Potential Ecological Corridors Research Articles

Optimal region connection: Establishing effective ecological corridors for biodiversity conservation in Yunnan Province, China

Habitat fragmentation, caused by human activities, is recognized as a major threat to biodiversity. Previous studies have largely focused on identifying potential ecological corridors, with less attention given to the optimization of these connections. In this article, a new framework is introduced that integrates ArcGIS Pro’s optimal region connection tools with the InVEST habitat quality model, Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA), and other ecological parameters. Ecological corridors in Yunnan Province, China, were identified and assessed using a minimum cumulative resistance model and a gravity model. Initially, 282 potential corridors spanning 6,310 km were identified. Following optimization, this number was reduced to 119 corridors, totaling 683 km in length. Over 87 % of these corridors were found to be less than 10 km in length, with most positioned strategically adjacent to key habitat cores. The likelihood of protecting and expanding habitat cores increased, while the risks of invasive species and unnecessary connectivity between croplands and natural habitats were minimized. Cost-effectiveness was enhanced, and connectivity between similar habitats was improved, linking all habitat cores within the region. This innovative methodology is presented as a comprehensive solution to mitigate the harmful impacts of habitat fragmentation and support sustainable biodiversity conservation.

Construction of Green Space Ecological Network in Xiongan New Area Based on the MSPA–InVEST–MCR Model

With the rapid pace of urbanization, the integrity and connectivity of ecosystems are under serious threat, making biodiversity conservation a top priority. We use the Xiongan New Area in China as a case study to explore the significance and application of constructing urban ecological networks in the development of new cities. This study systematically applied the categorization of green space systems using remote sensing technology; MSPA was used to identify key landscape patches; InVEST was employed to assess habitat quality; and potential ecological corridors were established using the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR). Moreover, targeted recommendations for optimizing ecological green spaces were put forward. The findings demonstrate that the Xiongan New Area has significant potential and needs for ecological network construction, and it faces the issue of ecological network fragmentation. This research highlights the significance of developing ecological networks within urban planning and proposes optimization strategies tailored to these networks. The objective is to offer scientific guidance for the design and development of emerging cities, such as the Xiongan New Area, to facilitate the alignment and integration of ecological preservation efforts with urban expansion, ultimately achieving the sustainable development goal of harmonious coexistence between the environment and urban areas.

Ecosystem Service Value Estimation and Ecological Security Pattern in Heilongjiang Province

To maintain ecosystem functions and ensure ecological security, estimating the value of ecosystem services and constructing an ecological security pattern are necessary. Considering the lack of systematic research on the estimation of ecosystem service value and the construction of ecological security pattern, this study extracted the ecological source based on the analysis of ecosystem service value and morphological spatial pattern. According to the natural conditions such as geographical location and altitude, land use type, landscape pattern type, elevation, slope, and normalized difference vegetation index were selected to establish the resistance surface. The minimum cumulative resistance model was used to identify potential ecological corridors, so as to construct the ecological security pattern of Heilongjiang Province, and longitudinal analysis was conducted from 2000 to 2020. The results showed that： ① The overall value of ecosystem services in Heilongjiang Province showed an upward trend （with an amplitude of 42%）, the value of hydrological regulation services accounted for the largest proportion among different service types （approximately 30%）, and the value of forest land services accounted for the largest proportion among different land use types （up to 70%）. ② Eight ecological source areas were extracted, mainly distributed around Greater Khingan Mountains, Lesser Khingan Mountains, Changbai Mountain, and Wanda Mountain, with the largest area of ecological source in Greater Khingan Mountains. ③ Twenty-eight potential ecological corridors were identified, mainly distributed in the northeastern side of the line from Heihe City to Mudanjiang City, forming densely populated areas in Qitaihe City, northern Mudanjiang City, and southern Jixi City. ④ An ecological security network pattern in Heilongjiang Province was constructed with Greater Khingan Mountains Region, Mudanjiang City, and Shuangyashan City as endpoints and Yichun City as the center, finding that the main problem faced at that time was uneven spatial distribution. The research results are helpful to formulate and establish more reasonable ecological environment protection measures and policies and can provide reference value and scientific basis for provincial ecosystem protection and optimization.

