Spatiotemporal connectivity dynamics in spatially structured populations

Connectivity is a fundamental concept linking dispersal to the emergent dynamics and persistence of spatially structured populations. Functional measures of connectivity typically seek to integrate aspects of landscape structure and animal movement to describe ecologically meaningful connectedness at the landscape and population scale.
Despite this focus on function, traditional measures of landscape connectivity assume it is a static property of the landscape, hence abstracting out the underlying spatiotemporal population dynamics. Connectivity is, arguably, a dynamic property of landscapes, and is inherently related to the spatial distribution of individuals and populations across the landscape. Static representations of connectivity potentially overlook this variation and therefore adopting a dynamic approach should offer improved insights about connectivity and associated ecological processes.
Using a large scale, long-term time-series of occupancy data from a metapopulation of wate...