Movement Corridors Research Articles

Rethinking connectivity modeling for high-mobility ungulates: insights from a globally endangered equid

ContextMaintaining connectivity is crucial for wildlife conservation in human-occupied landscapes. Structural connectivity modeling (SCM) attempts to quantify the degree to which physical features facilitate or impede movement of individuals and has been widely used to identify corridors, but its accuracy is rarely validated against empirical data.ObjectivesWe evaluated SCM’s ability to identify suitable habitat and corridors for onagers (Equus hemionus onager) through a comparison with functional connectivity (i.e., actual movement of individuals) using satellite tracking data.MethodsWe used MaxEnt to predict suitable habitat and evaluated the ability of three SCM approaches: circuit theory, factorial least cost path, and landscape corridors approaches to identify corridors. The performance of the three SCM approaches was validated against independently collected GPS telemetry data.ResultsOnagers selected water sources and dense vegetation while avoiding areas grazed intensely by livestock. The three approaches to SCMs identified similar movement corridors, which were interrupted by roads, affecting major high-flow movement corridors. The SCMs overlapped with functional connectivity by about 21%.ConclusionMovement corridors derived from SCMs did not align with the locations or intensity of corridors identified using the functional connectivity model. This finding suggests that SCMs might have a tendency to overestimate landscape resistance in areas with low habitat suitability. Therefore, SCM may not adequately capture individual decisions about habitat selection and movement. To protect corridors linking suitable habitat, data on functional connectivity (i.e., telemetry data) can be coupled with SCM to better understand habitat selection and movements of populations as a consequence of landscape features.

Determinants of livestock depredation risk by Persian leopards in southern Iran

Human-wildlife conflict is a major conservation challenge worldwide, with negative consequences for people and wildlife alike. Large carnivores, despite their key role in ecosystem functioning, are persecuted throughout their ranges as a response to perceived or actual risks to livestock and humans. To promote human-carnivore coexistence, a better understanding of the determinants of conflict is necessary. A range of factors have been hypothesized to influence livestock depredation risk, including carnivore habitat suitability and connectivity, prey availability, and anthropogenic factors. Yet, the relative importance of these factors is often unclear. We analyzed and mapped livestock depredation risk for the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana) in southern Iran using a species distribution modeling framework. We used livestock depredation reports and interviews (n = 199) from 25 randomly selected villages together with predictors capturing leopard habitat suitability, movement corridors, wild and domestic prey, and anthropogenic pressure. Our leopard habitat suitability and connectivity analyses predicted 28 core habitat patches (>250km2) associated with mountainous and conserved areas, with partly severed corridors between them. Our risk mapping indicated that the chance of livestock depredation increased in areas with higher leopard habitat suitability. Conversely, depredation risk was lower in areas with more wild prey. We predicted the highest depredation risk in about 12 % of the landscape where urgent conflict mitigation measures would be most beneficial. More generally, our study shows that while conservation areas provide refuge for carnivores, these areas can also lead to higher levels of conflict, hence mitigation measures should be prioritized in their surroundings.

Dynamic connectivity assessment for a terrestrial predator in a metropolitan region

Protecting wildlife movement corridors is critical for species conservation. Urban planning often aims to create corridors for animal movement through conservation initiatives. However, research on connectivity for urban wildlife is limited. Here, we assessed connectivity for coyotes (Canis latrans) dynamically across temporal scales and demographic traits, parametrized using the habitat selection of 27 global positioning system (GPS)‐collared coyotes in the city of Toronto, Canada. The habitat selection models accounted for human population density, impervious area, vegetation density, and distance to different linear features. Results indicated that (1) vegetation‐dense areas were key for connectivity in urban areas; (2) riverbanks, railways, and areas below power lines were predicted as movement corridors; and (3) commercial and industrial clusters strongly disrupted connectivity. Spatiotemporal differences in connectivity were associated with time of day and coyote social status but not with climate and biological seasonality or coyote age and sex. Residential roads were pivotal in the temporal dynamism of connectivity. The maintenance and enhancement of plant structural complexity along key infrastructure (for example, highways, waterways, and parking lots) should be considered when managing connectivity corridors in cities.