Construction of Wetland Ecological Security Pattern in Wuhan Metropolitan Core Area Considering Wetland Ecological Risk

Wetlands play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance. Preserving the ecological security of wetlands is critically important for regional environmental protection and sustainable development. However, in the core area of the Wuhan metropolitan circle, which is rapidly urbanizing, its wetlands are more susceptible to external natural environmental risks, such as changes in temperature and rainfall, as well as risks to human activity, such as social and economic activities, urban expansion, land use changes, and population growth. Meanwhile, the internal vulnerability of wetlands in terms of their spatial extent, structure, and functions also exacerbates ecological risks. These factors collectively influence the formation and development of wetland ecological risks. This study aims to comprehensively assess wetland ecological risks in the core area of the Wuhan metropolitan circle by combining external hazards and internal vulnerabilities and to construct and optimize the wetlands’ ecological security pattern. We used the MSPA method to identify potential ecological sources. Additionally, the MCR model was employed to integrate ecological risk assessment results into the resistance surface, identify potential ecological corridors and nodes, construct the wetland ecological security pattern for the urban circle, and propose specific optimization strategies. In total, 31 primary and 106 secondary ecological sources were selected, along with 20 primary and 42 secondary ecological nodes. Furthermore, 10 major ecological corridors were constructed. Considering the landscape characteristics of the wetlands in the core area of the Wuhan metropolitan circle, the southern Yangtze River region will center around the Liangzi Lake group to establish a crucial corridor network, promoting overall wetland restoration and connectivity. Meanwhile, the northern Yangtze River region will form a chain-like distribution along the river, creating diverse ecosystems. This study provides a theoretical foundation for constructing and optimizing the ecological security pattern of wetlands, laying a solid groundwork for promoting regional wetland conservation and sustainable development.

Identification of composite ecological corridors and spatial planning guidance in built-up areas under the concept of park city: Taking Shenyang City Center as an example.

The concept of park city provides a new model for the integrated utilization of multiple elements in built-up areas. Ecological corridors, as key components of urban ecosystem, play a major role in facilitating information flow and material exchange between various ecological spaces within built-up area. We identified ecological (mixed) spaces in Shenyang using points of interest data on the ArcGIS 10.2 platform and considered them as sources. Using the least-cost model and gravity model, we identified potential ecological corridors with high, medium, and low resistance on the resistance surface, and proposed the spatial planning guidance strategy based on the distribution characteristics of potential corridors. The results showed that the number of ecological (mixed) spaces in the study area significantly increased during 2017-2022. The ecological resistance surface showed an outward expansion trend with continuous accumulation of resistance in the core area. There was an increase of one high-resistance and one medium-resistance potential corridor, and an increase of nine low-resistance potential corridors. However, there were problems, such as a single corridor network structure, the exacerbation of ecological isolation, and continuous accumulation of resistance. Based on the concept of park city and the spatial distribution characteristics of potential corridors, we put forward a spatial planning guidance strategy to strengthen the support system of composite space corridors.

Habitat Suitability Evaluation and Ecological Corridor Construction for Asian Elephants: The Case of Jiangcheng, a New Range for Elephants in Southwestern China

