RT Journal Article
T1 Addressing longitudinal connectivity in freshwater systematic conservation planning
A1 Hermoso López, Virgilio
A1 Linke, Simon
A1 Prenda Marín, José
A1 Possingham, Hugh
AB 1. Freshwater conservation has received less attention than its terrestrial or marinecounterparts, despite freshwater systems containing a considerable amount of the earth´sbiodiversity. Given the accelerated rate of change and intensive human use thatfreshwater ecosystems are submitted to, it is urgent to devote some attention to them.The application of existing conservation planning tools - such as Marxan - to riverineplanning needs some adaptations to account for the special nature of these systems.Connectivity plays a key role in freshwater ecosystems – threats are mediated alongriver corridors and the health of the entire catchmemt influences. This needs to beconsidered in conservation planning approaches.2. The probability of occurrence, obtained from MARS-GLM models, of nine nativefreshwater fish species in a Mediterranean river basin was used as features to developspatial conservation priorities. The priorities accounted for complementarity and spatialdesign issues.3. To deal with the connected nature of rivers, we modified Marxan´s boundary lengthpenalty, hence avoiding the selection of isolated planning units and forcing the inclusionof closer upstream areas. We introduced ‘virtual boundaries’ between non-headwaterstream segments, and added distance-weighted penalties to the overall connectivity cost(CP) when stream segments upstream of the selected planning units are not selected.4. This approach to prioritising connectivity rule is concordant with ecological theory,as it considers the natural and roughly exponential decay of upstream influences withdistance. It allows accounting for the natural capacity of rivers to mitigate impacts whendesigning reserves. With a small emphasis on connectivity, Marxan prioritised naturalcorridors for longitudinal movements. In contrast, whole sub-basins were prioritisedwhen connectivity was emphasized. Changing the relative emphasis on connectivitycauses substantial changes in the spatial prioritisation; our conservation investmentcould move from one basin to another.5. Our novel approach to dealing with directional connectivity enables managers incharge of freshwater systems to set ecologically meaningful spatial conservationpriorities.
PB Wiley-Blackwell
SN 0046-5070
YR 2011
FD 2011
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/4384
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/4384
LA eng
NO HERMOSO LÓPEZ, V., LINKE, S. PRENDA MARÍN, J., POSSINGHAM H. : "Addressing longitudinal connectivity in freshwater systematic conservation planning". Freshwater Biology. Vol. 56, n. 1, enero 2011, Pags: 57–70. Wiley-Blackwell. ISSN: 0046-5070.
NO The fieldwork was supported by the Confederacio´nHidrogra´fica del Guadiana through the project ‘Disen˜oy Explotacio´n de la Red de Control Biolo´gico de la Cuencadel Rı´o Guadiana’ and the Ministry of Science andTechnology (REN2002-03513, CGL2005-02699). Wethank Noam Levin for the help with GIS information,Jane Elith for the statistical help with MARS-GLMmodels and Eren Turak for his comments andsuggestions on this manuscript. V. Hermoso held apredoctoral fellowship financed by the Spanish Min-istry of Education (AP-2004-1414). Simon Linke’spostdoctoral fellowship is funded by the eWater CRC.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026