General Landscape Connectivity Model (GLCM): a new way to map whole of landscape biodiversity functional connectivity for operational planning and reporting

• Published in: Ecological modelling 2022-03, Vol.465, p.109858, Article 109858
• Main Authors: Drielsma, Michael J., Love, Jamie, Taylor, Subhashni, Thapa, Rajesh, Williams, Kristen J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ecological carrying capacity; landscape connectivity; multiple scales; reporting; scaling law
• ISSN: 0304-3800; 1872-7026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2021.109858

•GLCM was developed to underpin connectivity conservation planning and evaluation•It addresses ecological realism through structure and function aspects of connectivity•Is adaptable to available inputs and operational for large and heterogeneous regions•Transcends reliance on pre-defined path nodes or a single node per ‘patch’•Uses a novel fractal approach to reduce computational complexity for repeatability Graph-theoretic approaches are commonly used to map landscape connectivity networks to inform environmental management priorities. We developed the new General Landscape Connectivity Model (GLCM), as a operationally practical way of evaluating and mapping habitat networks to inform conservation priorities and plans. GLCM is built on two complementary metapopulation ecology-based measures: Neighbourhood habitat area (Ni) and habitat link value (Li). Ni is a measure of the amount of connected habitat to each location considering its cross-scale connectivity to neighbouring habitat. The remaining Ni across a region can be reported as an indicator of Ecological Carrying Capacity for wildlife (plants and animals). Li at any location is its contribution to the landscape connectivity of the study region (i.e. which is reported as summed Ni across a region) by virtue of providing the ‘least-cost’ linkages between concentrations of habitat. Mapped Li provides valuable insights into the pattern of a region's habitat network, highlighting functioning habitat corridors and stepping-stones, and candidate areas for conservation and restoration. Due to its foundations in ecological theory and its parsimonious design, GLCM addresses a number of criteria we list as important, while addressing criticisms often levelled at graph-theoretical approaches. We present results for three south-east Australian case-studies using continuous-value ecological condition surfaces as input. However, a simple habitat/non-habitat binary surface approximating a threshold ecological condition can also be used. GLCM has been designed to specifically address the need for generic landscape connectivity assessment at regional scales, and broader. It incorporates connectivity analyses across a range of spatial scales and granularities relevant to broad ranges of taxa and movement processes (foraging, dispersal and migration). Successively finer spatial scales are more intensively sampled based on a simple scaling-law. This approach allows analysis resolutions to be determined by data-driven ec