Multi-purpose habitat networks for short-range and long-range connectivity: a new method combining graph and circuit connectivity

Biodiversity conservation in landscapes undergoing climate and land-use changes requires designing multipurpose habitat networks that connect the movements of organisms at multiple spatial scales. Short-range connectivity within habitat networks provides organisms access to spatially distributed resources, reduces local extinctions and increases recolonization of habitat fragments. Long-range connectivity across habitat networks facilitates annual migrations and climate-driven range shifts.
We present a method for identifying a multipurpose network of forest patches that promotes both short- and long-range connectivity. Our method uses both graph-theoretic analyses that quantify network connectedness and circuit-based analyses that quantify network traversability as the basis for identifying spatial conservation priorities on the landscape. We illustrate our approach in the agroecosystem, bordered by the Laurentian and Appalachian mountain ranges, that surrounds the metropolis of Mont...