Movement ecology of an endangered mesopredator in a mining landscape

BackgroundEfficient movement and energy expenditure are vital for animal survival. Human disturbance can alter animal movement due to changes in resource availability and threats. Some animals can exploit anthropogenic disturbances for more efficient movement, while others face restricted or inefficient movement due to fragmentation of high-resource habitats, and risks associated with disturbed habitats. Mining, a major anthropogenic disturbance, removes natural habitats, introduces new landscape features, and alters resource distribution in the landscape. This study investigates the effect of mining on the movement of an endangered mesopredator, the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus). Using GPS collars and accelerometers, we investigate their habitat selection and energy expenditure in an active mining landscape, to determine the effects of this disturbance on northern quolls.MethodsWe fit northern quolls with GPS collars and accelerometers during breeding and non-breeding season at an active mine site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. We investigated broad-scale movement by calculating the movement ranges of quolls using utilisation distributions at the 95% isopleth, and compared habitat types and environmental characteristics within observed movement ranges to the available landscape. We investigated fine-scale movement by quolls with integrated step selection functions, assessing the relative selection strength for each habitat covariate. Finally, we used piecewise structural equation modelling to analyse the influence of each habitat covariate on northern quoll energy expenditure.ResultsAt the broad scale, northern quolls predominantly used rugged, rocky habitats, and used mining habitats in proportion to their availability. However, at the fine scale, habitat use varied between breeding and non-breeding seasons. During the breeding season, quolls notably avoided mining habitats, whereas in the non-breeding season, they frequented mining habitats equally to rocky and riparian habitats, albeit at a higher energetic cost.ConclusionMining impacts northern quolls by fragmenting favoured rocky habitats, increasing energy expenditure, and potentially impacting breeding dispersal. While mining habitats might offer limited resource opportunities in the non-breeding season, conservation efforts during active mining, including the creation of movement corridors and progressive habitat restoration would likely be useful. However, prioritising the preservation of natural rocky and riparian habitats in mining landscapes is vital for northern quoll conservation.

A deep mapping prospect: the grounds of the Fort England Psychiatric Hospital as an urban greenspace

Urbanisation in South Africa is expanding at an alarming rate. With the ever-expanding growth of urban areas, it is essential to understand how urban sites can function as greenspaces that provide wildlife habitats, biodiversity hotspots, as well as act as movement corridors for birds and mammals. In this study, I investigate the grounds of the Fort England Psychiatric Hospital as a small-scale greenspace. The hospital is located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. I propose an investigation of the site that is informed by a branch of digital environmental humanities that uses digital technologies to mobilise collective action in the conservation and stewardship of a greenspace. To this end, the article calls for a deep mapping of the site to achieve a twofold research objective. First, to study the biodiversity of the site and explore the possibility that it could offer a refuge for threatened species. Second, to call for an inclusive management plan for the greening and conservation of the site. To substantiate, the site is of importance for human use, environmental history, as well as for fauna and flora species. Accordingly, the site’s management plan must engage, accommodate and negotiate a diverse set of interests, as well as mobilise action from various members of the community.

Transboundary Cooperation in the Tumen River Basin Is the Key to Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus) Population Recovery in the Korean Peninsula.

