Abstract
Misiones, Argentina, contains the largest remaining tract of Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest ecoregion; however, ~50% of native forest is unprotected and located in a mosaic of plantations, agriculture, and pastures. Existing protected areas are becoming increasingly isolated due to ongoing habitat modification. These factors, combined with lower than expected regional carnivore densities, emphasize the need to understand the effect of fragmentation on animal movement and connectivity between protected areas. Using detection dogs and genetic analyses of scat, we collected data on jaguars (Panthera onca), pumas (Puma concolor), ocelots (Leopardus pardalis), oncillas (Leopardus tigrinus), and bush dogs (Speothos venaticus) across habitats that varied in vegetation, disturbance, human proximity, and protective status. With MaxEnt we evaluated habitat use, habitat suitability, and potential species richness for the five carnivores across northern-central Misiones, Argentina. Through a multifaceted cost analysis that included unique requirements of each carnivore and varying degrees of overlap among them, we determined the optimal location for primary/secondary corridors that would link the northern-central zones of the Green Corridor in Misiones and identified areas within these corridors needing priority management. A secondary analysis, comparing these multispecies corridors with the jaguar’s unique requirements, demonstrated that this multispecies approach balanced the preferences of all five species and effectively captured areas required by this highly restricted and endangered carnivore. We emphasize the potential importance of expanding beyond a single umbrella or focal species when developing biological corridors that aim to capture the varied ecological requirements of coexisting species and ecological processes across the landscape. Detection dogs and genetic analyses of scat allow data on multiple species to be collected efficiently across multiple habitat types independent of the degree of legal protection. These data used with multifocal GIS analyses balance the varying degree of overlap and unique properties among them allowing for comprehensive conservation strategies to be developed relatively rapidly. Our comprehensive approach serves as a model to other regions faced with habitat loss and lack of data. The five carnivores focused on in our study have wide ranges, so the results from this study can be expanded and combined with surrounding countries, with analyses at the species or community level.
Highlights
The loss and conversion of native habitat have resulted in many protected areas becoming increasingly isolated, forcing species to navigate a matrix of habitats
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been used to determine corridors that minimize the cost of these movements [1,2]; the type of data used to construct these models and how decisions are made to select areas are still evolving in conservation biology
After trying several approaches with the data, we identified an appropriate model for predicting potential connectivity outside of protected areas for our study by combining field data, knowledge of ongoing land conversion outside of protected areas, and setting areas outside of the predicted species distribution to regions with restricted movement
Summary
The loss and conversion of native habitat have resulted in many protected areas becoming increasingly isolated, forcing species to navigate a matrix of habitats These movements threaten the long-term survival of species requiring large ranges to meet ecological and energetic needs as they are inevitably exposed to human-wildlife conflicts. Though the fact that some species apparently avoid human disturbed areas (e.g., jaguar) [7,8] may mean these intermediary areas are physical barriers and prevent movement among the “stones” Another approach is to identify intermediary areas with habitat that species find suitable and create corridors based on them. This could minimize the total amount of “new” area needed in the corridor by having existing protected areas act as “stepping stones” across the landscape [9]
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