Desperately seeking stable 50-year-old landscapes with patches and long, wide corridors

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We have designed a research project to collect the evidence to determine if conservation corridors work and the conditions (such as width, severity of constrictions, or adjacent land uses) associated with success. Because planned and implemented conservation corridors designed by wildlife planners are too young for genetic and demographic effects to be evaluated, we will study landscapes with ‘‘de facto’’ conservation corridors (i.e., corridors >500 m long, in a human-dominated matrix). A de facto corridor can be thought of as an accidental corridor that exists as a quirk of the way the landscape has been developed. In each landscape (n > 50), we will collect DNA samples from focal species in patches connected by corridors, isolated patches, and sampling locations within an intact natural area. A corridor will be deemed successful if genetic distances among connected patches are smaller than genetic distances among isolated patches and similar to genetic distances between sampling sites in intact habitat. Focal species will vary among landscapes and may include any reptile, amphibian, mammal, flightless arthropod, or sedentary bird associated with the patches and corridors, but not the human-dominated matrix. In each landscape, the configuration of patches and corridors must have been stable for at least 20–50 years, so that genetic structure is likely reflective of landscape pattern. (For more information on the study design, see http://www.docorridorswork.org/study-site-criteria/). Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to identify the critical number of landscapes needed to put conservation corridors to the test. Conservation scientists need to know what factors are associated with successful wildlife corridors so that they can design and implement effective conservation corridors. Land managers need to know what land uses and management practices are compatible with effective corridors. Ecologists need to know how corridor width, internal characteristics of corridors, characteristics of the matrix in which corridors are embedded, and traits of focal species affect corridor utility.We look forward to engaging and working with many colleagues in a rigorous, global study to address these issues.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology, ELECTRONIC FILE - Ecology

SWAP (2/19/2016) citation:
Beier P, Gregory AJ. 2012. Desperately seeking stable 50-year-old landscapes with patches and long, wide corridors. [accessed 2015 Dec 4]; PLoS Biology. 10(1):e1001253. http://www.plosbiology.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info:doi/10.13...