The interconnected forest regions along the lower Tumen River, at the Sino-North Korean border, provide critical habitats and corridors for the critically endangered Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis). In this region, there are two promising corridors for leopard movement between China and North Korea: the Jingxin-Dapanling (JD) and Mijiang (MJ) corridors. Past studies have confirmed the functionality of the JD corridor, but leopards' utilization of the MJ corridor has not yet been established or confirmed. In this study, we assessed the functionality of the MJ corridor. The study area was monitored using camera traps between May 2019 and July 2021. We also analyzed 33 environmental and vegetation factors affecting leopard survival and analyzed leopard movement. In the Mijiang area, the Amur leopard was mainly active in the region adjacent to the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park and did not venture into area near the North Korean border. The complex forest structure allowed leopards to move into the Mijiang area. However, the high intensity of human disturbance and manufactured physical barriers restricted further southward movement. Therefore, human-induced disturbances such as grazing, mining, farming, logging, and infrastructure development must be halted and reversed to make the Mijiang region a functional corridor for the Amur leopard to reach the North Korean forest. This necessitates inter-governmental and international cooperation and is essential for the long-term survival of the Amur leopard.

Biodiversity conservation in Myanmar's coastal wetlands: Focusing on saltwater crocodile habitats and connectivity

Landscape-level conservation strategies are needed to protect the saltwater crocodile population and habitats in Myanmar. Identifying the remaining habitats and movement corridors is essential due to population decline across coastal regions and insufficient habitat coverage, even within protected areas. This study predicts the distribution of habitats and creates low-resistance corridors that facilitate movement across the landscape. Occurrence dataset encompassing a 20-year period (1999–2019) was used incorporating records gathered from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility—GBIF, crocodile counting reports from the Meinmahla Kyun wildlife sanctuary of Myanmar, and recent spotlight and camera-trap surveys. Using landscape connectivity tools, structural compositions of habitat classes were determined, and habitat patches were delineated to simulate the least-cost corridor and dispersal pathways. Two patches in Rakhine, two in Ayeyarwady and Yangon, one in Mon, and two in Tanintharyi, were identified that include 1247 km2 of core suitable habitat areas. The Ayeyarwady Delta exhibits a plethora of suitable habitats, while the Rakhine and Tanintharyi regions have higher marginal habitats that are largely unprotected. Only 12 % of the extent of occurrence of saltwater crocodiles are suitable habitats with a high potential for occupancy. Habitats are highly fragmented and four bottlenecks are identified to assist population connectivity in those fragmented patches. Despite notable challenges in ensuring connectivity to restore populations across the habitat patches, we highlighted connectivity as the foundation for establishing an ecological network of Myanmar's coastal habitats, leveraging the saltwater crocodile as an umbrella species for the region's coastal wetlands, and identifying key areas for enhanced protection.

Where is it complex to reallocate road space?

Road space distribution has traditionally been based on the hierarchical classification of streets. In arterials, the majority of space is dedicated to traffic lanes, whereas local streets typically have fewer traffic lanes and more space for parking or sidewalks. Within urban areas, road space is contested between two main types of spaces: corridors of movement, and places for access and standing/stillness/staying. Given the limited availability of urban space, particularly in central areas, deciding how to allocate space for these functions poses a dilemma and requires tradeoffs. Nonetheless, certain areas experience underutilization and inefficiencies in space utilization over time. In this context, we propose a site selection methodology to identify complex zones within a city where different types of users and demands compete for space. These zones present the potential for dynamically allocating road space based on fluctuating demands and policy objectives. This methodology serves as an initial guide for planners to identify zones that require a thorough evaluation of activities and diverse temporal-spatial demands when reallocating road space. We use network centrality, land use indicators, traffic, and public transport dynamics indicators to detect complex zones and apply them to a Lisbon case study.

Leopard density and the ecological and anthropogenic factors influencing density in a mixed-use landscape in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Large carnivores face numerous threats, including habitat loss and fragmentation, direct killing, and prey depletion, leading to significant global range and population declines. Despite such threats, leopards (Panthera pardus) persist outside protected areas throughout most of their range, occupying diverse habitat types and land uses, including peri-urban and rural areas. Understanding of leopard population dynamics in mixed-use landscapes is limited, especially in South Africa, where the majority of leopard research has focused on protected areas. We use spatially explicit capture-recapture models to estimate leopard density across a mixed-use landscape of protected areas, farmland, and urban areas in the Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa. Data from 86 paired camera stations provided 221 independent captures of 25 leopards at 50 camera trap stations with a population density estimate of 0.64 leopards per 100 km2 (95% CI: 0.55-0.73). Elevation, terrain ruggedness, and vegetation productivity were important drivers of leopard density in the landscape, being highest on elevated remnants of natural land outside of protected areas. These results are similar to previous research findings in other parts of the Western Cape, where high-lying natural vegetation was shown to serve as both a refuge and a corridor for leopard movement in otherwise transformed landscapes. Given the low leopard density and the prevalence of transformed land intermixed with patches of more suitable leopard habitat, prioritising and preserving connectivity for leopards is vital in this shared landscape. Ecological corridors should be developed in partnership with private landowners through an inclusive and multifaceted conservation strategy which also incorporates monitoring of and rapid mitigation of emerging threats to leopards.

Bidirectional movements of Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus nathusii) during autumn at a major migration corridor

Migration is well documented for many species throughout the animal kingdom. Although migration is also a common behaviour in bats, it is rarely studied due to the cryptic nature of the phenomenon. Recoveries of banded individuals have shown that Nathusius' pipistrelles (Pipistrellus nathusii) can fly more than 2000 km between their summer and winter ranges in Europe, but further details of how and where they move between the endpoints of their seasonal journeys remain elusive. Here, we used three-dimensional acoustic tracking at a coastal migration corridor to elucidate the flight behaviour of Nathusius' pipistrelles during late summer. Analyzing 432 recorded flight trajectories, we show that the majority of bats followed the expected southerly direction, parallel to the coastline, on all nights, and flying at the optimal speed for long-distance travel with minimal energy expenditure. However, on one day with stronger winds, about 20 % of the bats flew in the opposite, i.e. northerly, direction. The observation of a proportion of individuals flying antiparallel to the mass of migrating conspecifics within the same movement corridor highlights that individuals may follow contrasting movement strategies at the same time and place, presumably depending on environmental conditions. We argue that it is possible for Nathusius’ pipistrelles to fly back and forth (south and north) during autumn migration, spending more time on this migration corridor than required for a straight one-way flight. This highlights the urgent need to protect migration corridors along coastlines, particularly as wind energy development continues.

Small coastal marine protected areas offer recurring, seasonal protection to the common stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca)

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a crucial tool in safeguarding marine biodiversity. However, elasmobranchs are often not the primary protection target of MPAs, and their contribution to protect these species remains to be better understood. In this study we examine the movement patterns of common stingrays in the Professor Luiz Saldanha marine park, a Portuguese temperate coastal MPA. Using acoustic telemetry, we tagged 31 common stingrays and analyzed their spatial and temporal distribution within the MPA and adjacent areas using a long-term data set. Our findings indicate that this species exhibits seasonal site fidelity, with greater presence during the colder months and reduced presence during warmer months. Space use areas did not exceed the size of the fully protected area, and nocturnal and crepuscular activity was significantly higher than during daytime. Additionally, we observed that most individuals seasonally migrated between this MPA and the nearby Sado estuary, likely to reproduce in the latter. These results demonstrate the site fidelity of common stingrays to an area within the marine park, however the protection provided is only seasonal. Seasonal protection of the movement corridor between the marine park and the estuary would improve the management of this species.

A case report assessing the utility of a low-cost tracking GPS device for monitoring terrestrial mammal movements

