Evaluating conservation units using network analysis: A sea duck case study
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Abstract
Conserving migratory wildlife requires understanding how groups of individuals interact across seasons and landscapes. Telemetry reveals individual movements at large spatiotemporal scales; however, using movement data to define conservation units requires scaling up from individual movements to species- and community-level patterns. We developed a framework to define flyways and identify important sites from telemetry data and applied it to long-term, range-wide tracking data from three species (640 individuals) of sea ducks: namely, North American scoters (Melanitta spp). Our network of 88 nodes included both multispecies hotspots and areas uniquely important to individual species. We found limited spatial overlap between scoters wintering on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America, with differing connectivity patterns between coasts. Finally, we identified four multispecies conservation units that did not correspond to traditional management flyways. From this approach, we show how individual movements can be used to quantify range-wide connectivity of migratory species and reveal gaps in conservation strategies.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Evaluating conservation units using network analysis: A sea duck case study |
| Series title | Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment |
| DOI | 10.1002/fee.2648 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Year Published | 2024 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Wiley |
| Contributing office(s) | Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center |
| Description | e2648, 7 p. |
| Country | Canada |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |