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，因为它隔离了小块栖息地沿着这些片段中的种群。 本项目研究景观的连通性，这是破碎化的逆，以及碎片之间的走廊在多大程度上促进生物体的移动，从而减轻破碎化的影响。虽然栖息地的连接被认为是根本的物种多样性的维护，有显着的经验证据记录走廊的影响。研究人员将扩展一项正在进行的实验，该实验明确旨在测试栖息地连通性的影响。迄今为止的结果表明，物种多样性增加时，片段连接的走廊，但问题仍然是这些反应是短期的或持久的。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长期的还是短暂的。 这个实验提供了一个直接的联系，通过操纵景观走廊的连接保护。通过景观走廊重新连接景观的战略主导了保护方面的土地收购。该项目的成果将为土地管理者提供一些初步证据，证明景观联系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开发一个以解决方案为导向的研讨会，以促进美国东南部研究区域将科学转化为实际的长期土地保护。一个致力于在保护走廊的科学和实践之间架起桥梁的网站将有助于这些努力。研究生和本科生都将通过参与研究进行参与和培训，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.