BD Seminar 2024/10/23: Including habitat connectivity in species distribution models...

#WSLBiodiversitySeminar
Including habitat connectivity in species distribution models for biodiversity conservation in human-transformed landscapes
Speaker: Jacqueline Oehri, University of Zurich
Moderator: Merin Chacko, WSL
Date: 23 October 2024

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Abstract
Habitat fragmentation due to human land-use changes is a major contributor to global biodiversity loss, disrupting ecological connectivity, the ‘unimpeded movement of species and the flow of natural processes that sustain life on Earth’. Ensuring ecological connectivity is essential for species persistence and the ecological functions facilitated by their movements. However, conducting systematic connectivity assessments for diverse taxa remains both a theoretical and computational challenge, often resulting in their exclusion from conservation planning. Additionally, connectivity assessments are seldom empirically validated, limiting our capacity to determine the specific connectivity needs of species and the conditions under which they are met.

To bridge these gaps, we introduce ‘Reconnect’, a multi-indicator, multispecies framework for rapid connectivity assessments at fine spatial resolutions across large ecoregions. Based on a literature review, we identified six key indicators suited for multispecies connectivity monitoring, aligned with the 2030 conservation targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Using these indicators, we analyzed connectivity changes from 2011 to 2021 in the St. Lawrence Lowlands ecoregion of Quebec, Canada (SLL, ~30,000 km²) for seven vertebrate species representing regional forest habitat and dispersal needs. Results revealed a decline in both equivalent connected area and metapopulation carrying capacity, despite a slight increase in total habitat area, underscoring the need for urgent connectivity conservation. In a second study, we integrated ‘Reconnect’ with species distribution models (SDMs) to test the influence of connectivity on forest and open-land bird species occurrence across the SLL from 2014 to 2022. Preliminary results show that incorporating connectivity indicators improved SDM accuracy for 62% of forest birds and 70% of open-land birds, although the improvements were modest, warranting further research to explore the conditions in which connectivity is most critical.

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About the speaker

Jacqueline Oehri

I am an ecologist with a research background in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, land-climate interactions and ecological connectivity, and I increasingly strive to understand how science can foster action that promotes biodiversity and a healthy planet. I am currently a part-time postdoctoral researcher at University of Zurich, where I collaborate with Prof. Gabriela Schaepman-Strub and Dr. Cornelia Krug to study how urban living lab approaches can support biodiversity and habitat connectivity conservation in cities. For the larger part of my time, I am employed at the spatial planning and environmental consulting firm “Quadra” (quadragmbh.ch), where I engage in a variety of applied biodiversity conservation projects in urban and other human-dominated landscapes. The research I will be presenting in this seminar stems from my previous two-year postdoctoral position that I spent at McGill University and the environmental research company “Habitat” in Montreal, Canada, and where I collaborated with Prof. Andrew Gonzalez (McGill University), Prof. Brian Leung (McGill University) and Dr. Sylvia Wood (habitat-nature.com).

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BD-Seminars
The Biodiversity Seminar Series (BD-Seminars) are organized by the WSL Biodiversity Center. Every two weeks, we aim to host a seminar speaker that presents research or outreach on topics relevant to the biodiversity community at WSL. The seminars are public and are usually broadcasted online.
Find out more about the WSL Biodiversity Center and a complete list of events here: https://biodiversitycenter.wsl.ch/en/