Landscape Connectivity as a Function of Scale and Organism Vagility in a Real Forested Landscape
Landscape connectivity is considered a vital element of landscape structure because of its importance to population survival. The difficulty surrounding the notion of landscape connectivity is that it must be assessed at the scale of the interaction between an organism and the landscape. We present...
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ftjecolog:oai:.www.ecologyandsociety.org:article/436 2023-05-15T17:43:05+02:00 Landscape Connectivity as a Function of Scale and Organism Vagility in a Real Forested Landscape D'Eon, Robert G Glenn, Susan M Parfitt, Ian 2002-10-29 text/html application/pdf http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol6/iss2/art10/ en eng Resilience Alliance Ecology and Society; Vol. 6, No. 2 (2002) British Columbia dispersal forest fragmentation landscape connectivity marten northern flying squirrel northern goshawk scale vagility Peer-Reviewed Reports 2002 ftjecolog 2019-04-09T11:22:20Z Landscape connectivity is considered a vital element of landscape structure because of its importance to population survival. The difficulty surrounding the notion of landscape connectivity is that it must be assessed at the scale of the interaction between an organism and the landscape. We present a unique method for measuring connectivity between patches as a function of organism vagility. We used this approach to assess connectivity between harvest, old-growth, and recent wildfire patches in a real forested landscape in southeast British Columbia. By varying a distance criterion, habitat patches were considered connected and formed habitat clusters if they fell within this critical distance. The amount of area and distance to edge within clusters at each critical distance formed the basis of connectivity between patches. We then assessed landscape connectivity relative to old-growth associates within our study area based on species' dispersal abilities. Connectivity was greatest between harvest patches, followed by old-growth, and then wildfire patches. In old-growth patches, we found significant trends between increased connectivity and increased total habitat amount, and between decreased connectivity and increased old-growth harvesting. Highly vagile old-growth associates, such as carnivorous birds, perceive this landscape as connected and are able to access all patches. Smaller, less vagile species, such as woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches, may be affected by a lack of landscape connectivity at the scale of their interaction with old-growth patches. Of particular concern is the northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus), which we predict is limited in this landscape due to relatively weak dispersal abilities. Other/Unknown Material Northern Goshawk Unknown |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Unknown |
op_collection_id |
ftjecolog |
language |
English |
topic |
British Columbia dispersal forest fragmentation landscape connectivity marten northern flying squirrel northern goshawk scale vagility |
spellingShingle |
British Columbia dispersal forest fragmentation landscape connectivity marten northern flying squirrel northern goshawk scale vagility D'Eon, Robert G Glenn, Susan M Parfitt, Ian Landscape Connectivity as a Function of Scale and Organism Vagility in a Real Forested Landscape |
topic_facet |
British Columbia dispersal forest fragmentation landscape connectivity marten northern flying squirrel northern goshawk scale vagility |
description |
Landscape connectivity is considered a vital element of landscape structure because of its importance to population survival. The difficulty surrounding the notion of landscape connectivity is that it must be assessed at the scale of the interaction between an organism and the landscape. We present a unique method for measuring connectivity between patches as a function of organism vagility. We used this approach to assess connectivity between harvest, old-growth, and recent wildfire patches in a real forested landscape in southeast British Columbia. By varying a distance criterion, habitat patches were considered connected and formed habitat clusters if they fell within this critical distance. The amount of area and distance to edge within clusters at each critical distance formed the basis of connectivity between patches. We then assessed landscape connectivity relative to old-growth associates within our study area based on species' dispersal abilities. Connectivity was greatest between harvest patches, followed by old-growth, and then wildfire patches. In old-growth patches, we found significant trends between increased connectivity and increased total habitat amount, and between decreased connectivity and increased old-growth harvesting. Highly vagile old-growth associates, such as carnivorous birds, perceive this landscape as connected and are able to access all patches. Smaller, less vagile species, such as woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches, may be affected by a lack of landscape connectivity at the scale of their interaction with old-growth patches. Of particular concern is the northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus), which we predict is limited in this landscape due to relatively weak dispersal abilities. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
D'Eon, Robert G Glenn, Susan M Parfitt, Ian |
author_facet |
D'Eon, Robert G Glenn, Susan M Parfitt, Ian |
author_sort |
D'Eon, Robert G |
title |
Landscape Connectivity as a Function of Scale and Organism Vagility in a Real Forested Landscape |
title_short |
Landscape Connectivity as a Function of Scale and Organism Vagility in a Real Forested Landscape |
title_full |
Landscape Connectivity as a Function of Scale and Organism Vagility in a Real Forested Landscape |
title_fullStr |
Landscape Connectivity as a Function of Scale and Organism Vagility in a Real Forested Landscape |
title_full_unstemmed |
Landscape Connectivity as a Function of Scale and Organism Vagility in a Real Forested Landscape |
title_sort |
landscape connectivity as a function of scale and organism vagility in a real forested landscape |
publisher |
Resilience Alliance |
publishDate |
2002 |
url |
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol6/iss2/art10/ |
genre |
Northern Goshawk |
genre_facet |
Northern Goshawk |
op_source |
Ecology and Society; Vol. 6, No. 2 (2002) |
_version_ |
1766145103343124480 |