BackgroundAccurate data on animal movements can highlight behavioural and ecological issues, such as territorial interactions, barriers to migration patterns, including compromised movement corridors, or avoidance of deteriorating habitats, and disease transmission, thus helping in conservation decision making. This study examines the utility of mOOvement global positioning system (GPS) tags, a low-cost cattle ear tag tracking device to monitor movements of terrestrial mammal populations in South Australia.ResultsStationary tags (n = 40) were used to test horizontal accuracy with a median location error of 33.26 m (IQR = 16.9–59.4), and maximum recorded error of 410 m. The locational accuracy was weakly influenced by the horizontal dilution of precision (HDOP), a measure of satellite availability and geometry, and overhead canopy cover. Numerous tags produced infrequent and inconsistent readings, median of 12 records per day (IQR = 6–12), correlating negatively with the tag’s distance from the centrally located LoRa antenna; however, some tags recorded fewer than one position per day.ConclusionsWe propose that the primary cause of mOOvement tag inadequacy is the use of only the GPS satellite constellation (USA, 1978), which does not provide adequate coverage in either satellite number or geometry in the sky at the − 35° latitude to calculate accurate positions regularly over 24 h, unlike the multiple constellations available in the global navigation satellite system (GNSS). We conclude that GPS tags are unsuitable for studies requiring high locational accuracy or identification of an individual’s social interactions, where the GPS constellation has a limited number of satellites available during prolonged periods. They can, however, be used to provide estimates of home range size or track large scale daily movements of animals in more equatorially located regions.

Multiscale landscape genetic analysis identifies major waterways as a barrier to dispersal of feral pigs in north Queensland, Australia.

Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are a destructive and widespread invasive pest in Australia. An understanding of feral pig movement is required to develop management strategies to control feral pigs in Australia. Because landscape structure can have a strong influence on animal movement, it is important to determine how landscape features facilitate or impede the movement of feral pigs. Consequently, we conducted a landscape genetic analysis of feral pig populations in the Herbert region of far north Queensland, Australia, to determine management units and provide recommendations to better inform feral pig population control strategies. Using microsatellite data obtained from 256 feral pig samples from 44 sites, we examined feral pig population structure at multiple spatial scales for univariate and multivariate landscape resistance surfaces to determine the optimal spatial scale and to identify which of the nine landscape features tested impede or facilitate feral pig gene flow. Only weak genetic structure was found among the 44 sampling sites, but major waterways were identified as a minor barrier to gene flow, and an isolation by distance model was supported. We also found that highways facilitated gene flow across the study area, and this suggests that they may act as movement corridors or indicate translocation of feral pigs. Additionally, incorporating a second spatial scale enhanced the ability of our landscape genetics analysis to detect the influence of landscape structure on gene flow. We identified three management units based on natural barriers to gene flow and future targeted control should be undertaken in these management units to deliver sustained reduction of feral pig populations in the Herbert region. This study demonstrates how a landscape genetic approach can be used to gain insight into the ecology of an invasive pest species and be used to develop population control strategies which utilise natural barriers to movement.

Use of logging roads by terrestrial mammals in a responsibly managed neotropical rainforest in Guyana

Selective logging is the most widespread use of tropical forests. Building logging roads facilitates access to previously remote rainforests, and so proper management is essential for ensuring biodiversity retention in logged landscapes. Terrestrial mammals often directly use logging roads (via movement corridors, hunting or foraging), making them vulnerable to poorly managed roads. Here we explore how the presence, arrangement and use of logging roads influence terrestrial mammal occupancy and detection within a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified logged forest in Guyana. We compared camera trap data from20 natural ‘game’ trails in an unlogged area, with camera trap data from 23 sites set near to or on logging roads within the Iwokrama forest. Our findings showed high occupancy within logged areas with no statistically significant difference to unlogged areas. Higher detections were noted along secondary and feeder roads compared to skid trails and the natural trails in control areas. Additionally, our data showed a negative correlation between occupancy and distance to village for a scatter hoarding rodent, most likely driven by subsistence hunting by local communities. Our results indicate that proper road management geared towards the monitoring and guarded access of logging roads, can have a positive effect on terrestrial mammal occurrence within responsibly managed rainforests.

High seasonal overlap in habitat suitability in a non-migratory High Arctic ungulate

Understanding drivers of space use and habitat selection is essential for management and conservation, especially under rapid environmental change. Here, we develop summer and winter habitat suitability models for the endemic wild Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus). The High Arctic Svalbard tundra is currently subject to the fastest temperature increases on Earth, and reindeer spatial responses to associated environmental change are strongly restricted due to landscape barriers (including 60% glacial coverage) and lack of sea ice as movement corridors. We used an extensive dataset of GPS-collared adult females (2009–2018; N = 268 individual-years) to model seasonal habitat selection as a function of remotely sensed environmental variables , and subsequently built habitat suitability models using an ensemble modelling framework. As expected, we found that reindeer preferred productive habitats, described by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and plant biomass (derived from a vegetation map), in both seasons. This was further supported by selection for bird cliff areas, rich in forage, improving habitat suitability especially in winter. Contrary to our expectations, the terrain variables had similar, impact on habitat suitability in the two seasons, except for use of higher elevations in winter, likely related to improved forage access due to less snow. Suitable habitat patches covered only a small proportion of the landscape and were highly clustered in both seasons. About 13.0% of the total land area was suitable in both seasons, while summer-only and winter-only areas contributed a marginal addition of around 4.7% and 1.5%, respectively. This suggests, that unlike many continental and migratory Rangifer populations, even small geographic areas may encompass suffiscient suitable habitat. These first archipelago-wide habitat suitability models provide seasonal baseline maps relevant for the management and conservation of Svalbard reindeer, particularly under rapid environmental alterations from climate change.

Opportunities and challenges for monitoring a recolonizing large herbivore using citizen science.

Monitoring is a prerequisite for evidence-based wildlife management and conservation planning, yet conventional monitoring approaches are often ineffective for species occurring at low densities. However, some species such as large mammals are often observed by lay people and this information can be leveraged through citizen science monitoring schemes. To ensure that such wildlife monitoring efforts provide robust inferences, assessing the quantity, quality, and potential biases of citizen science data is crucial. For Eurasian moose (Alces alces), a species currently recolonizing north-eastern Germany and occurring in very low numbers, we applied three citizen science tools: a mail/email report system, a smartphone application, and a webpage. Among these monitoring tools, the mail/email report system yielded the greatest number of moose reports in absolute and in standardized (corrected for time effort) terms. The reported moose were predominantly identified as single, adult, male individuals, and reports occurred mostly during late summer. Overlaying citizen science data with independently generated habitat suitability and connectivity maps showed that members of the public detected moose in suitable habitats but not necessarily in movement corridors. Also, moose detections were often recorded near roads, suggestive of spatial bias in the sampling effort. Our results suggest that citizen science-based data collection can be facilitated by brief, intuitive digital reporting systems. However, inference from the resulting data can be limited due to unquantified and possibly biased sampling effort. To overcome these challenges, we offer specific recommendations such as more structured monitoring efforts involving the public in areas likely to be roamed by moose for improving quantity, quality, and analysis of citizen science-based data for making robust inferences.

A Canada-wide macro assessment of protected area connectivity

Protected areas have become increasingly important for preventing biodiversity declines. However, their effectiveness depends, in part, on how well they are connected with other viable habitats because maintaining and enhancing species movement is critical for population persistence. We used human footprint data to identify potential movement corridors (within maximum distances of 5 and 50 km) among Canadian protected areas. We then compared the degree of connectivity for government protected areas, private protected areas, Indigenous managed lands, and a control (randomly sampled lands). At a maximum distance of 5 km, compared to the control group, government protected areas had 5.6 times more connections, private protected areas had 5.1 times, and Indigenous managed lands (e.g., Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas) had 4.8 times. At a maximum distance of 50 km, government and private protected areas had 2.6 and 1.4 times the number of connections than the control group, respectively, but Indigenous managed lands had fewer connections than the control. Among private protected areas, at both maximum distances, conservation agreements had approximately 1.3 times the number of connections than fee simple properties. Our results highlight differences in connectivity between protected area types and the disparity in connectivity between government protected areas and their non-governmental counterparts.

