Conservation practitioners have long recognized ecological connectivity as a global priority for preserving biodiversity and ecosystem function. In the early years of conservation science, ecologists extended principles of island biogeography to assess connectivity based on source patch proximity and other metrics derived from binary maps of habitat. From 2006 to 2008, the late Brad McRae introduced circuit theory as an alternative approach to model gene flow and the dispersal or movement routes of organisms. He posited concepts and metrics from electrical circuit theory as a robust way to quantify movement across multiple possible paths in a landscape, not just a single least-cost path or corridor. Circuit theory offers many theoretical, conceptual, and practical linkages to conservation science. We reviewed 459 recent studies citing circuit theory or the open-source software Circuitscape. We focused on applications of circuit theory to the science and practice of connectivity conservation, including topics in landscape and population genetics, movement and dispersal paths of organisms, anthropogenic barriers to connectivity, fire behavior, water flow, and ecosystem services. Circuit theory is likely to have an effect on conservation science and practitioners through improved insights into landscape dynamics, animal movement, and habitat-use studies and through the development of new software tools for data analysis and visualization. The influence of circuit theory on conservation comes from the theoretical basis and elegance of the approach and the powerful collaborations and active user community that have emerged. Circuit theory provides a springboard for ecological understanding and will remain an important conservation tool for researchers and practitioners around the globe.
1.Conservat Sci Partners Inc, 11050 Pioneer Trail,Suite 202, Truckee, CA 96161 USA 2.No Arizona Univ, Landscape Conservat Initiat, Box 5694, Flagstaff, AZ 86011 USA 3.Julia Comp, 45 Prospect St, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA 4.No Arizona Univ, Sch Forestry, Box 15018, Flagstaff, AZ 86011 USA 5.Nat Conservancy North Amer Reg, 1101 West River Pkwy,Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55415 USA 6.US Geol Survey, Northern Rocky Mt Sci Ctr, 38 Mather Dr, West Glacier, MT 59936 USA 7.Univ Washington, Sch Environm & Forest Sci, Box 352100, Seattle, WA 98195 USA 8.US Fish & Wildlife Serv, Sci Applicat, 101 12th Ave,110, Fairbanks, AK 99701 USA 9.Univ Chicago, Dept Human Genet, Dept Ecol & Evolut, 920 East 58th St, Chicago, IL 60637 USA 10.Nature Conservancy, 201 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94105 USA 11.US EPA, 200 Southwest 35th St, Corvallis, OR 97330 USA
Recommended Citation:
Dickson, Brett G.,Albano, Christine M.,Anantharaman, Ranjan,et al. Circuit-theory applications to connectivity science and conservation[J]. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY,2019-01-01,33(2):239-249