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Influence of separating home range and dispersal movements on characterizing corridors and effective distances

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Abstract

Context

Corridors are usually delineated as areas of minimum cumulative resistance to movement through a resistance surface and characterized by their effective distance (accumulated resistance along the least-cost path). The results of these assessments depend on resistance values, which are typically derived from the inverse of habitat suitability models or from presence data of individuals within their home ranges, rather than from data on dispersal or exploratory movements.

Objective

Evaluate the extent to which corridor delineation and effective distance estimates may vary depending on whether home range locations or dispersal data are used to characterize species habitat selection and landscape resistance to movement.

Methods

We analyzed a large telemetry dataset (GPS collars) for the endangered Iberian lynx. We modeled corridors and effective distances three ways: (1) considering only GPS locations within home ranges, (2) considering only locations in dispersal or exploratory movements outside home ranges, and (3) considering all locations together.

Results

Delineated least-cost corridors followed similar trajectories and sometimes overlapped in the three models. The estimated effective distances were 42 % lower in the dispersal-based model than in the model based solely on home range use.

Conclusions

Models derived exclusively from locations within home ranges may provide lower connectivity estimates than models derived from dispersal locations, affecting estimates of resistance to move between habitat areas, even when the most likely movement routes are similar. Although dispersal data are costly to gather, they potentially provide more realistic assessments of the actual isolation of populations in heterogeneous landscapes.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Carlos Ciudad Trilla, Lorena Herrera, and two anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the paper. Funding was provided by Grants BES-2010-032250 (FPI) and AGL-2012-31099 (GEFOUR) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, by LIFE Projects LIFE10NAT/ES/000570 and LIFE06NAT/E/000209, and by Junta de Andalucía (Grant NET549314). We thank all the staff of the LIFE projects involved in Iberian lynx collaring and tracking from 2009 to 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Systems and Resources, ECOGESFOR Research Group, ETSI Montes, Forestal y del Medio Natural, Technical University of Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Sandra Blazquez-Cabrera, Aitor Gastón & Santiago Saura

  2. School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 15018, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA

    Paul Beier

  3. Consejería de Medio Ambiente de la Junta de Andalucía, C/Doctor Eduardo García-Triviño López, 15, 23009, Jaén, Spain

    Germán Garrote & Miguel Ángel Simón

Authors
  1. Sandra Blazquez-Cabrera
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  2. Aitor Gastón
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  3. Paul Beier
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  4. Germán Garrote
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  5. Miguel Ángel Simón
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  6. Santiago Saura
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Correspondence to Sandra Blazquez-Cabrera.

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Blazquez-Cabrera, S., Gastón, A., Beier, P. et al. Influence of separating home range and dispersal movements on characterizing corridors and effective distances. Landscape Ecol 31, 2355–2366 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0407-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0407-5

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