In recent years, the northward migration of elephant herds in China’s Yunnan Province has attracted unprecedented public attention to the conservation of Asian elephants, with habitat fragmentation and human disturbance thought to be key factors. In this study, we used Jiangcheng, a new distribution site for Asian elephants in southwest China, as an example, combined the available remote sensing and monitoring data with the MaxEnt3.4.1 model, to analyze the factors affecting the activities of Asian elephants under the conditions of human disturbance and habitat degradation. The Least Cumulative Resistance model was utilized to construct the potential ecological dispersal corridors, and the key corridors were identified through the gravity model to explore the ecological security pattern of the habitat of Asian elephants in Jiangcheng County. The results show that the habitat of Asian elephants in Jiangcheng County is fragmented, showing a north–south strip distribution, never moving to the northeast. The existing suitable habitat is located in the low-elevation area (<1500 m), which is close to water sources and roads, and there is no nature reserve in this area. The land is mainly occupied by scrub or grassland near mountainous forests, but part of it is also under cultivation, which leads to conflicts between humans and elephants occur frequently. There are 14 ecological source areas, which are mainly distributed in the two regions of Zhengdong and Kangping, and there are 92 ecological corridors, of which 3 are important corridors and 89 are general corridors. This study comprehensively analyzes the current status and connectivity of Asian elephant habitat in Jiangcheng County at the regional scale, which helps to optimize the pattern of suitable habitat, promotes the dispersal of Asian elephants and habitat connectivity, and provides realistic guidance and basic information for the conservation planning of isolated populations of this species and their habitats.

Constructing Ecological Networks for Mountainous Urban Areas Based on Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis and Minimum Cumulative Resistance Models: A Case Study of Yongtai County

In order to alleviate the increased habitat fragmentation caused by the accelerating urbanization and ecological deterioration, constructing ecological networks is an effective way to improve ecological connectivity, facilitate regional energy flow, and promote biodiversity enhancement. In this study, Yongtai County was taken as the research object, and the morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) method was used to analyze the landscape pattern, identify the ecological source sites, classify the ecological source sites according to the importance degree by possible connectivity index (PC) and the Delta values for probability index of connectivity (dPC), and then construct the potential ecological corridors with the help of the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model to generate the ecological network, and then put forward the optimization strategy according to the current situation. The results show that (1) the core area of Yongtai County is 1071.06 km2, the largest among all landscape types, with a fragmented distribution, high degree of fragmentation, and poor connectivity, mainly in the east and southwest, and sparser in the middle. (2) The area of highest resistance value is mainly located in the built-up areas of towns and rural settlements in the central and northwestern parts of the country; the lowest value is distributed in the southwest and southeast, and the land use mode is mainly expressed as woodland. (3) The ecological network consists of 13 ecological sources and 78 potential ecological corridors. The ecological sources are mainly located in the east and southwest, with high connectivity; the potential ecological corridors are distributed in the form of a network, with fewer in the center, resulting in the phenomenon of ecological disconnection. (4) Lack of ecological sources and corridors, serious landscape fragmentation, and optimization of ecological network by adding and protecting ecological sources, repairing ecological breakpoints and building stepping stones. This study is of guiding significance for urban green space system planning, biodiversity protection, and ecosystem function enhancement in Yongtai County, and also provides reference for ecological protection and optimization in other mountainous cities.

Assessing the extinction risk of the spontaneous flora in urban tree bases.

As the spatial arrangement of trees planted along streets in cities makes their bases potential ecological corridors for the flora, urban tree bases may be a key contributor to the overall connectivity of the urban ecosystem. However, these tree bases are also a highly fragmented environment in which extinctions are frequent. The goal of this study was to assess the plant species' ability to survive and spread through urban tree bases. To do so, we developed a Bayesian framework to assess the extinction risk of a plant metapopulation using presence/absence data, assuming that the occupancy dynamics was described by a Hidden Markov Model. The novelty of our approach is to take into account the combined effect of low-distance dispersal and the potential presence of a seed bank on the extinction risk. We introduced a metric of the extinction risk and examined its performance over a wide range of metapopulation parameters. We applied our framework to yearly floristic inventories carried out in 1324 tree bases in Paris, France. While local extinction risks were generally high, extinction risks at the street scale varied greatly from one species to another. We identified 10 plant species that could survive and spread through urban tree bases, and three plant traits correlated with the extinction risk at the metapopulation scale: the maximal height, and the beginning and end of the flowering period. Our results suggest that some plant species can use urban tree bases as ecological corridors despite high local extinction risks by forming a seed bank. We also identified other plant traits correlated with the ability to survive in tree bases, related to the action of gardeners. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that our Bayesian estimation framework based on percolation theory has the potential to be extended to more general metapopulations.

