Achieving climate connectivity in a fragmented landscape

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Conservation Biology
• Climate Change Science

Background:

• Habitat fragmentation due to human activities impedes species' ability to adapt to shifting climates.
• Existing models often overlook how landscape fragmentation restricts species' climate-tracking movements.
• Natural lands in the contiguous United States are disconnected, posing challenges for biodiversity persistence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify climate connectivity, a metric assessing landscape capacity for species movement under climate change.
• To evaluate the extent to which habitat fragmentation limits species movements in response to climate change.
• To identify optimal locations for creating corridors to enhance climate connectivity and mitigate movement restrictions.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of landscape fragmentation patterns across the contiguous United States.
• Quantification of climate connectivity using a novel metric.
• Modeling the impact of introducing corridors on natural land connectivity.

Main Results:

• Only 41% of natural land in the contiguous US exhibits sufficient climate connectivity for species adaptation.
• The eastern United States shows critically low climate connectivity, with less than 2% of natural areas adequately connected.
• Creating corridors increases climatically connected natural area to 65%, with significant benefits in low-elevation southeastern regions.

Conclusions:

• Habitat fragmentation critically restricts species' ability to track suitable climates.
• Strategic corridor implementation can substantially improve climate connectivity for biodiversity.
• Conservation efforts must prioritize enhancing climate connectivity to facilitate species adaptation to climate change.