Landscape connectivity & fragmentation

SRS Corridor


Habitat loss and fragmentation are considered the main drivers of biodiversity decline. Landscape experiments can offer unique insights into how fragmentation impacts biodiversity and ecological processes at scales similar to management activities. Corridors are strips of habitat that connect habitat fragments. They are widely used as a conservation strategy to reduce the negative effects of fragmentation. The Savannah River Site Corridor Experiment (South Carolina, USA) is the largest corridor experiment in the world and aims to test how corridors function and influence populations and communities. The principal investigators on this project include Nick Haddad (Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University), Doug Levey (formerly NSF), Ellen Damschen (UW-Madison), John Orrock (UW-Madison), Lars Brudvig (Michigan State), Melissa Burt (Tusculum University), and me, Julian Resasco (University of Colorado). Past and ongoing work from the lab and the Savannah River Site Corridor Experiment includes exploring potential negative effects of corridors on facilitating invasive species, studying the dynamics of ant communities (in collaboration with Melissa Burt), and examining the evolutionary impacts of corridors (see relevant publications below). For more information on the Savannah River Site Corridor Experiment, watch the video below or explore additional papers from the project. You can learn more about the science of corridors at Conservation Corridor. 

The Wog Wog Habitat Fragmentation Experiment is another of the largest and longest-running fragmentation experiments. Work at Wog Wog during my postdoc with Kendi Davies (University of Colorado) included how fragmentation affects species niches, the structure of arthropod food webs, and parasitism. 

Relevant publications: