Improving habitat connectivity may be a powerful tool for restoring lost plant biodiversity in fragmented ecosystems, a nearly two-decade study shows.
in South Carolina. Historically, the land was used for farming. Later, nuclear reactors were built nearby to supply plutonium and tritium for nuclear weapons. Now a nuclear reservation owned by the Department of Energy and managed by the U.S. Forest Service, the site is slowly beginning to reforest.
In this mix of wildland and abandoned farmland, Damschen’s team set up 10 experimental fields of longleaf pine savanna, each containing four test patches measuring nearly 14,000 square meters . Some patches were single rectangles, alone and untethered. Others were connected to another patch by a thin corridor, 25 meters by 150 meters long. Still other patches remained isolated but had half the length of a corridor placed on either side, like wings.
For 18 years, the scientists tromped through these patches every summer. They set up a grid in each patch and counted all the species in every square in that grid. It was grueling work, often done in high humidity while the heat index exceeded 100 degrees. For experienced biologists, surveying the 239 plant species in each patch took about three hours, all while carrying gallons of water on their backs.The thin corridors between larger patches turned out to be remarkably effective.
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