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Singh-Varma, Gaurav

University of British Columbia

The world has been undergoing an unprecedented loss of biodiversity with agriculture being one of the primary drivers, as it results in widespread habitat loss and fragmentation. Evidence suggests that sustainable, diversified agricultural systems can alleviate this issue by increasing biodiversity, without compromising agricultural production. However, it is still unclear whether these same systems facilitate ecological movement (i.e., the physical process of individuals or propagules actively or passively changing their spatial location over time) and functional connectivity (i.e., the extent to which the landscape facilitates ecological movement). Additionally, there is limited knowledge as to which specific diversification scales and practices affect movement and connectivity, and whether this varies across different scales and taxa. Therefore, my thesis aims to understand whether diversified agricultural systems can meaningfully affect movement and functional connectivity. I first conducted a systematic literature review to assess the relationship between diversified agricultural systems and movement/connectivity while answering four questions. Overall, 68% of 87 studies reported diversified agricultural systems having positive effects on movement and connectivity, with most studies focusing on management around the border of agricultural fields. It was also found that species characteristics such as differing ecological niche breadth (i.e., generalist versus specialist species), mating systems, and life-history traits influenced movement in diversified agricultural systems with I then utilized GPS tracking data to parameterize step selection functions (SSFs) and omnidirectional connectivity models to assess how European diversified agricultural systems – termed High Nature Value farmlands (HNVs) – influenced the movement/connectivity of three ungulate species, red deer (Cervus elaphus), European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), and wild boar (Sus scrofa) across different landscape contexts. Results indicated that while movement through HNVs is influenced by the spatial composition and configuration of the surrounding land cover types, HNVs, by and large, represent intact, permeable areas of movement for all three species. All three species generally selected HNVs and had higher predicted movement probabilities than conventional, intensive agricultural systems in agricultural matrix contexts. These findings help show how diversified agricultural practices can maintain important functional processes like movement and connectivity.

Text

2023-04-25

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/84477

Zoology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/