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Background
Since 1994, we have collaborated with the USDA Forest Service at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina to create experimental landscapes that test for the effects of corridors. Our current experiment was created in 1999 and is the best replicated habitat fragmentation experiment in the world at this large of a scale. Our controlled experimental landscapes give us the ability to determine how corridors work. Do corridors promote the movement of plants and animals from one habitat patch to another? Or, do corridors affect species because they also change the total amount and shape of the habitat? Many investigators have worked within our experimental landscapes and have studied a wide range of corridor effects on individual taxa, populations, and communities.
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Photo: USDA Forest Service |
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Current Objectives
Our previous research has focused on either corridor effects for single species or on diversity patterns for entire groups of spcies. What we need now are links between these two extremes that can predict community responses based on species traits. We are currently planting experimental plant populations that have varying pollination and dispersal modes and monitoring their performance in our landscapes. |
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Restoration Context
Our current research explicitly asks if corridors can facilitate restoration. This focus accomplishes multiple objectives that will advance our understanding of connectivity. First, it puts the focus of our study squarely on species of management concern. We are planning to restore species of restoration interest in the conservation of native longleaf pine savanna ecosystems. These ecosystems once dominated the area around our research sites, but are now extremely scarce. Second, by introducing species that are not currently found in our system (but should be!), we can easily follow the effects of corridors on plant establishment and spread. Third, our focus goes beyond the typical focus of corridor studies on dispersal and gene flow, but looks at the impacts of corridors on plant populations and communities. To achieve our restoration objectives, maintenance of our sites will require restoration of ecosystem processes, part
icularly burning, that facilitate longleaf pine savanna. Our sites were burned after they were created by harvesting, and will continue to be burned every 3-4 years, consistent with management for longleaf pine savanna in our system. To further facilitate restoration, we are planting low densities of longleaf pine.
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Photo: USDA Forest Service |
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Photo: USDA Forest Service |
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History
In 1994, Nick Haddad and other scientists collaborated with the USDA Forest Service at the Savannah River Site to create the first version of experimental landscapes to test for corridor effects. This earlier experiment manipulated the presence and length of corridors and was replaced in 1999 with our current landcapes, which now test if corridors work as a movement conduit, through increases in habitat area, or changes in patch shape. |
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