Exploring Acheulean biface diversity in the central Narmada Valley, Madhya Pradesh, India

Central India occupies a pivotal place in the study of the Indian Palaeolithic. It is rich in Lower Palaeolithic records, with over 300 occurrences reported, and the region's antiquity is at least 800 Ka or older. The central Narmada Valley remains one of the crucial regions in Central India with a high frequency of Acheulean sites, which are primarily observed in the regolith deposits derived from the Vindhyan Supergroup. It is observed that most of the Acheulean sites are to the north of the Narmada River, and with fewer sites to the south. One possible reason could be that multiple hominin populations occupied this region, and the central Narmada Valley acted as a corridor for multidirectional movement in the past. This paper presents preliminary research on different lithic bifacial forms at various Acheulean sites in the central Narmada Valley. This study presents an analysis of 733 bifaces which are typologically divided into cleavers (57.1%), handaxes (35.1%) and miscellaneous (7.8%) specimens. The spatial distribution of these biface forms shows that cleavers are prominently present in the Northern zone, while handaxes are more prevalent in the Central zone. This research discusses various technological aspects of Acheulean bifacial technology in the central Narmada Valley and provides broad implications regarding the hominin occupation in the Indian Subcontinent.

Balancing wildlife protection and wildfire threat mitigation using a network optimization approach

In boreal forests of North America, land managers often carry out preventive treatments of forest fuel for the protection of human infrastructure from wildfires. However, these treatments may negatively affect other ecosystem services, such as the capacity to sustain wildlife populations. Here, we examine the efficacy of a strategy aimed at preserving a critical movement corridor for boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in northern Québec, Canada, by raising high-voltage power line conductors above the forest canopy. To assess the interplay between the caribou protection objectives and a reduction in power line's exposure to wildfires, we developed an optimization model that combines the objectives of protecting the power line from wildfires via fuel treatments and maintaining a suitable movement corridor for caribou. The model combines a critical node detection (CND) problem with a habitat connectivity problem that allocates a minimum-resistance fixed-width habitat corridor between isolated wildlife refuges. Our results identify the best locations to perform fire fuel treatments to lessen the threat of fire damage to human infrastructure while maintaining a connectivity corridor for caribou in present and future climate scenarios. The selected fuel treatment locations aimed to mitigate wildfire exposure to a power line. In small-budget solutions, the exposure of power line infrastructure to wildfires was reduced by 36–39% in current climate conditions and by 20–31% in future climate, compared with no-treatment scenarios. Despite the detrimental effects of wildfire on both the industrial asset and caribou habitat, the approach provides strategies that help achieve a compromise between these two values. Such knowledge is timely to help mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on human livelihoods and natural ecosystems.

Advancing wildlife connectivity in land use planning: a case study with four‐toed salamanders

AbstractStable habitat connections that wildlife can safely traverse are essential to biodiversity conservation and healthy ecosystems. We developed high‐resolution landscape connectivity models to predict resistance to movement by a threatened wetland‐obligate amphibian, the four‐toed salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum), and identified priority management areas on the 13,000‐ha Department of Energy Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) from 2019 to 2022. We developed a resistance surface based on aerial light detection and ranging data (LiDAR), >30 years of field‐based mapping of forest, hydrologic, and geologic features, and contemporary population surveys, alongside derived predictors at <1‐m resolution. We then modeled predicted movement corridors using a circuit theory‐based modeling approach. We worked closely with land management and natural resources personnel to integrate ecological modeling with broader land use priorities, monetary costs, and feasibility. We identified important terrestrial and aquatic areas on ORR and simulated management scenarios to promote stable connections for four‐toed salamanders. This approach allowed us to narrow down a list of 438 potential habitat manipulation sites to 10 sites where open‐bottomed culverts and buffers could be implemented. This smaller‐scale restoration approach produced a similar increase in landscape connectivity while costing <20% of a larger‐scale approach based on barrier removal. We successfully identified feasible, cost‐effective management strategies that integrated knowledge from a variety of sources. We offer a strategy that permitted integration of wildlife management goals into infrastructure upgrades wherein wildlife was not an initial consideration.