Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
Author ORCID Identifier
N/A
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Environmental Conservation
Year Degree Awarded
2016
Month Degree Awarded
September
First Advisor
Kevin McGarigal
Second Advisor
Andrew Whiteley
Third Advisor
Daniel Sheldon
Fourth Advisor
Samuel Cushman
Subject Categories
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Population Biology | Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Abstract
The continued growth of human populations and associated development in many areas of the world is causing persistent fragmentation of natural habitats. In response, wildlife corridors are often promoted as essential for the conservation of wildlife species. Wildlife corridors allow for the movement of individuals between habitat patches and confer many benefits including the maintenance of metapopulations and metapopulation dynamics, the maintenance of seasonal migratory routes, genetic exchange, and the potential for individuals and populations to shift their ranges in response to climate change. Wildlife corridors are modeled across a resistance-to-movement surface where resistance represents the willingness of an organism to cross a particular environment, the physiological cost of moving through a particular environment, or the reduction in survival for the organism moving through a particular environment. Resistance surfaces can be estimated using a wide variety of methods yet, to date, there has been no in-depth methodological comparison of these methods and their appropriateness for modeling connectivity. My dissertation has two main objectives. The first was to determine the sensitivity of species-habitat models, resistance surfaces and corridors for pumas (Puma concolor) in southern California to six key factors: (1) data type used (point, step, or path data); (2) Statistical models employed; (3) Behavioral state of the individuals; (4) Spatial scale of analysis; (5) GPS collar acquisition interval; and (6) Thematic resolution and richness of the underlying geospatial layers. The second objective was to determine which combination of factors results in the most appropriate resistance surfaces for connectivity modeling. I found that species-habitat models, resistance surfaces and corridors were extremely sensitive to all six of these factors – to the point where using one scale versus another or one data type versus another resulted in conflicting conclusions about habitat use and differences in the location of corridors. I recommend that, for modeling movement and corridors, path data be used in a context-dependent multi-scale modeling framework. I also recommend that many different geospatial layers at different thematic resolutions be examined to identify the most appropriate landscape definition for the species and study area of interest.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/8548170.0
Recommended Citation
Zeller, Katherine, "Evaluating resistance surfaces for modeling wildlife movement and connectivity" (2016). Doctoral Dissertations. 825.
https://doi.org/10.7275/8548170.0
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/825