimates of demographic connectivity or structural landscape connectivity
Summary
Connectivity, in its most general form, refers to the exchange of individuals (including genes, traits, disease, etc.), energy or materials among habitat patches, populations, communities or ecosystems. There are many metrics and methods to evaluate the connectivity of sea- and landscapes and these can be used to assess and develop networks of protected areas (Beger, Grantham, et al, 2010; Chollett et al, 2017; D’Aloia et al, 2017; Saura & Pascual-Hortal, 2007; Zeller et al, 2018). Spatial prioritization often relies on the use of decision-support software (e.g. Marxan or Zonation) to help decide the location of actions (e.g. establishing protected areas), often while minimizing the conservation impact on resource users. These tools are primarily used to develop representative and cost-efficient conservation plans that meet predefined targets for species and/or habitats (and cultural sites, processes, and socio-economic features)
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