Landscape connectivity

Landscape connectivity is "the degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes movement among resource patches"

It has two components:

• Structural connectivity: the spatial structure of a landscape and can be described from map elements
• Biological component: the response of individuals to landscape features (functional connectivity)

See also

Landscape Ecology

References

• Brooks, C. P. 2003. A scalar analysis of landscape connectivity. Oikos 102:433-439.
• Taylor, P.D., Fahrig, L., Henein, K. and Merriam, G., 1993. Connectivity is a vital element of landscape structure. Oikos, 68: 571-573.
• Wright, S. 1943. Isolation by distance. Genetics 28:114–138.
• McRae, B. 2006. Isolation by Resistance. Evolution 60(8): 1551-1561.
• McRae, B.H., B.G. Dickson, T.H. Keitt and V.B. Shah. 2008. Using circuit theory to model connectivity in ecology, evolution and conservation. Ecology 89:2712-2724.

Software

• Circuitscape

Circuitscape is an open source program that uses circuit theory to predict connectivity in heterogeneous landscapes for individual movement, gene flow, and conservation planning. Circuit theory offers several advantages over common analytic connectivity models, including a theoretical basis in random walk theory and an ability to evaluate contributions of multiple dispersal pathways. Landscapes are represented as conductive surfaces, with low resistances assigned to habitats that are most permeable to movement or best promote gene flow, and high resistances assigned to poor dispersal habitat or to movement barriers. Effective resistances, current densities, and voltages calculated across the landscapes can then be related to ecological processes, such as individual movement and gene flow.

• Conefor Sensinode
• FunConn
• PathMatrix