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Developing a decision-support process for landscape conservation design

Authors:

Thomas Bonnot

Todd Jones-Farrand

Frank Thompson

Joshua Millspaugh

Jane Fitzgerald

Nate Muenks

Phillip Hanberry

Esther Stroh

Larry Heggemann

Allison Fowler

Mark Howery

Shea Hammond

Kristine Evans

+8 more
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Year of Publication:
2019
Publisher:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station
City:
Newtown Square, PA
Secondary Title:
Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-190. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 66 p.
DOI:
10.2737/NRS-GTR-190
Year:
2019
Date:
07/2019

Abstract

Planning for sustainable landscapes is hampered by uncertainty in how species will respond to conservation actions amidst impacts from landscape and climate change. Planning decisions, including tradeoffs among competing species objectives, are complex. We developed a decision-support framework that integrates dynamic-landscape metapopulation models (DLMPs) and structured decision making (SDM) to help guide landscape conservation design. With this framework, we demonstrated that planning for viable populations across broad scales can be achieved under global change. Furthermore, the integration of DLMPs with SDM enabled decisions to be more objective and transparent, and thus, more defensible.