BIOCOMPLEXITY - INCUBATION ACTIVITY: Large Mammal Movement through Complex Landscapes in East Africa

大型哺乳动物在多用途景观中的活动对国家公园和自然保护区中许多大型哺乳动物种群的生存能力至关重要。这项孵化赠款将用于开发一种概念、理论和方法方法，以研究大型哺乳动物在东非多用途景观中的运动：在坦桑尼亚北部的马萨兰和肯尼亚中部的莱基皮亚高原。这一努力将需要综合生态学和跨学科研究的四个活跃领域：(1)景观生态学；(2)行为生态学；(3)动物运动的数学建模；(4)土地所有制与经济。将撰写一篇关于大型哺乳动物在多用途景观中的运动的综述论文，并建立一个将景观格局与动物运动行为组成部分联系起来的数学模型。世界各地的自然保护区越来越被多用途的人类景观所孤立。一些重要的研究表明，除了最大的保护区之外，所有的保护区都太小了，无法维持所有脊椎动物物种的数量。因此，动物在自然保护区周围的多用途景观中分散的能力变得至关重要。我们对多用途景观支持这些物种迁徙的能力相对无知，阻碍了将保护区与野生动物走廊联系起来的努力。在这个孵化基金中开发的概念、理论和方法方法将作为通过多用途景观研究大型哺乳动物运动的模板。通过对景观格局对动物运动影响的定量理解，就有可能评估土地利用变化对动物运动的影响。通过研究土地权属和经济如何影响景观格局，这些社会因素也可以与动物运动和自然保护区的生存能力联系起来。

The movement of large mammals through multiple-use landscapes is essential to the viability of many large mammal populations that occur in national parks and nature reserves. This incubation grant will be used to develop a conceptual, theoretical and methodological approach to study large mammal movement through multiple-use landscapes of East Africa: in the Masailand of northern Tanzania and the Laikipia Plateau in central Kenya. This effort will require a synthesis of four active areas of ecological and interdisciplinary inquiry: (1) Landscape Ecology; (2) Behavioral Ecology; (3) The mathematical modeling of animal movement; and (4) Land tenure and economics. A review paper on large mammal movement through multiple-use landscapes will be written and a mathematical model linking landscape pattern to components of animal movement behavior will be developed. Nature reserves everywhere are increasingly isolated by multiple-use human landscapes. A number of important studies suggest that all but the largest reserves are too small to maintain populations of all resident vertebrate species. Thus, the ability of animals to disperse through the multiple-use landscapes that surround nature reserves becomes essential.. The effort to link reserves with wildlife corridors is hindered by our relative ignorance of the ability of multiple-use landscapes to support the movements of these species. The conceptual, theoretical and methodological approach developed in this incubation grant will serve as a template for the study of large mammal movement through multiple-use landscapes. By developing a quantitative understanding of the effect of landscape patterns on movement it will be possible to evaluate the effects of changing land use on animal movement. By examining how land tenure and economics affect landscape pattern, these social factors can also be linked to animal movement and nature reserve viability.