Construction of ecological network in Qujing city based on MSPA and MCR models.

With the rapid advancement of urbanization and industrialization, ecological patches within cities and towns are fragmented and ecological corridors are cut off, regional ecological security is threatened and sustainable development is hindered. Building an ecological network that conforms to regional realities can connect fragmented patches, protect biodiversity and regional characteristics, and provide scientific reference for regional ecological protection and ecological network planning. By taking Qilin District, the main urban area of Qujing City as an example, and using geospatial data as the main data source, based on morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and minimum cumulative resistance (MCR), this study identified ecological source areas, extracted ecological corridors, and build & optimize ecological networks. (1) All landscape types are identified based on MSPA, the proportion of core area was the highest among all landscape types, which was 80.69%, combined with the connectivity evaluation, 14 important ecological source areas were selected. (2) 91 potential ecological corridors were extracted through MCR and gravity models, there were 16 important ones. (3) The network connectivity analysis method is used to calculate the α, β, and γ indexes of the ecological network before optimization, which were 2.36, 6.5, and 2.53, while after optimization, α, β and γ indices were 3.8, 9.5 and 3.5, respectively. The combined application of MSPA-MCR model and ecological network connectivity analysis evaluation is conducive to improving the structure and functionality of ecological network.

Construction of the Ecological Security Pattern in Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Based on Circuit Theory

Urban modernization and economic globalization have led to significant changes in traditional natural landscapes. The unregulated and large-scale expansion of rubber plantations in Xishuangbanna has resulted in water and scenic forests being replaced by rubber forests and the complex rainforest ecosystem being replaced by simple artificial forests. This has resulted in increasingly prominent ecological problems such as soil erosion, regional microclimate changes, and sharp declines in biodiversity. The ecological security pattern is an important way to protect regional ecological sustainability. Taking the tropical rainforest in Xishuangbanna as an example, this study identified ecological sources through the evaluation of the importance of ecosystem services, constructed resistance surfaces through ecological sensitivity evaluation, and used circuit theory to simulate ecological processes in heterogeneous landscapes by calculating “electricity” or “resistance”, thereby identifying ecological corridors and key ecological nodes. The results identified 31 ecological source areas, 65 key ecological corridors, 7 potential ecological corridors, 37 ecological pinch points, and 99 ecological barriers. The overall distribution of ecological sources was scattered, with higher density in the northwest and southeast regions. Ecological corridors were distributed along high mountains, and both ecological sources and corridors were mainly composed of forest land. Based on circuit theory, this study filled the gap in the MCR model’s inability to identify the true width of corridors due to ignoring the randomness of biological migration. It determined the spatial range of ecological corridors and the specific locations of ecological nodes and barriers, providing a reference for solving ecological problems in Xishuangbanna, such as “rainforest fragmentation”.

Long-term land transformation alters potential ecological corridors and increases functional connectivity cost among nature reserves in Guangdong, China

Long-term land transformation alters potential ecological corridors and increases functional connectivity cost among nature reserves in Guangdong, China

Identification of ecological security patterns of alpine wetland grasslands based on landscape ecological risks: A study in Zoigê County

Climate change and human activities have increased ecological risks and degraded ecosystem functions in alpine wetland grassland regions, where ecological security remains largely unexplored. The construction of ecological security patterns (ESP) can help to synchronize regional ecological security and sustainable development and provide ideas to address these challenges. This article determines the current ESP of Zoigê County, China, by analyzing the spatial and temporal characteristics of landscape ecological risk (LER) and generating an ecological network by combining the InVEST model, the landscape connectivity index, and the circuit theory model. Management zoning and targeted conservation recommendations are proposed. The results indicate that the region has significant spatial heterogeneity in IER. Ecological risk exposure is increasing, with high values mainly concentrated in the central part of the region. Meanwhile, ecological protection areas were identified, which included 2578.44 km2 of ecological sources, 71 key ecological corridors, 25 potential ecological corridors, 4 river ecological corridors, 66 pinch points, and 58 barriers. This study provides a valuable reference for the ecological development of Zoigê County, as well as insights into the formation of ESP in other alpine wetland grassland regions.

