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 incre...