Abstract
Landscape connectivity can largely affect the level of biodiversity and it is a key concern in conservation planning. Considering that protected areas (PAs) may become functionally isolated “islands” under rapid land-use change, there is an urgent need to expand and connect protected areas to prevent further biodiversity loss and improve PAs effectiveness. The Grain-to-Green Project (GTGP) is the largest reforestation program worldwide with the aim of controlling water and soil loss; however, the opportunities for connectivity gains through GTGP have been widely ignored. Here we provided a three-stage hierarchical framework incorporating soil erosion analysis, cropland suitability analysis and network analysis to prioritize agricultural patches for reforestation under the scheme of GTGP. The potential reforestation patches were identified in the first two stages. Then, four different GTGP strategies were designed, and a set of network metrics were used to determine the best strategy and prioritize patches that significantly enhance PAs connectivity. A typical GTGP region, Wanzhou district (Southwest China), was taken as the study area. We found that: (1) the agricultural patches with high reforestation suitability cover an area of c. 40 km2 (1% of the study area); and (2) the efficiency of GTGP strategies varies by species, species with intermediate and high mobility benefit more from a strategy that continuously adds reforestation patches close to PAs, while for species with low dispersal ability, the amount of patches added should also be taken into account to decide the appropriate strategy. We conclude that our framework can provide guidance to restore PAs connectivity with limited land resources in the context of GTGP.
Highlights
Biodiversity hotspots with rare, threatened or endangered species inhabit have been delimited as protected areas (PAs), aiming to maintain the biodiversity level and habitat quality against rapid land-use changes [1,2]
Prioritizing reforestation regions to improve landscape connectivity should be treated as the primary concern in the implementation of Grain-to-Green Program (GTGP)
We identified the potential reforestation patches by integrating soil erosion sensitivity analysis with cropland suitability evaluation, and we revealed the effect of reforestation patches outside the protected area on improving habitat connectivity, and analyzed species’ response with various dispersal distances under different reforestation strategies, rather than focusing on existing PAs as previous studies did
Summary
Biodiversity hotspots with rare, threatened or endangered species inhabit have been delimited as protected areas (PAs), aiming to maintain (and/or improve) the biodiversity level and habitat quality against rapid land-use changes [1,2]. PAs themselves are likely to suffer from functional isolation and species extinction when the surrounding unprotected areas are disturbed or converted to inhospitable landscape matrix [7,8]. Scholars have acknowledged the negative effects of landscape fragmentation on biodiversity [9,10,11]. Against this background, PAs should not be viewed as a static and finished product [12]; instead, they require expanding, connecting, and enhancing their relationship with other elements in the landscape [13,14]. Stopping soil and water loss and minimizing the negative impacts of farmland on ecosystems are the ultimate goals of GTGP. Under the scheme of GTGP, farmland on steep slopes are reforested [16]
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