Mapping the way: identifying priority potential corridors for protected areas connectivity in Colombia

Colombia has experienced alarming rates of deforestation, posing a threat to forest biodiversity both inside and outside protected areas. Furthermore, a decline in ecological connectivity can potentially disrupt vital ecological processes such as pollination, gene flow, breeding, seed dispersal, among others. To address this issue at a national scale, it is crucial to identify and conserve a comprehensive network of ecological corridors.In this study, we identified high priority potential ecological corridors linking protected areas in Colombia. We categorized a representative set of 16 threatened mammal species into four ecological profiles. Then, we used Least Cost Path (LCP) analysis to model potential corridors between protected areas as those that minimized resistance for forest species dispersal. To prioritize conservation efforts, we applied the decrease in the Probability of Connectivity index (dPC) to identify corridors with the highest priority.Our findings emphasize the importance of preserving large forest patches within protected areas for species inhabiting lowland and sub-Andean forests. However, for species residing in Andean and high Andean forests, restoration measures (e.g., increasing forest cover) between protected areas are needed to enhance landscape permeability and facilitate their dispersal, thereby contributing to their conservation.Our results have practical implications for decision-makers involved in conservation efforts. These findings can aid in identifying conservation priorities for existing protected areas and their surrounding forest habitats in Colombia. Additionally, we provided expert-based resistance values for different forest mammals that can be further used in other large scale connectivity analyses, including other countries where these species inhabit.

Spatial Optimization and Temporal Changes in the Ecological Network: A Case Study of Wanning City, China

Ecological networks serve as vital tools for safeguarding biodiversity and ensuring regional ecological stability. This study, conducted in Wanning City, employs minimum-area threshold analysis to pinpoint crucial ecological sources while extracting potential ecological corridors using the minimum cumulative resistance model. Our investigation delves into the ecological network’s elements and structural transformations within Wanning City, spanning the period from 2000 to 2020, and assesses the priorities for ecological network preservation. The findings of our research reveal noteworthy spatial disparities in the distribution of ecological sources across Wanning City. Furthermore, the ecological corridors display sparse patterns in the north and denser patterns in the south. Over the two decades from 2000 to 2020, Wanning’s ecological resources exhibited a discernible trend of contraction and fragmentation, accompanied by an uneven spatial distribution. The average path length of the ecological corridors has increased, indicative of reduced biological flow efficiency. Correspondingly, the structural accessibility of the ecological network has decreased, signifying a decline in landscape connectivity. Based on our analysis, we propose an ecological protection and restoration framework denoted as “One Belt, Four Sources, Eight districts, multiple corridors, and multiple points”. Therefore, with the Shangxi–Jianling, Liulianling, Nanlin, and Jiexin nature reserves as the core area, and Houan Town, Damao Town, Changfeng Town, and Liji Town as the key restoration areas, we have proposed an ecological protection and restoration pattern.

Using Circuit Theory, Connectivity Analysis and Least-Cost Path to Model the Potential Ecological Corridors of Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus) at Chini-Bera Forest Complex in Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia

Using Circuit Theory, Connectivity Analysis and Least-Cost Path to Model the Potential Ecological Corridors of Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus) at Chini-Bera Forest Complex in Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia

Analysis of Green Infrastructure Network Pattern Change in Zhengzhou Central City Based on Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis

