Context

Conserving or restoring connectivity is a common objective of landscape-scale conservation initiatives. However, precise species occurrence or movement data to inform or validate spatial models are often lacking.

Objectives

Our objectives were to (1) produce the first approximation of country-wide connectivity for Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) in Colombia and (2) demonstrate a novel approach for model validation which uses publicly available web and social media records of a flagship species.

Methods

We used general knowledge about Andean bear habitat associations and indices of ecological integrity to construct a resistance surface across the Colombian Andes. We used this resistance surface to model omnidirectional connectivity using circuit theory. We validated our model with coarse location data acquired from local news stories and social media posts.

Results

Our model was most sensitive to changes in the resistance values of agricultural landcover and the mid-elevational zone, but uncertainty analysis demonstrated these changes had little impact on our conclusions regarding the municipalities most conducive to Andean bear movement. Just over one-third of those areas most conducive to Andean bear movement were within protected areas, while 8% coincided with agricultural landcover.

Conclusions

We constructed a model of connectivity that did not rely on independent, empirically derived location data. Our model is coarse (1 km resolution) but can still provide useful information to practitioners in Colombia who are working with scarce ecological data. More information about how Andean bears move through agricultural landscapes would help improve our understanding of connectivity for this species in Colombia.

中文翻译：

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横跨哥伦比亚安第斯山脉的安第斯熊 (Tremarctos ornatus) 的全方位连接

语境

保护或恢复连通性是景观规模保护计划的共同目标。然而，通常缺乏用于通知或验证空间模型的精确物种发生或运动数据。

目标

我们的目标是 (1) 为哥伦比亚的安第斯熊 ( Tremarctos ornatus ) 生成全国范围内的连通性的第一个近似值，以及 (2) 展示一种新的模型验证方法，该方法使用旗舰物种的公开网络和社交媒体记录。

方法

我们使用有关安第斯熊栖息地协会和生态完整性指数的一般知识来构建哥伦比亚安第斯山脉的抵抗面。我们使用这个电阻表面来模拟使用电路理论的全向连接。我们使用从本地新闻报道和社交媒体帖子中获取的粗略位置数据验证了我们的模型。

结果

我们的模型对农业土地覆盖和中海拔地区阻力值的变化最为敏感，但不确定性分析表明，这些变化对我们关于最有利于安第斯熊运动的城市的结论几乎没有影响。在最有利于安第斯熊运动的地区中，超过三分之一位于保护区内，而 8% 与农业土地覆盖相吻合。

结论

我们构建了一个不依赖于独立的、凭经验得出的位置数据的连通性模型。我们的模型很粗糙（1 公里分辨率），但仍然可以为哥伦比亚使用稀缺生态数据的从业者提供有用的信息。有关安第斯熊如何在农业景观中移动的更多信息，将有助于我们更好地了解该物种在哥伦比亚的连通性。