le Roux Courtney E, Nocera Joseph J
University of New Brunswick Fredericton NB Canada.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Mar 20;11(9):3820-3829. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7235. eCollection 2021 May.
Several biodiversity-centered metrics exist to quantify the importance of landscape and habitat features for conservation efforts. However, for species whose habitat use is not quantified by these metrics, such as those in urban areas, we need a method to best identify features for targeted conservation efforts. We investigated the use of social network analysis (SNA) to identify and quantify these critical habitat features. We used SNA to identify network existence in chimney swift () roost usage, quantify the importance of each roost site, and evaluate the impact of the loss of key sites. We identified a network consisting of ten chimney swift roosts in southern Nova Scotia, Canada, and found that 76% of swifts used more than one roost throughout the breeding season. We also isolated three key (most connected) roost sites. We evaluated the effect of loss of these key sites on the network by using a Wilcoxon-Pratt signed-rank test and by analyzing the structure of the subsequent network. We found that connections between roosts and the structure of the network were significantly affected by the loss of these key sites. Our results show that SNA is a valuable tool that can identify key sites for targeted conservation efforts for species that may not be included in conservation efforts focused purely on biodiversity.
存在几种以生物多样性为中心的指标，用于量化景观和栖息地特征对保护工作的重要性。然而，对于那些栖息地利用情况未被这些指标量化的物种，比如城市地区的物种，我们需要一种方法来最佳地识别出适合有针对性保护工作的特征。我们研究了利用社会网络分析（SNA）来识别和量化这些关键栖息地特征。我们运用SNA来识别烟囱雨燕（）栖息地使用中的网络存在情况，量化每个栖息地的重要性，并评估关键地点丧失的影响。我们在加拿大新斯科舍省南部识别出一个由十个烟囱雨燕栖息地组成的网络，发现76%的雨燕在整个繁殖季节使用不止一个栖息地。我们还分离出三个关键（连接性最强）的栖息地。我们通过使用威尔科克森 - 普拉特符号秩检验并分析后续网络的结构，评估了这些关键地点丧失对网络的影响。我们发现栖息地之间的连接以及网络结构受到这些关键地点丧失的显著影响。我们的结果表明，SNA是一种有价值的工具，它可以为那些可能未被纯粹聚焦于生物多样性的保护工作所涵盖的物种，识别出适合有针对性保护工作的关键地点。