Green infrastructure is generally regarded as an effective way to maintain regional ecological security, and its construction method plays an essential role in its function realization. In this study, the central urban area of Zhengzhou was taken as the research area. The land use type maps of the study area were obtained through the supervised classification of TM/ETM Remote sensing image data in 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019. The Green Infrastructure (GI) in the study area was obtained by Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) based on the landscape connectivity index and landscape map theory. The landscape connectivity of the core area was classified and quantitatively evaluated. Then, the potential ecological corridors were extracted and analyzed. The GI pattern change research based on MSPA, landscape connectivity, and map theory provided a new framework for analyzing GI pattern change. Finally, the spatial structure of green infrastructure planning in Zhengzhou central city is obtained, and the optimization strategy of network structure is proposed. The research results can provide references for the planning and optimization of GI networks in the study area and have particular reference significance for the planning and construction of GI networks in other areas.

Identifying priority areas for ecological conservation and restoration based on circuit theory and dynamic weighted complex network: A case study of the Sichuan Basin

Regional ecological security is a pressing issue in the context of escalating human-environment conflicts. Ecological networks(ENs), the fundamental tool for characterizing ecosystems, have enabled further quantitative analysis at the micro level by integrating with complex networks in recent years. However, most studies neglect the unreliability of unweighted complex networks and the dynamic characteristics of ENs. This paper takes the Sichuan Basin as the research area and adopts the following methods. Firstly, it integrates landscape ecology and ecosystem services to construct the ENs using Linkage Mapper. Secondly, it introduces the cost-weighted distance as the weight to build complex networks and identifies potential pivot ecological sources and key ecological corridors based on the topological features of the weighted complex networks in 2000, 2010, and 2020. Thirdly, it applies circuit theory to detect ecological pinchpoints and ecological barrier points within the corridors as priority areas for ecological conservation and restoration. The results show that the ENs in the study area are denser on the northern and southern sides, and some ecological corridors change direction due to variations of resistance surfaces and landscape morphology. Through dynamic analysis of the weighted complex networks, 27 potential pivot ecological sources and 25 key ecological corridors are identified; then, 28 priority conservation areas and 10 priority restoration areas within these ecological corridors are extracted based on circuit theory. The study reveals a certain correlation between the distribution of ecological nodes and water bodies. Furthermore, comparing the weighted and unweighted complex network, we find that the weighted complex network is more reasonable, with 64.2% of ecological sources showing lower betweenness centrality than that in the unweighted network, reflecting the obstacles that urbanization poses to ecological networks. This study explores the impact of constantly changing resistance surfaces on the overall ENs and their components through dynamic analysis. The evolving topological features reflect the feedback of the ENs to external environmental changes, as well as the dynamic characteristics of the real ENs. Therefore, the findings of this study provide valuable references for ecological conservation and governance efforts in Sichuan Basin, promoting regional ecological security and the advancement of ecological civilization.

Identification of Key Areas and Early-Warning Points for Ecological Protection and Restoration in the Yellow River Source Area Based on Ecological Security Pattern

The Yellow River Source Area is located in the ecological protection and restoration area of the Sanjiangyuan in China, which has been deteriorating as a result of human-caused overgrazing and the grassland destruction caused by plateau rats and rabbits, as well as the influence of other natural factors. The Yellow River Source Area is an important area that implements ecological restoration and protection in the Three Rivers Source Region, where the ecologically vulnerable areas that are of great significance to the implementation of ecological restoration in national land space should be identified and the early warning should be extended. This measure can help us identify potential ecological problems and take timely and targeted protection measures to ensure the health and sustainable development of the ecosystem in the Yellow River Source Area. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the ecological vulnerability of the Yellow River Source Area and the establishment of an early warning mechanism are of vital importance for the protection and restoration of the ecology of the national space in the Yellow River Source Area. Aiming to comprehensively delimit ecological restoration areas in the Yellow River Source Area and provide an early warning, this study applies the MSPA method to identify ecological source areas and uses a patch importance index to identify the importance of ecological source areas, along with extracting potential ecological corridors by using the MCR model, screening important ecological corridors by using the gravity model as a criterion, and simulating land cover changes in 2030 under the limitations of ecological security pattern by using the PLUS model. The results show that: (1) 154 potential ecological corridors were extracted based on the MCR model, with a total length of 7891.90. (2) The total area of the landscape types in the Yellow River Source Area was 12,301 based on MSPA analysis, including the 6899.57 of core area. (3) Based on the PLUS model, the area of farmland and forest in the study area will decrease, while the grassland area will increase. According to the studies, the grassland in the study area expands in a circular pattern towards the surrounding wetland and water area, threatening the ecological sources and corridors. In summary, the study delimits one protection zone in the ecological source land and two core ecological restoration zones and points out the early warning points in the ecological protection space. The delimitation and instruction provide specific spatial guidance for the protection and restoration of ecosystems in order to promote ecological sustainability.

