Landscape connectivity among remnant populations of guanaco ( Lama guanicoe Müller, 1776) in an arid region of Chile impacted by global change

PeerJ

article

Mara I. Espinosa¹  Nicolas Gouin¹  Francisco A. Squeo¹  David López²  Angéline Bertin¹ 

[1] Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Serena;Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas;Instituto de Investigación Multidisciplinar en Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad de La Serena;Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad

关键词: Animal movement;    Circuitscape;    Guanaco;    Habitat modelling;    Lama guanicoe;    Functional connectivity;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.4429

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Connectivity between populations plays a key role in the long-term persistence of species in fragmented habitats. This is of particular concern for biodiversity preservation in drylands, since water limited landscapes are typically characterized by little suitable habitat cover, high habitat fragmentation, harsh matrices, and are being rapidly degraded at a global scale. In this study, we modelled landscape connectivity between 11 guanaco Lama guanicoe populations in Chile’s arid Norte Chico, a region that supports the last remnant coastal populations of this emblematic herbivore indigenous to South America. We produced a habitat suitability model to derive a regional surface resistance map, and used circuit theory to map functional connectivity, investigate the relative isolation between populations, and identify those that contribute most to the patch connectivity network. Predicted suitable habitat for L. guanicoe represented about 25% of the study region (i.e., 29,173 km2) and was heterogeneously distributed along a continuous stretch along the Andes, and discontinuous patches along the coast. As a result, we found that high connectivity current flows in the mid and high Andes formed a wide, continuous connectivity corridor, enabling connectivity between all high Andean populations. Coastal populations, in contrast, were more isolated. These groups demonstrate no inter-population connectivity between themselves, only with higher altitude populations, and for two of them, animal movement was linked to the effectiveness of wildlife crossings along the Pan-American highway. Our results indicate that functional connectivity is an issue of concern for L. guanicoe in Chile’s Norte Chico, implying that future conservation and management plans should emphasize strategies aimed at conserving functional connectivity between coastal and Andean populations, as well as the protection of habitat patches likely to act as stepping stones within the connectivity network.

【 授权许可】

CC BY