Pairing functional connectivity with population dynamics to prioritize corridors for Southern California spotted owls

Aim: Land use change, climate change, and shifts to disturbance regimes
make successful wildlife management challenging, particularly when ongoing
urbanization constrains habitat and movement. Preserving and maintaining
landscape connectivity is a potential strategy to support wildlife
responding to these stressors. Using a novel model framework, we
determined the population-level benefit of a set of identified potential
corridors for spotted owl population viability. Location: Southern
California, United States. Methods: Combining habitat suitability and
dynamic metapopulation models, we compared the benefit of corridors to the
Southern California spotted owl population, measured as the increase in
the expected minimum abundance, both now and under a future climate. Our
approach considered key corridor characteristics important to conservation
decisions, namely, corridor irreplaceability and local population network
benefit. Results: We identified two corridors likely to increase Southern
California spotted owl expected minimum abundance under current climate
conditions. At the regional scale, of the 16 corridors evaluated, one
corridor was irreplaceable (i.e. no other corridors in the network could
provide a similar increase in abundance when the irreplaceable corridor
was removed) and one corridor was identified as redundant (i.e. remaining
corridors in the network can provide some of the increases in abundance
offered by the removed corridor). Both putative corridors connected two
large, populous, and similarly-sized patches. Additionally, we identified
two more corridors at the local scale. We found that, under climate
change, population declines may limit the benefit of connectivity for a
range-restricted species like the spotted owl. Main Conclusions: Our
analytical approach highlights important criteria for corridor
identification and prioritization, namely, irreplaceability versus
redundancy, local versus regional benefit, and corridor impact in a
changing landscape. With the capability of incorporating estimated
functional connectivity into population dynamics, our modeling framework
advances connectivity decision making for other species of conservation
concern and archetypal taxa within ecological communities.