The SRS Corridor Project
The most popular conservation technique to mitigate the effects of habitat fragmentation is the restoration of landscape connectivity with corridors. Yet, if and how corridors (and landscape connectivity, generally) influence biodiversity has remained unclear due to a lack of long-term, controlled experimental tests. We work within one of the world’s largest habitat fragmentation experiments – and the largest and best replicated experimental test of corridors – to understand the long-term effects of corridor connectivity for the longleaf pine ecosystem. Using a combination of demographic monitoring, plant community surveys, and plant-animal interaction experiments, we seek a mechanistic understanding of the long-term impacts fragmentation and corridors have on plant communities and populations.
Relevant publications
Warneke, C. R., Caughlin, T. T., Damschen, E. I., Haddad, N. M., Levey, D. J., & Brudvig, L. A. 2022. Habitat fragmentation alters the distance of abiotic seed dispersal through edge effects and direction of dispersal. Ecology e03586. [link]
Damschen, E. I., Brudvig, L. A., Burt, M. A., Fletcher Jr, R. J., Haddad, N. M., Levey, D. J., Orrock, J. L., Resasco, J. & Tewksbury, J. J. (2019). Ongoing accumulation of plant diversity through habitat connectivity in an 18-year experiment. Science, 365(6460), 1478-1480. [link]
Caughlin, T. T., Damschen, E. I., Haddad, N. M., Levey, D. J., Warneke, C., & Brudvig, L. A. (2019). Landscape heterogeneity is key to forecasting outcomes of plant reintroduction. Ecological Applications, 29(2), e01850. [link]
Brudvig, L. A., Damschen, E. I., Haddad, N. M., Levey, D. J., & Tewksbury, J. J. (2015). The influence of habitat fragmentation on multiple plant–animal interactions and plant reproduction. Ecology, 96(10), 2669-2678. [link]