Université de Poitiers, Laboratoire Ecologie et Biologie des Interactions (UMR CNRS 7267), 3 Rue Jacques Fort, 86000, Poitiers, France.
Université de Laval, Faculté de Foresterie et Géomatique Département des Sciences Géomatiques, 1055 Avenue Du Séminaire, Québec (Québec), G1V 0A6, Canada.
J Environ Manage. 2024 Feb 14;352:120009. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.120009. Epub 2024 Jan 6.
Land managers must find a compromise between rapidly changing landscapes and biodiversity conservation through ecological networks. Estimating ecological networks is a key approach to enhance or maintain functional connectivity by identifying the nodes and links of a graph, which represent habitats and their corresponding functional corridors, respectively. To understand the current state of biodiversity, it is necessary to consider dynamic landscape connectivity while relying on relevant land cover maps. Although a current land cover map is relatively easy to produce using existing data, this is challenging for past landscapes. Here we investigated the impact of changes in landscape connectivity in an urban landscape at a fine scale on the habitat availability of two bird species: the tree pipit Anthus trivialis and the short-toed treecreeper Certhia brachydactyla. These species, exhibiting different niche ecologies, have shown contrasting population trends at a medium-term scale. The occurrences of C. brachydactyla were better correlated with resistance values that maximise the use of corridors, whereas the occurrences of A. trivialis better fitted with intermediate resistance values. The statistical approach indirectly highlighted relevant information about the ecology the capacity of both species to use urban habitats. Landscape connectivity increased for both species over the 24-year study period and may have implications for local abundances, which could explain, at the national scale, the increase in populations of C. brachydactyla, but not the decrease in populations of A. trivialis. Thus, more attention must be paid on rural habitats and their associated species that are more impacted by human activities, but efforts could also be achieved in urban areas especially for highly corridor-dependent species. Studying dynamic landscape connectivity at a fine scale is essential for estimating past and future land cover changes and their associated impacts on ecological networks, to better reconcile human and biodiversity concerns in land management.
土地管理者必须在快速变化的景观和生物多样性保护之间找到一个折衷方案，通过生态网络来实现。估计生态网络是增强或维持功能连通性的关键方法，通过识别图形的节点和链接，分别表示栖息地及其相应的功能走廊。为了了解生物多样性的现状，有必要在依赖相关土地覆盖图的同时考虑动态景观连通性。虽然使用现有数据生成当前的土地覆盖图相对容易，但对于过去的景观来说，这是一个挑战。在这里，我们研究了在一个城市景观中，精细尺度上景观连通性的变化对两种鸟类的栖息地可利用性的影响：树莺 Anthus trivialis 和短趾树莺 Certhia brachydactyla。这两个物种具有不同的生态位生态，在中期尺度上表现出相反的种群趋势。C. brachydactyla 的出现与最大限度利用走廊的阻力值更好地相关，而 A. trivialis 的出现则与中等阻力值更好地拟合。统计方法间接地突出了有关两种物种利用城市栖息地的生态能力的相关信息。在 24 年的研究期间，两种物种的景观连通性都有所增加，这可能对当地的丰度产生影响，可以解释为什么 C. brachydactyla 的数量在全国范围内增加，而 A. trivialis 的数量却减少了。因此，必须更加关注农村生境及其相关物种，这些物种更容易受到人类活动的影响，但也可以在城市地区，特别是对高度依赖走廊的物种，做出努力。在精细尺度上研究动态景观连通性对于估计过去和未来的土地覆盖变化及其对生态网络的相关影响至关重要，以更好地协调土地管理中的人类和生物多样性问题。
