Insights on how different managerial strategies influence connectivity

In their recent publication, Schoon et al. present a model synthesized from previous research that provides managers with a practical and realistic method for managing connectedness between habitat patches. Managers often face decision-making problems in that their goals are to maximize species co-existence (i.e. biodiversity) while working with limited financial and human resource capacity. Schoon et al. use an agent-based modeling framework to examine management decision-making and determine how managers can better accomplish their goals for maximizing co-existence by changing the level of connectivity between patches.  They focus on several monitoring strategies that are used by managers; specifically, monitoring at three trophic levels (vegetation, prey, or predator) and at two different scales (local or global). Key insights from their simulations reveal:

1. Too much connectivity can be as much a problem as too little, since it can homogenize populations and lead to boom-bust cycles and synchronous populations that are more at risk for extinction.
2. Monitoring at the prey level is most likely to result in overall favorable results, rather than at the vegetation or predator levels.
3. Managing at the global scale is more effective than at the local scale, as it allows for high levels of coexistence time under a wide variety of density thresholds and is more robust under unknown conditions.

The take-home message is that intermediate connectivity provides the best pathway to ensuring continued species existence, and that managers need to maintain a dynamic view of connectivity to best respond to fluctuations in population densities.  The paper provides an excellent first step in understanding how management decisions on the landscape can influence connectivity between fragmented patches.