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Monitoring changes in landscape structure in the Adirondack-to-Laurentians (A2L) transboundary wildlife linkage between 1992 and 2018: Identifying priority areas for conservation and restoration

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Abstract

Context

Although many species have transboundary geographic ranges, most conservation initiatives do not cross political boundaries. The landscape between the Adirondack Mountains in New York and the Laurentian Mountains in Québec includes one of three potential north–south transboundary wildlife movement linkages that connect wilderness areas in northeastern USA and southeastern Canada. Although this region still maintains habitats of high ecological integrity and biodiversity, increasing land-cover changes and fragmentation are putting landscape connectivity at risk.

Objectives

We measured changes in landscape composition and configuration within the Adirondack-to-Laurentians transboundary wildlife linkage (A2L) between 1992 and 2018 to identify priority areas for conservation and restoration.

Methods

Land-cover change was calculated by measuring area and proportion of land-cover classes, and landscape fragmentation was determined by measuring patch number, mean patch size, the effective mesh size, and road density, at three spatial scales and four fragmentation geometries (i.e., combinations of fragmenting elements).

Results

Extensive changes in land-cover and landscape fragmentation occurred within the A2L between 1992 and 2018. Forest areas declined by 1363 km2 and wetlands declined by 1365 km2 (69%). This was most pronounced in the Québec portion of the A2L where wetland areas declined by 872 km2 (88.5%). Forest areas in the Québec portion experienced the greatest amount of fragmentation with a meff_CUT decline of 3262.5 km2 (58.5%) since 2000.

Conclusions

Coordinated and collaborative transboundary conservation efforts help improve protection of species with transboundary ranges. Monitoring of land-cover changes and landscape fragmentation is an effective way to identify priority areas for conservation and support transboundary coordination. Strengthening conservation strategies that enhance landscape connectivity and protect ecosystems at the local level will help achieve post-2020 biodiversity commitments at the national and transboundary levels.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Alex Guindon for help in data acquisition and Marco Burelli for support with GIS technical issues. We are grateful to Jeff Bowman, Corina Brdar, Marie-Lyne Després-Einspenner, Andrew Gonzalez, Mélanie Lelièvre, Jessica Levine, and Rebecca Tittler for their quick and thoughtful responses to many e-mail queries. We thank Jason Beaulieu, Joël Bonin, Maude Benny Dumont, Pascal Hébert and Kateri Monticone for their help and support at the Nature Conservancy of Canada. We also thank Benjamin Brunen, Clara Freeman-Cole, Mehrdokht Pourali, Parnian Pourtaherian, Ariel Spanowicz, and Kendra Warnock-Juteau for their unconditional support. We are grateful to Fonds Vert Québec, the Woodcock Foundation, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the Mitacs Accelerate Program, and Concordia University for funding this research. We are sincerely indebted to Sarah E. Gergel whose comments significantly improved the quality of this manuscript. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments.

Funding

This study was funded by Fonds Vert Québec, the Woodcock Foundation, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the Mitacs Accelerate Program, and Concordia University.

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  1. Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Suite 1255, Montréal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Jonathan R. Cole, Angela Kross & Jochen A. G. Jaeger

  2. Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke St. West, Montréal, QC, H4B 1R6, Canada

    Jonathan R. Cole, Angela Kross & Jochen A. G. Jaeger

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JRC and JAGJ contributed to the study conception and design. JRC, AK, and JAGJ contributed to the methodology. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by JRC. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JRC, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jonathan R. Cole.

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Cole, J.R., Kross, A. & Jaeger, J.A.G. Monitoring changes in landscape structure in the Adirondack-to-Laurentians (A2L) transboundary wildlife linkage between 1992 and 2018: Identifying priority areas for conservation and restoration. Landsc Ecol 38, 383–408 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01561-2

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