Setting conservation priorities for migratory networks under uncertainty.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Conservation Biology
• Wildlife Management

Background:

• Conserving migratory species necessitates protecting interconnected habitats along their travel routes.
• Current animal tracking limitations hinder population-level understanding of migratory connectivity, impeding effective conservation prioritization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel spatial prioritization approach for migratory species conservation.
• To address data limitations in understanding migratory connectivity by integrating species abundance and travel distance data.

Main Methods:

• Developed a model of potential connectivity using empirical data on species abundance and inter-site migration distances.
• Applied this novel approach to migratory shorebirds utilizing the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.

Main Results:

• Conservation strategies integrating connectivity and abundance metrics successfully maintained larger bird populations compared to abundance-only strategies.
• The conservation value of a site is determined by its capacity to support migratory animals and its strategic position within the migratory pathway.
• Loss of critical sites resulted in significant population declines, ranging from partial to total collapse.

Conclusions:

• Conservation prioritization for migratory species should incorporate both site abundance and spatial connectivity data.
• Integrating data on the spatial arrangement of sites is vital for effective conservation strategies, particularly for species with high site fidelity.
• The developed approach offers a robust framework for identifying and prioritizing crucial habitats for migratory species conservation.