Habitat Connectivity Using Conefor 2.6 For Salt Spring Island, British Columbia

However, habitats are becoming increasingly fragmented due to anthropogenic activities. In this study, I analyzed habitat connectivity on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, from the perspective of the brown creeper bird, the red squirrel, and the red-legged frog.

These umbrella species were selected since their survival is at risk with global warming that is altering their fragile habitat. The research objectives were: assessing network connectivity; identifying the most important habitat patches; and identifying the most important disturbed areas for restoration. The methods included: creating habitat patches and links based on specific habitat requirements using the Landsat landcover classes and Light Detection and Ranging data; assigning a quality to each landuse category to calculate the area-weighted quality of each patch; and performing the connectivity analysis in Conefor 2.6 using the Probability of Connectivity index and its associated metrics (sum dPC and dNC) as they were proven to perform the best for modeling habitat connectivity.