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Linking like with like: optimising connectivity between environmentally-similar habitats

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Abstract

Habitat fragmentation is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. To minimise the effect of fragmentation on biodiversity, connectivity between otherwise isolated habitats should be promoted. However, the identification of linkages favouring connectivity is not trivial. Firstly, they compete with other land uses, so they need to be cost-efficient. Secondly, linkages for one species might be barriers for others, so they should effectively account for distinct mobility requirements. Thirdly, detailed information on the auto-ecology of most of the species is lacking, so linkages need being defined based on surrogates. In order to address these challenges we develop a framework that (a) identifies environmentally-similar habitats; (b) identifies environmental barriers (i.e., regions with a very distinct environment from the areas to be linked), and; (c) determines cost-efficient linkages between environmentally-similar habitats, free from environmental barriers. The assumption is that species with similar ecological requirements occupy the same environments, so environmental similarity provides a rationale for the identification of the areas that need to be linked. A variant of the classical minimum Steiner tree problem in graphs is used to address c). We present a heuristic for this problem that is capable of handling large datasets. To illustrate the framework we identify linkages between environmentally-similar protected areas in the Iberian Peninsula. The Natura 2000 network is used as a positive ‘attractor’ of links while the human footprint is used as ‘repellent’ of links. We compare the outcomes of our approach with cost-efficient networks linking protected areas that disregard the effect of environmental barriers. As expected, the latter achieved a smaller area covered with linkages, but with barriers that can significantly reduce the permeability of the landscape for the dispersal of some species.

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Acknowledgments

DA was supported by a PhD studentship (BD/27514/2006) and is now funded by a post-doctoral fellowship (BPD/51512/2011) awarded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT); MT is funded by a FPI-MICINN (BES-2007-17311) fellowship; MC was funded through a Spanish RyC fellowship; JOC is partially supported by FCT through the European Community Fund FEDER/POCI 2010 and by the FCT project PTDC/AAC-AMB/113394/2009; MBA is currently funded by the ECOCHANGE project and acknowledges support from the Rui Nabeiro/Delta Chair in Biodiversity and the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). We are grateful to Evgeniy Meyke for the treatment of Iberian Peninsula Natura 2000 data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Diogo Alagador, Maria Triviño, Mar Cabeza & Miguel Bastos Araújo

  2. Forest Research Centre, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Technical University of Lisbon (TULisbon), Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017, Lisbon, Portugal

    Diogo Alagador & Jorge Orestes Cerdeira

  3. Group of Mathematics, Department of Biosystems’ Sciences and Engineering, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Technical University of Lisbon (TULisbon), Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017, Lisbon, Portugal

    Jorge Orestes Cerdeira

  4. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, Technical University of Lisbon, Rua do Quelhas 6, 1200-781, Lisbon, Portugal

    Raul Brás

  5. CEMAPRE–Centre for Applied Mathematics and Economics, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, Technical University of Lisbon, Rua do Quelhas 6, 1200-781, Lisbon, Portugal

    Raul Brás

  6. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65 (Biocenter III), 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Mar Cabeza

  7. Rui Nabeiro Biodiversity Chair, CIBIO, University of Évora, Largo dos Colegiais, 7000, Évora, Portugal

    Miguel Bastos Araújo

Authors
  1. Diogo Alagador
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  2. Maria Triviño
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  3. Jorge Orestes Cerdeira
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  4. Raul Brás
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  5. Mar Cabeza
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  6. Miguel Bastos Araújo
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Correspondence to Diogo Alagador.

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Alagador, D., Triviño, M., Cerdeira, J.O. et al. Linking like with like: optimising connectivity between environmentally-similar habitats. Landscape Ecol 27, 291–301 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-012-9704-9

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