Integrating patch stability and network connectivity to optimize ecological security pattern

Abstract

Abstract Context Designing and optimizing ecological security pattern (ESP) is an effective solution to formulate landscape planning. The commonly used network analysis for ESP optimization abstracts ecological sources and ecological corridors as homogeneous nodes and edges, ignoring the differentiated landscape pattern and patch stability. Objectives It is aimed to construct ESP considering pattern and function, to explore the relationship of patch stability and network connectivity conservation objectives, and to optimize ESP with the integration of the two objectives. Methods We proposed a framework for constructing ESP based on ecosystem health and human footprint, and optimizing ESP with network robustness analysis. Land use conflict analysis and node/ edge removal method were further used to assess patch stability and network connectivity, respectively. Results ESP of Ningxia was composed of 71 ecological sources covering an area of 10970.25 km2, and 150 ecological corridors covering an area of 3950.88 km2. The ecological sources and ecological corridors along the Yellow River had high patch stability but low network connectivity, while the largest ecological source had both high values of the two indicators. With the removal of nodes and edges, connectivity robustness, global efficiency, and equivalent connectivity of the ESP decreased from 1, 0.29, and 342.80 to 0, respectively. The variation trends of the three indicators under different removal scenarios were inconsistent. There was a distinct trade-off between the conservation objectives of patch stability and network connectivity. Conclusions This study highlighted how to balance different conservation objectives in landscape planning. Our framework can provide guidance for conservation planners to construct and optimize ESP without losing information due to the element abstraction in network analysis.