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Towards a unified framework for connectivity that disentangles movement and mortality in space and time
Author(s) -
Fletcher Robert J.,
Sefair Jorge A.,
Wang Chao,
Poli Caroline L.,
Smith Thomas A. H.,
Bruna Emilio M.,
Holt Robert D.,
Barfield Michael,
Marx Andrew J.,
Acevedo Miguel A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/ele.13333
Subject(s) - movement (music) , markov chain , ecology , scope (computer science) , computer science , landscape connectivity , space (punctuation) , econometrics , biological dispersal , machine learning , biology , mathematics , population , sociology , philosophy , operating system , programming language , aesthetics , demography
Abstract Predicting connectivity, or how landscapes alter movement, is essential for understanding the scope for species persistence with environmental change. Although it is well known that movement is risky, connectivity modelling often conflates behavioural responses to the matrix through which animals disperse with mortality risk. We derive new connectivity models using random walk theory, based on the concept of spatial absorbing Markov chains. These models decompose the role of matrix on movement behaviour and mortality risk, can incorporate species distribution to predict the amount of flow, and provide both short‐ and long‐term analytical solutions for multiple connectivity metrics. We validate the framework using data on movement of an insect herbivore in 15 experimental landscapes. Our results demonstrate that disentangling the roles of movement behaviour and mortality risk is fundamental to accurately interpreting landscape connectivity, and that spatial absorbing Markov chains provide a generalisable and powerful framework with which to do so.