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Corridor Ecology: The Science and Practice of Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation
'Corridor Ecology' presents guidelines that combine conservation science and practical experience for maintaining, enhancing, and creating connectivity between natural areas with an overarching goal of conserving biodiversity. This book will be of interest to scientists, landscape architects, planners, land managers, and more.
- GenresTextbooksConservation
344 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2006
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October 28, 2019
Imagine that you are a turtle intent on moving between marshes separated by a busy highway. As you approach the road, you encounter a drift fence installed by well meaning, enlightened engineers; the fencing prevents you from climbing onto the pavement. Instead, you move parallel to the road until you find an opening and then resume your journey toward the marsh on the opposite side of the highway. The same engineers who installed the drift fence included a corrugated metal culvert under the road with the express purpose of proving safe passage between habitats for denizens of the marshes. You enter the culvert, lifting your foot over the first raised hump of the corrugated metal and, pulling your body forward, you suddenly find that you cannot get a purchase for your feet—you’re high-centered, unable to move, and helpless. The conservation-minded engineers should have specified a flat-bottomed culvert instead of a corrugated metal death trap. This scenario is just one of hundreds of similar situations cited in "Corridor Ecology" that highlight just how extraordinarily challenging it is to envision and create effective links between disjunct habitat patches—even when designers have the best of intentions.
While "Corridor Ecology" does include some very practical guidelines like the turtle-friendly culvert, the majority of the book is highly technical and often theoretical because definitive information about the migration of most organisms is lacking. The authors’ intended audience includes students, scientists, and practitioners; this is not a book that would be readily accessible to laymen or even to landscape planners unless they have a strong scientific background.
Nevertheless, the book is a very through and comprehensive examination of the imperative to connect disjunct habitat and strategies to accomplish that objective. This second edition (the original was published in 2006) has been significantly updated and revised to include over 180 new papers addressing connectivity and climate change alone. It also incorporates new information about sophisticated modeling approaches that can help corridor planners enhance connectivity. Furthermore, two experts on connectivity in the marine environment have contributed a new chapter on the topic.
The book begins with a general introduction to global habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change, and why habitat connectivity is important. It then steps back in chapter 2 and develops a foundation in population dynamics from the perspectives of individual organisms, communities, and aggregations of communities. Building on these population basics, the authors go on in the third chapter to examine patterns of habitat fragmentation, the nature of habitat patches in fragmented landscapes, and the characteristics of the matrix—the landforms in which isolated habitat patches are embedded.
Chapters 4 through 8 consider various aspects of habitat connectivity in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems addressing, in order, a general review of types of corridors, objectives in designing and configuring corridors, potential disadvantages of linking habitat patches and, finally, habitat connectivity related to climate change. The ninth chapter (marine connectivity) is largely theoretical, but the contributors’ suggestions for creating coastal sanctuaries spaced at appropriate distances that could serve as stepping stone refuges for dispersing oceanic organisms are straightforward, practical and interesting. The final chapter considers the need to protect and restore corridors, and includes five case studies of connectivity projects ranging in scale from local to nearly continental.
The second chapter, which presents the basics of population ecology and dispersal, and the section of seventh chapter that reviews computer models to optimize corridor design are especially challenging. The information about population dynamics is integral for an understanding of corridor ecology and, thus, serves as a critical foundation for appreciating the remainder of the book. Readers will want to devote special attention to this chapter and fully internalize the information. The highly technical section on computer modeling will be of greatest interest to professional corridor designers and probably could be skimmed by most readers.
The authors have been largely successful in their effort to present a comprehensive, wide-ranging, and all-encompassing examination of the current state and understanding of habitat connectivity. However, much of the book reads like an extended review article. The authors cite numerous sources to support their topics, but they fail to step back to synthesize their points adequately. When they do summarize their findings, such as when they present a series of recommendations at the end of the chapter on connecting habitats in the context of changing climate, the summary of the foregoing discussion is succinct and thoughtful. The authors should have capped-off each of the 10 chapters with a similar summary.
