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Ron Sutherland

This report summarizes the results of a three-year investigation of terrestrial habitat connectivity priorities for the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (South Atlantic LCC). Our primary objective was to generate results that could be used to drive fine‐scaled conservation planning to enhance habitat connectivity across the South Atlantic LCC. The project focused on seven target species, including large mammals (black bear, red wolf, Florida panther/eastern cougar) and a group of terrestrial reptiles (eastern diamondback rattlesnake, timber rattlesnake, pine snake, and box turtle). We used two different modeling approaches to identify areas with either high predicted flow of a given species (Circuitscape)...
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The connectivity result files from Circuitscape represent the "adjusted cumulative current density" flowing across the landscape for each of several species, at a 90-meter resolution across the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative region. Rasters are classified using quantiles with 20 categories (each 5% of region) to integer scores from 1-20. 1 = lowest 5% of the landscape, 20= top 5% of landscape Expert opinion was used to define a resistance surface for each of the target animals, with higher resistance representing map units expected to be more difficult and dangerous for species to move through. A set of nodes for each species, with node points indicating center locations for potential source populations,...
Identifying and prioritizing key habitat connectivity areas for the South Atlantic region
The project objectives are as follows: To map out current and future levels of habitat connectivity in the South Atlantic region, from the standpoint of multiple groups of terrestrial wildlife species; 2. To prioritize key corridors and linkage areas based on their relative importance and centrality within the overall habitat network and their relative influence on the viability of target wildlife populations; 3. To publish data layers representing the outcomes from the first two objectives, in such a way as to significantly improve conservation decision-making across the South Atlantic LCC region
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The connectivity result files from Circuitscape represent the "adjusted cumulative current density" flowing across the landscape for each of several species, at a 90-meter resolution across the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative region. Rasters are classified using quantiles with 20 categories (each 5% of region) to integer scores from 1-20. 1 = lowest 5% of the landscape, 20= top 5% of landscape Expert opinion was used to define a resistance surface for each of the target animals, with higher resistance representing map units expected to be more difficult and dangerous for species to move through. A set of nodes for each species, with node points indicating center locations for potential source populations,...
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