Collaborative Research LTREB: Understanding the strength, duration, and stability of connectivity effects on community diversity

栖息地丧失是生物多样性丧失的最大原因，因为它将小块栖息地与这些碎片中的种群隔离开来。该项目考察了景观连通性，这是破碎化的反面，以及碎片之间的走廊促进生物运动的程度，从而减轻破碎化的影响。尽管栖息地连通性被认为是维持物种多样性的基础，但记录廊道影响的经验证据非常少。研究人员将扩展一项正在进行的实验，该实验旨在测试栖息地连通性的影响。迄今为止的研究结果表明，当碎片被廊道连接时，物种多样性会增加，但这些反应是短期的还是持续的问题仍然存在。该项目将生成长期数据，以解决连通性、多样性和时间之间关系的潜在机制，并确定连通性效应是持久的还是短暂的。这个实验通过控制景观走廊的连通性，为保护提供了直接的联系。通过景观走廊重新连接景观的策略在保护土地征用中占主导地位。该项目的结果将为土地管理者提供一些初步证据，证明景观连接对保护生物多样性的价值。该项目将与科学家和土地管理人员一起举办一个面向解决办法的讲习班，促进在美国东南部研究区域将科学转化为实际的长期土地保护。一个致力于连接保护走廊的科学和实践的网站将有助于这些努力。研究生和本科生都将参与并通过参与研究进行培训，继续与美国林务局成功合作，培训和指导来自代表性不足群体的妇女和学生。

Habitat loss is the greatest cause of biodiversity loss, as it isolates small patches of habitat along with the populations in these fragments. This project examines landscape connectivity, which is the inverse of fragmentation, and the degree to which corridors among fragments facilitate the movement of organisms and thus alleviate the effects of fragmentation. Although habitat connectivity is considered to be fundamental to the maintenance of species diversity, there is remarkably little empirical evidence documenting the effects of corridors. The investigators will extend an ongoing experiment explicitly designed to test the effects of habitat connectivity. Results to date show that species diversity increases when fragments are connected by corridors, but the question remains whether these responses are short-term or persistent. The project will generate long-term data to resolve the mechanisms underlying the relationship between connectivity, diversity, and time, and to determine whether connectivity effects are long-lasting or transient. This experiment provides a direct link to conservation by manipulating connectivity through landscape corridors. Strategies to reconnect landscapes through landscape corridors have dominated land acquisitions in conservation. Results of this project will provide some of the first evidence for land managers of the value of landscape connections for protecting biological diversity. The project will develop a solutions-oriented workshop with scientists and land managers to catalyze the translation of science to practical long-term land conservation in the southeastern United States study region. A website dedicated to bridging the science and practice of conservation corridors will contribute to these efforts. Both graduate and undergraduate students will be engaged in and trained through participation in the research, continuing a successful collaboration with the US Forest Service to train and mentor women and students from underrepresented groups.