Enhanced regional connectivity between western North American national parks will increase persistence of mammal species diversity

Many protected areas worldwide increasingly resemble habitat isolates embedded in human-modified landscapes. However, establishing linkages among protected areas could significantly reduce species-loss rates. Here we present a novel method having broad applicability for assessing enhanced regional c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-01, Vol.13 (1), p.474-474, Article 474
Main Authors: Newmark, William D., Halley, John M., Beier, Paul, Cushman, Samuel A., McNeally, Phoebe B., Soulé, Michael E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/2463
631/158/672
Animals
Biodiversity
Connectivity
Conservation of Natural Resources
Ecosystem
Glaciers
Habitat availability
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Mammals
multidisciplinary
National parks
North America
Parks & recreation areas
Parks, Recreational
Protected areas
Protected species
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Small mammals
Species diversity
Wilderness
Wilderness areas
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Many protected areas worldwide increasingly resemble habitat isolates embedded in human-modified landscapes. However, establishing linkages among protected areas could significantly reduce species-loss rates. Here we present a novel method having broad applicability for assessing enhanced regional connectivity on persistence of mammal diversity. We combine theoretically-derived species relaxation rates for mammal communities with empirically-derived pathways. We assess the value of enhanced regional connectivity for two hypothetical networks of national parks in western North America: the Yellowstone-Glacier network and the Mount Rainier-North Cascades network. Linking the Yellowstone and Glacier park assemblages by eliminating barriers to movement in identified mammal dispersal pathways and by incorporating adjacent wilderness areas and known ungulate migratory routes into a protected area network would greatly enlarge available habitat. This would enhance medium to large mammal species persistence time by factor of 4.3, on average, or ~ 682 generations relative to individual parks. Similarly, linking Mount Rainier and North Cascades park assemblages would enhance mammal species persistence time by a factor of 4.3, on average, or ~305 generations relative to individual parks. Enhancing regional connectivity among western North America parks could serve as an important template for landscape-scale conservation in the 21st century.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-26428-z