Connectivity and Bottlenecks of Protected Areas along the United States terrestrial coastline of the Great Lakes

This dataset maps the connectivity and bottlenecks among protected areas within a six km ribbon along the terrestrial coastline of the U.S. Great Lakes. Each pixel represents the relative contribution that cell provides to connectivity between and among the protected areas. When aggregated the pixel values produce a map of all possible pathways between protected areas, providing the end user with an understanding of each pathway's potential to facilitate or impede species movement. The relative contribution values are determined using the National Land Cover Dataset, where each land use pixel is converted into a value representing its resistance to movement. That is, how easy or difficult movement through that land use type would be for all species. The PAD-US database was used to identify locations within the study area which were protected. We also provide a map showing the locations within these connected corridors where connectivity is highly constrained, representing bottlenecks in movement across our study area.