Importance of connectivity for carnivore richness and occupancy in fragmented biodiversity hotspots.

ABSTRACT: Structural connectivity affects wildlife movement between habitat patches, contributing to the persistence of wildlife populations and their resilience to human-induced and environmental changes. However, its importance to wildlife population persistence remains unclear, particularly in fragmented landscapes, where there are additional co-occurring threats and varying protected area coverage (PAC). Using South American carnivore assemblages and fragmented tropical forests as a case study, we assessed the relative effect of structural connectivity on carnivore persistence in fragmented landscapes after accounting for PAC, and the efficacy of single-species connectivity approaches for protecting the habitat of multiple species. We applied a multiscale Bayesian modeling framework to camera-tr

SUBMITTER: Hurtado CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12658950 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature