Linear transportation infrastructures (roads, railways, oil and gas pipelines, powerlines and waterways) generate well documented fragmenting effects on species habitats. However, the potential of verges of linear transportation infrastructures (road and railway embankments, strips of grass under power lines or above buried pipelines, or waterway banks) as habitat or corridor for biodiversity, remains controversial. In a context of constant loss of natural habitats, the opportunities of anthropogenic areas for compensating the loss of biodiversity they generated have to be considered. This paper is the first synthesis of evidence addressing this topic for vertebrates (mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles) in temperate ecosystems. We conducted a systematic literature survey using two online publication databases, three search engines, specialist websites, and by sending a call for literature to subject experts. We successively screened the articles for relevance on titles, abstracts and full texts using criteria detailed in an a priori protocol. We then used six specific questions to categorize the retained studies and to critically appraise them. These questions encompassed the potential of verges as habitats and corridors for vertebrates, and the effects of landscape and management on these potentialities. We critically appraised all studies to assess their risk of bias and created a database of the studies with low and medium risk of bias. We synthesized results for each specific question in narrative syntheses. Finally, studies that met meta-analysis requirements were used for quantitative syntheses. Our initial searches identified 83,565 documents. After critical appraisal, we retained 119 documents that reported 128 studies. Most studies were conducted in Europe (49%) and in the United States of America (22%), and were about mammals (61%) and birds (20%). Results from the narrative synthesis and meta-analyses converged and revealed that the potential of linear transportation infrastructures verges to constitute a habitat for vertebrate species varies according to the infrastructure and the biological group considered. Especially, highway verges may be a refuge for small mammals but seems detrimental to birds. The potential also varied depending on the landscape considered, with urbanisation being related to lower biodiversity hosted by verges. We found a wide variety of verge management practices with few studies on each practice, which prevented us from drawing general conclusions. Likewise, we found too few studies assessing the corridor potential of verges to be able to fully conclude although this potential seems to exist. We did not find any study assessing the effect of landscape context or management on the role of corridor of verges. We identified a major knowledge gap regarding the potential of linear transportation infrastructure verges as corridors for vertebrates, and when they exist studies rarely directly measured movements on verges. We thus encourage more research on this topic and the development of protocols that enable direct measures of vertebrate movements. The effect of management practices on the role of habitat of verges also deserves further investigations, and research efforts should be coordinated to focus on one specific practice (e.g. vegetation management).

中文翻译：

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线性运输基础设施的边缘能否构成温带生态系统中脊椎动物的栖息地和/或走廊？系统评价

线性运输基础设施（公路，铁路，石油和天然气管道，电力线和水路）对物种栖息地产生了有据可查的碎片化影响。然而，线性运输基础设施（公路和铁路路堤，电力线下或地下管线上方的草条或水路堤）作为生物多样性的栖息地或走廊的潜力仍然存在争议。在自然栖息地不断丧失的情况下，必须考虑人为区域补偿其产生的生物多样性丧失的机会。本文是针对温带生态系统中脊椎动物（哺乳动物，鸟类，两栖动物和爬行动物）的这一主题的证据的首次综合。我们使用两个在线出版物数据库，三个搜索引擎，专业网站，并向主题专家发送文献征集电话。我们使用先验协议中详述的标准，依次筛选了与标题，摘要和全文相关的文章。然后，我们使用六个特定问题对保留的研究进行分类并对其进行严格评估。这些问题包括濒临灭绝的脊椎动物栖息地和走廊的潜力，以及景观和管理对这些潜力的影响。我们严格评估了所有研究以评估其偏倚风险，并创建了具有中低偏倚风险的研究数据库。我们在叙述综合中综合了每个特定问题的结果。最后，将符合荟萃分析要求的研究用于定量合成。我们的初步搜索找到了83,565文档。经过严格评估后，我们保留了119份文件，报告了128项研究。大多数研究是在欧洲（49％）和美利坚合众国（22％）进行的，涉及哺乳动物（61％）和鸟类（20％）。叙述性综合和荟萃分析的结果融合在一起，结果表明，线性运输基础设施有望构成脊椎动物物种栖息地的潜力因基础设施和所考虑的生物类别而异。特别是，高速公路的边缘可能是小型哺乳动物的避难所，但似乎不利于鸟类。潜力也因所考虑的景观而异，城市化与边缘化生物多样性降低有关。我们发现了各种各样的边缘管理实践，而对每种实践的研究很少，这使我们无法得出一般性结论。同样，我们发现评估边缘走廊潜力的研究很少，尽管似乎存在，但无法完全得出结论。我们没有发现任何评估景观环境或管理对绿化走廊作用的研究。我们发现了关于线性运输基础设施边缘作为脊椎动物走廊的潜力的重大知识空白，并且当它们存在时，研究很少直接测量边缘上的运动。因此，我们鼓励对此主题进行更多研究，并开发能够直接测量脊椎动物运动的协议。管理措施对边缘生境的作用的影响也值得进一步研究，应协调研究工作，以侧重于一种特定的做法（例如植被管理）。我们发现评估走廊边缘潜力的研究很少，尽管似乎存在，但无法完全得出结论。我们没有发现任何评估景观环境或管理对绿化走廊作用的研究。我们发现了关于线性运输基础设施边缘作为脊椎动物走廊的潜力的重大知识空白，并且当它们存在时，研究很少直接测量边缘上的运动。因此，我们鼓励对此主题进行更多研究，并开发能够直接测量脊椎动物运动的协议。管理措施对边缘生境的作用的影响也值得进一步研究，应协调研究工作，以侧重于一种特定的做法（例如植被管理）。我们发现评估走廊边缘潜力的研究很少，尽管似乎存在，但无法完全得出结论。我们没有发现任何评估景观环境或管理对绿化走廊作用的研究。我们发现了关于线性运输基础设施边缘作为脊椎动物走廊的潜力的重大知识空白，并且当它们存在时，研究很少直接测量边缘上的运动。因此，我们鼓励对此主题进行更多研究，并开发能够直接测量脊椎动物运动的协议。管理措施对边缘生境的作用的影响也值得进一步研究，应协调研究工作，以侧重于一种特定的做法（例如植被管理）。