In addition, the authors’ efforts are occasionally diminished by their extensive use of jargon, some of which is explained or defined, and some of which is not. Furthermore, I generally found it difficult to interpret the information presented graphically that supplements the text; the authors needed to label the graphs more carefully and to provide more detailed explanations in the accompanying captions. Finally, the book is heavily biased in favor of consideration of the movement of animals (compared to that of plants), but that emphasis may simply reflect the amount of research information that was available rather than a predilection toward animals on the authors’ part.
While the second edition has four authors (with the addition of wildlife ecologist Annika T.H. Kelley), it is written in one voice. The authors made a conscious decision to revise the book collaboratively to achieve this goal.
While "Corridor Ecology" does include some very practical guidelines like the turtle-friendly culvert, the majority of the book is highly technical and often theoretical because definitive information about the migration of most organisms is lacking. The authors’ intended audience includes students, scientists, and practitioners; this is not a book that would be readily accessible to laymen or even to landscape planners unless they have a strong scientific background.
Nevertheless, the book is a very through and comprehensive examination of the imperative to connect disjunct habitat and strategies to accomplish that objective. This second edition (the original was published in 2006) has been significantly updated and revised to include over 180 new papers addressing connectivity and climate change alone. It also incorporates new information about sophisticated modeling approaches that can help corridor planners enhance connectivity. Furthermore, two experts on connectivity in the marine environment have contributed a new chapter on the topic.
The book begins with a general introduction to global habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change, and why habitat connectivity is important. It then steps back in chapter 2 and develops a foundation in population dynamics from the perspectives of individual organisms, communities, and aggregations of communities. Building on these population basics, the authors go on in the third chapter to examine patterns of habitat fragmentation, the nature of habitat patches in fragmented landscapes, and the characteristics of the matrix—the landforms in which isolated habitat patches are embedded.
Chapters 4 through 8 consider various aspects of habitat connectivity in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems addressing, in order, a general review of types of corridors, objectives in designing and configuring corridors, potential disadvantages of linking habitat patches and, finally, habitat connectivity related to climate change. The ninth chapter (marine connectivity) is largely theoretical, but the contributors’ suggestions for creating coastal sanctuaries spaced at appropriate distances that could serve as stepping stone refuges for dispersing oceanic organisms are straightforward, practical and interesting. The final chapter considers the need to protect and restore corridors, and includes five case studies of connectivity projects ranging in scale from local to nearly continental.
The second chapter, which presents the basics of population ecology and dispersal, and the section of seventh chapter that reviews computer models to optimize corridor design are especially challenging. The information about population dynamics is integral for an understanding of corridor ecology and, thus, serves as a critical foundation for appreciating the remainder of the book. Readers will want to devote special attention to this chapter and fully internalize the information. The highly technical section on computer modeling will be of greatest interest to professional corridor designers and probably could be skimmed by most readers.
The authors have been largely successful in their effort to present a comprehensive, wide-ranging, and all-encompassing examination of the current state and understanding of habitat connectivity. However, much of the book reads like an extended review article. The authors cite numerous sources to support their topics, but they fail to step back to synthesize their points adequately. When they do summarize their findings, such as when they present a series of recommendations at the end of the chapter on connecting habitats in the context of changing climate, the summary of the foregoing discussion is succinct and thoughtful. The authors should have capped-off each of the 10 chapters with a similar summary.
In addition, the authors’ efforts are occasionally diminished by their extensive use of jargon, some of which is explained or defined, and some of which is not. Furthermore, I generally found it difficult to interpret the information presented graphically that supplements the text; the authors needed to label the graphs more carefully and to provide more detailed explanations in the accompanying captions. Finally, the book is heavily biased in favor of consideration of the movement of animals (compared to that of plants), but that emphasis may simply reflect the amount of research information that was available rather than a predilection toward animals on the authors’ part.
While the second edition has four authors (with the addition of wildlife ecologist Annika T.H. Kelley), it is written in one voice. The authors made a conscious decision to revise the book collaboratively to achieve this goal.
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