Integral ecologists will present papers and moderate a session on landscape connectivity at the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) annual meeting on August 1–6, 2010. Landscape connectivity, a rapidly emerging area of research and environmental management, aims to understand large-scale spatial and temporal connections among habitats and natural resources and use this knowledge as a foundation for making sound resource management decisions.
Dr. Deborah Rudnick is organizing and moderating a session titled “The Role of Landscape Connectivity in Planning and Implementing Conservation and Restoration Priorities” to be held on Thursday, August 5. This session will bring together a diverse group of researchers and practitioners who are evaluating and managing landscape connectivity to achieve conservation, restoration, and stewardship objectives for resources and habitats. Speakers will include academic faculty and students, government agency staff, and private sector professionals.
During the session, Damian Preziosi of Integral will present a paper titled “Using Landscape Connectivity to Inform Prioritization of Restoration Areas in the Delaware Estuary Watershed.” His paper considers the landscape connectivity modeling predictions in a case study of six urban waterfront sites along the Delaware River in Philadelphia. In addition to researching and applying landscape connectivity modeling tools, Mr. Preziosi has authored a number of peer-reviewed papers on landscape connectivity and its application in regional restoration planning and management.
Integral scientist John Sullivan will also present “Effects of Least-Cost Pathway Assumptions on Landscape Connectivity Models,” which compares the predicted functional distances between habitat patches as well as predicted values of each patch in a landscape context using various scales in cost surface to better understand the effect these assumptions have on landscape connectivity models.
For more information on these topics, contact Deborah Rudnick, Ph.D., at drudnick@integral-corp.com, Damian Preziosi at dpreziosi@integral-corp.com, or John Sullivan at jsullivan@integral-corp.com.