Landscape connectivity promotes plant biodiversity spillover into non-target habitats

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0809658106
• Publication Date: 2009-05-23T01:46:27Z
• Authors: Lars A. Brudvig; Ellen I. Damschen; Joshua J. Tewksbury; Nick M. Haddad; Douglas J. Levey
• Keywords: Spillover effect; Wildlife corridor

Conservation efforts typically focus on maximizing biodiversity in protected areas. The space available for reserves is limited, however, and conservation must increasingly consider how management of areas can promote beyond reserve borders. Habitat corridors are considered an important feature because they facilitate movement organisms between patches, thereby increasing species richness those patches. Here we demonstrate that by inside target additionally benefit surrounding non-target habitat, a "spillover" effect. Working the world's largest corridor experiment, show increased extends approximately 30% width 1-ha connected resulting 10-18% more vascular plant around patches habitat than unconnected but otherwise equivalent habitat. Furthermore, corridor-enhanced spillover into be predicted simple life-history trait: seed dispersal mode. Species animal-dispersed plants response to connectivity provided corridors, whereas wind-dispersed was unaffected changes patch shape--higher edge-to-interior ratio--created corridors. Corridors promoted native threatened longleaf pine ecosystem being restored our not exotic species. By extending economically driven concepts from marine fisheries crop pollination systems, reconnecting landscapes amplifies both within