Using cross-scale landscape connectivity indices to identify key habitat resource patches for Asian elephants in Xishuangbanna, China

Abstract

The landscape connectivity of natural habitats serves an important role in the migration and survival of animals. In southwestern China, the rapid decline of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population has been attributed to habitat loss and fragmentation due to recent land-use changes. Despite efforts to protect the Asian elephants’ habitats, an analysis on the cross-scale landscape connectivity within and among these habitats has rarely been documented. In this study, we focused in Xishuangbanna, China and first identified the key patches for the Asian elephant in Xishuangbanna, China. We then evaluated the landscape connectivity and compared scenarios for eight dispersal distances of the resource patches. Levels of importance for each individual patch were evaluated by calculating the probability of connectivity (dPC) and betweenness centrality (dBC). Results showed that habitats with high suitability occupied 29% of the studied area. The distribution of patch importance levels wasdetermined separately by dPC and dBC, and these two indices corresponded with each other via the connector fraction of dPC (dPCconnector) index. The final total area of the priority patches was 2478km2, or approximately 76% of the suitable habitat area. Our study indicated that the cross-scale landscape connectivity analysis is an effective approach to characterize the key patches, and the priority patches for Asian elephants can be selected by using both dBC and dPC in Xishuangbanna.