Context

Large carnivores are crucial to ecosystem functioning, as they enhance the biodiversity of the native communities in which they live. However, most large carnivores are threatened with extinction resulting from human persecution, habitat encroachment, and the loss of habitat connectivity.

Objective

To identify areas that favor landscape connectivity for three large carnivores within and between northwestern Mexico and southwestern United States.

Methods

We performed a habitat suitability analysis for puma (Puma concolor), Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), and black bear (Ursus americanus) by combining ecological niche modeling with anthropogenic variables to identify high-quality habitat patches to be connected. We also developed a connectivity analysis to identify smaller suitable habitat patches within connecting corridors to evaluate their contributions to connecting larger populations.

Results

We found existing large, high-quality areas in Mexico and the United States that could connect through smaller patches. Likewise, we identified pinch-point areas, patches and links with high centrality, indicating that some biological corridors promote connectivity among the most extensive suitable patches.

Conclusions

It is possible to maintain and even enhance adequate landscape connectivity between major suitable habitat patches for the three large carnivores, within and between their distributional areas in Mexico and the United States. In this regard, decision-makers, academia, and civil society need to strengthen their bonds to reduce the pressure on these carnivores and help authorities improve binational plans and agreements to consolidate conservation actions and landscape connectivity between Mexico and the United States.

中文翻译：

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确定墨西哥西北部和美国西南部的三个大型食肉动物的景观连通性的优先领域

语境

大型食肉动物对于生态系统的功能至关重要，因为它们增强了它们所生活的土著社区的生物多样性。但是，大多数大型食肉动物都受到人类的迫害，栖息地的侵占和栖息地连通性的丧失而面临灭绝的威胁。

目的

为墨西哥西北部和美国西南部之间以及之间的三个大型食肉动物确定有利于景观连通性的区域。

方法

我们通过将生态位建模与人为变量相结合来识别高品质的栖息地斑块，从而对美洲豹（Puma concolor），墨西哥狼（Canis lupus baileyi）和黑熊（Ursus americanus）进行了栖息地适宜性分析。我们还开发了连通性分析，以识别连通走廊内较小的合适栖息地，以评估它们对连通较大人口的贡献。

结果

我们在墨西哥和美国发现了现有的大型高质量区域，可以通过较小的区域进行连接。同样，我们确定了高度集中的窄点区域，斑块和链接，表明某些生物走廊促进了最广泛的合适斑块之间的连通性。

结论

有可能在墨西哥和美国的这三个大型食肉动物的分布区域之内和之间，维持甚至增强适当的主要栖息地斑块之间的景观连通性。在这方面，决策者，学术界和民间社会需要加强联系，以减轻对这些食肉动物的压力，并帮助当局改进两国计划和协议，以巩固墨西哥和美国之间的保护行动和景观联系。