Doctoral Dissertation Research: Identifying and Increasing Landscape Connectivity for Endangered Species

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how human development and activities affect carnivore populations and their persistence at multiple scales by identifying movement corridors for tiger populations in a human-modified landscape. The decline in the global tiger population, the world's most endangered wild cat species, affects nearly every nation. Activities that affect tigers are the trade and consumption of tiger-based products, tiger poaching, illegal logging, consumption of agricultural products grown on land that was previously tiger habitat, negligent and corrupt law enforcement, and inadequate funding to support law enforcement. The rate of development is increasing globally, thus increasing the rate of habitat deforestation and fragmentation. As wildlife is restricted to smaller habitat fragments movement corridors between these fragments need to be maintained in order to permit continued dispersal of animals, thereby enhancing the persistence of wildlife populations. This project will provide new insights regarding how movement corridors can be identified that connect different subpopulations of a specific species, thereby facilitating exchanges of genes among the different subpopulations and help preserve the genetic vitality of the species. The project will demonstrate the utility of using graph theory and connectivity analyses to ascertain the extent of habitat connectivity for a species. Although this project will focus on habitat connectivity of tigers in Sumatra, project approaches and findings will be applicable to wildlife in other habitats, such as pronghorn antelope, Florida panther, and Eastern gray wolf. The project will help to identify habitat corridors needed to maintain robust metapopulations of endangered species, thereby assisting land managers and others to develop effective strategies that can preserve species while helping advance economically beneficial land uses. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. The doctoral student will employ analytic tools from genetics, ecology, and geography to advance understanding of human development impacts on tiger populations by pairing genetic-relatedness data with landscape ecological data and modeling. Tiger DNA that was non-invasively gathered by collecting tiger fecal samples throughout a Sumatran landscape will be identified. Genetic material will be analyzed to determine whether tigers in seemingly unconnected protected areas can breed together, thus indicating whether tigers cross multiuse landscapes between protected areas. Landscape modeling will be used to identify potential wildlife corridors, which are then validated by genetics to determine whether tigers actually use these corridors for movement, and especially if they breed after movement. The student will identify which human-modified areas tigers can traverse using data provided from satellite collars, further validating how tigers navigate multiuse landscapes and also identifying "tiger-friendly" areas. She will identify predicted future tiger movement corridors using landscape change modeling to identify threatened corridors in need of protection to ensure tiger persistence into the future.