Habitat fragmentation affects movement and space use of a specialist folivore, the koala,Animal Conservation

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Habitat fragmentation affects movement and space use of a specialist folivore, the koala
Animal Conservation ( IF 2.8 ) Pub Date : 2020-05-16 , DOI: 10.1111/acv.12596
A. I. Rus ₁ , C. McArthur ₁ , V. S. A. Mella ₁ , M. S. Crowther ₁

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Habitat fragmentation changes landscape patterns and can disrupt many important ecological processes. Movement allows individuals to find resource patches to maintain their fitness and habitat fragmentation can disrupt this process. We explored the ecological impact of habitat fragmentation on movement and space use of a specialist folivore, the koala Phascolarctos cinereus. We GPS tracked koala movements within a fragmented agricultural landscape. We calculated the total distance moved across four months and the number of core patches by each koala. We used four metrics (proximity, functional connectivity, clumpiness, perimeter‐to‐area fractal dimension) to quantify landscape fragmentation within koala home ranges and determine its effects on movement and space use. Functional connectivity had the greatest effect on individual movement and space use. Decreasing connectivity led to longer and more direct movements by koalas and more core patches within an individual home range. Our study provides insight into the effects of habitat fragmentation on animal movement and space use, which can be used by wildlife managers to plan and manage landscapes more effectively. We conclude that restoring or protecting resource patches to promote greater functional connectivity will reduce the costs associated with the isolation of resource patches for species occupying fragmented landscapes. By providing a quantitative relationship between habitat connectivity and movement and space use costs, our results enable managers to set restoration targets, by identifying the most effective way to provide the functional connectivity minimizing the negative impact on focal species.

中文翻译：

栖息地的破碎影响了无名无尾考拉的运动和空间利用

生境破碎化改变了景观格局，并可能破坏许多重要的生态过程。运动使个人能够找到资源斑块来维持其健康状况，而栖息地破碎化会破坏这一过程。我们探索了栖息地破碎化对专业叶片，树袋熊Phascolarctos cinereus的运动和空间利用的生态影响。。我们用GPS跟踪了零散农业景观中的考拉运动。我们计算了四个月内移动的总距离以及每个考拉的核心斑块数量。我们使用了四个指标（接近度，功能连通性，团块性，周长至区域分形维数）来量化考拉家园范围内的景观破碎化，并确定其对运动和空间使用的影响。功能连接对个人运动和空间使用影响最大。连通性的降低导致考拉的移动时间更长，更直接，并且单个家庭范围内的核心补丁也更多。我们的研究提供了关于栖息地破碎化对动物运动和空间利用的影响的见识，野生动物管理者可以利用它们来更有效地规划和管理景观。我们得出的结论是，恢复或保护资源补丁以促进更大的功能连通性将减少与隔离零碎景观物种的资源补丁隔离相关的成本。通过提供栖息地连通性与运动和空间使用成本之间的定量关系，我们的结果使管理人员能够确定恢复功能的目标，方法是确定提供功能连通性的最有效方法，以最大程度地减少对重点物种的负面影响。

更新日期：2020-05-16

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