Abstract Nature reserves have been established globally to protect wild species. However, an issue remains: How to determine the importance of core areas of nature reserves in maintaining the regional connectivity of corridors and the effectiveness of the core areas for species protection? This study aims to solve this problem in an alpine shrub-meadow vegetation zone in the north-eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. We used circuit theory to construct an ecological network for ungulate species. An index (Coreid) was proposed to reflect the importance degree of core areas using the product of the average current value and the pixel number of the corridors. The results showed that corridors are mainly located in the central and eastern regions of the study area, which are areas with generally low resistance values. We also generated the importance degree of core areas based on the Coreid index. The spatial distribution of the importance degree of core areas is characterized by gradual weakening from east to west. We found that the existing nature reserves are not sufficiently effective for the protection of ecological corridors, and only 53.28% of corridors are under protection by nature reserves. Our study can guide conservation management in the study area and provide a reference method for determining the importance degree of core areas.

中文翻译：

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确定青藏高原高山灌草甸梯度带核心区的重要性

摘要 世界范围内已建立自然保护区以保护野生物种。然而，一个问题仍然存在：如何确定自然保护区核心区在维持廊道区域连通性和核心区物种保护有效性方面的重要性？本研究旨在解决青藏高原东北部高山灌木草甸植被区的这一问题。我们使用回路理论为有蹄类动物构建了一个生态网络。提出了一个指标（Coreid），利用平均当前值与廊道像素数的乘积来反映核心区的重要程度。结果表明，廊道主要位于研究区的中部和东部地区，这些地区是电阻值普遍较低的地区。我们还根据 Coreid 指数生成了核心区域的重要程度。核心区重要度空间分布呈现自东向西逐渐减弱的特点。我们发现现有的自然保护区对生态廊道的保护不够有效，只有53.28%的廊道受到自然保护区的保护。本研究可为研究区的保护管理提供指导，为确定核心区的重要程度提供参考方法。28% 的走廊受到自然保护区的保护。本研究可为研究区的保护管理提供指导，为确定核心区的重要程度提供参考方法。28% 的走廊受到自然保护区的保护。本研究可为研究区的保护管理提供指导，为确定核心区的重要程度提供参考方法。