Lisbon - Portugal

 

Course description:

 

Landscape connectivity can be defined as the degree to which the landscape facilitates the movement of species (genes and individuals) among the habitat resources distributed in it. Upholding landscape connectivity is a key part of biodiversity conservation efforts, as it contributes to ensure the persistence of endangered species, helps to counteract the potentially negative effects of habitat fragmentation, and facilitates the shifts in species ranges in response to climate change.

 

The course will cover the fundamental concepts and the possibilities of application of recently developed methodologies, metrics and freeware tools for the analysis of landscape connectivity that are having a large impact and are being widely used around the world. The course will put a special emphasis in the Conefor software package (http://www.conefor.org), but the methods and functionalities of other approaches and tools (Linkage Mapper, Unicor, Circuitscape) will also be covered more briefly.

Conefor is oriented to support decision making in conservation planning through the identification of key habitat patches and links for the maintenance or improvement of landscape connectivity. Conefor is the result of implementing new habitat availability (reachability) metrics and spatial graphs, and has found a large number and variety of applications in different ecosystems and management contexts, from the United States of America to China and from Europe to Brazil, as summarized in http://www.conefor.org/applications.html.

The course will combine (a) the description of the basic concepts and fundamental ideas of the methodological approaches for connectivity analysis implemented in Conefor and other quantitative and spatially explicit tools and (b) hands-on examples in the computer room, working with demonstrative case studies to allow for a better understanding of the functioning and application possibilities of the different tools.

 

A copy of the presentations and other materials used by the instructor, a set of selected publications for support and further reading, and a copy of the most recent Conefor compilation (with more powerful functionalities than the version available so far in the website) and of the rest of software tools used in the course will be provided to participants.

 

Content outline

Part 1 - Habitat fragmentation and landscape connectivity: concepts and implications.

• The landscape ecology perspective in land management and species conservation.

• What is habitat fragmentation? Multiple spatial change processes and differences with habitat loss.

• Species responses to habitat fragmentation and landscape change.

• What is landscape connectivity? Differences between structural and functional connectivity.

• Landscape connectivity: importance, implications and extinction debts.

• How to enhance landscape connectivity? Corridors, stepping stones and permeable landscape matrices.

• Corridors and connectivity: potentially undesired effects and efficiency concerns.

 

Part 2 - Methodological approaches for landscape connectivity analysis: spatial graphs and dispersal kernels.

• Methodologies for landscape connectivity analysis: simple spatial metrics, graph structures, dynamic and spatially explicit population models.

• Spatial graphs as a model for landscape connectivity networks.

• How to represent the landscape as a graph: possibilities for defining and characterizing habitat nodes and links.

• Dispersal kernels: a model for the frequency and scale of species dispersal movements.

• Long distance dispersal: rare events with large implications.

 

Part 3 - Habitat availability (reachability) metrics and the Conefor software package.

• How to measure connectivity: only among habitat patches?

• Exercise: comparing the performance of different connectivity metrics to support decision making in conservation planning.  

• Connectivity as the amount of reachable habitat in the landscape: the habitat availability metrics IIC and PC.

• Conefor 2.6: basic characteristics and functionalities.

Case study 1 (computer room): evaluating and interpreting changes in forest landscape connectivity through Conefor.

 

Part 4 - Conservation priorities and landscape connectivity.

• Prioritizing habitat patches and links by their contribution to landscape connectivity.

• Partitioning habitat availability metrics: a common currency for the different roles of habitat patches as connectivity providers.

• Which weight should connectivity have in the final conservation plan? Connectivity versus other conservation alternatives. 

Case study 2 (computer room): identifying critical areas for the maintenance of habitat connectivity for an endangered bird species through Conefor.

 

Part 5 - Landscape matrix heterogeneity and connectivity analysis: resistance surfaces, least-cost paths and related quantitative tools.

• Characterizing landscape matrix permeability through resistance surfaces: concepts and parameterization.

• Least-cost paths and effective distances: advantages and limitations.

• Tools for determining corridors and dispersal pathways as individual least-cost paths.

Case study 3a (computer room): determining corridors and the strength of the dispersal fluxes among protected areas (including the impact of road infrastructure and other elements of the landscape matrix) through the combination of different tools for connectivity analysis based on least cost paths.

 

Part 6 - Multiple dispersal pathways through the landscape matrix and other tools for connectivity analysis.

• Multiple paths and their contribution to connectivity: movement alternatives, perceptual abilities, path redundancy, corridor saturation and competition.

• Methodological approaches accounting for multiple dispersal pathways through the landscape matrix.

• Tools for accounting for multiple paths in connectivity analysis: Circuitscape.

• Opportunities and synergies in the combined used of different tools: towards an integrated workflow for landscape connectivity analysis.

Case study 3b (computer room): determining corridors and the strength of the dispersal fluxes among protected areas (including the impact of road infrastructure and other landscape matrix elements) based on multiple dispersal pathways through the combination of Conefor and Circuitscape.