Supporting the planning of urban blue-green infrastructure for biodiversity: A multi-scale prioritisation framework

Primary considerations for urban blue-green infrastructure (BGI) encompass sustainable stormwater/urban heat management while biodiversity conservation is often considered an inherent benefit rather than a core planning requirement. However, ecological function of BGI as ‘stepping stones’ or linear corridors for otherwise fragmented habitats is undisputed. While quantitative approaches for modelling ecological connectivity in conservation planning are well established, mismatches in scope and scale with models that support the planning of BGI makes their adoption and integration difficult across disciplines. Technical complexities have led to ambiguity around circuit and network-based approaches, focal node placement, spatial extents, and resolution. Furthermore, these approaches are often computationally intensive, and considerable gaps remain in their use for identifying local-scale critical “pinch-points” that urban planners may respond to with the integration of BGI interventions that address biodiversity enhancement among other ecosystem services. Here, we present a framework that simplifies and integrates the merits of regional connectivity assessments with a focus on urban areas to prioritise BGI planning interventions while reducing computational demands. Our framework facilitates: (1) modelling potential ecological corridors at a coarse regional scale, (2) prioritising local-scale BGI interventions based on the relative contribution of individual nodes in this regional network, and (3) inferring connectivity hot- and cold-spots for local-scale BGI interventions. We illustrate this in the Swiss lowlands, demonstrating how, compared to previous work, we are able to identify and rank different priority locations across the region for BGI interventions in support of biodiversity enhancement and how their local-scale functional design may be benefited by addressing specific environmental variables.

Research on the Relationship between the Structure of Forest and Grass Ecological Spaces and Ecological Service Capacity: A Case Study of the Wuding River Basin

In recent years, the accelerated pace of urbanization has increased patch fragmentation, which has had a certain impact on the structure and ecological environment of forest–grass ecological networks, and certain protection measures have been taken in various regions. Therefore, studying the spatiotemporal changes and correlations of ecological service functions and forest–grass ecological networks can help to better grasp the changes in landscape ecological structure and function. This paper takes the Wuding River Basin as the research area and uses the windbreak and sand fixation service capacity index, soil conservation capacity, and net primary productivity (NPP) to evaluate the ecological service capacity of the research area from the three dimensions of windbreak and sand fixation, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration. The Regional Sustainability and Environment Index (RSEI) is used to extract ecological source areas, and GIS spatial analysis and the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model are used to extract potential ecological corridors. Referring to complex network theory, topology metrics such as degree distribution and clustering coefficient are calculated, and their correlation with ecological service capacity is explored. The results show that the overall ecological service capacity of sand fixation, soil fixation, and carbon sequestration in the research area in 2020 has increased compared to 2000, and the ecological flow at the northern and northwest boundaries of the river basin has been enhanced, but there are still shortcomings such as fragmented ecological nodes, a low degree of clustering, and poor connectivity. In terms of the correlation between topology indicators and ecological service functions, the windbreak and sand fixation service capacity index have the strongest correlation with clustering and the largest grasp, while the correlation between soil conservation capacity and eigencentrality is the strongest and has the largest grasp. The correlation between NPP and other indicators is not obvious, and its correlation with eccentricity and eigencentrality is relatively large.