Regional Connectivity and Marsh Migration
Best opportunities to maintain regional connections and connect tidal marshes to adjacent uplands.
Quick start guide
Description
Terrestrial and wetland connectivity areas are relatively intact places that, if protected, will continue to support a broad diversity of fish, wildlife, plants, and the ecosystems on which they depend. There are four types of connectivity that are analyzed in this project: “core to core” connectivity, “regional flow,” marsh migration corridors, and riparian climate corridors. The connectors are designed to allow the movement of animals and plants from natural core area to natural core area and across the landscape into the future. Please see the “Cores and Connector” document for more information on the core connectors.
Collectively, core areas, connectors, and road-bounded natural blocks provide a network of resilient and intact ecosystems that will support biodiversity and natural processes under changing conditions and climate.
In addition to the core connectors there are three other data sets that support connectivity of natural intact areas:
- Regional Flow:
- A particularly useful feature of the wall-to-wall permeability results is that they reveal basic patterns in current flow that reflect how the human modified landscape is spatially configured. Thus you can identify where population movements and potential range shifts may become concentrated or where they are well dispersed, and it is possible to quantify the importance of a area by measuring how much flow passes through it, and how concentrated that flow is. The results can be used to identify important pinch points where movements are predicted to concentrate, or diffuse intact areas that allow for more random movements.
- The 2 categories (out of the four prevalent flow types) displayed in this map are:
- Diffuse flow: areas that are extremely intact and consequently facilitate high levels of dispersed flow that spreads out to follow many different and alternative pathways. The conservation strategy is to keep these areas intact and prevent the flow from becoming concentrated. This might be achievable through land management or broad scale conservation easements.
- Concentrated flow: areas where large quantities of flow are concentrated through a narrow area. Because of their importance in maintaining flow across a larger network these pinch points are good candidates for land conservation.
- Marsh Migration
- Based on an analysis done by NOAA, this data shows marsh migration zones at various sea level rise scenarios from 0-6’.
- Riparian Climate Corridors
Intended uses
Areas of connectivity can be viewed as among the best places to start for protection of lands and waters in their natural states. Example applications include:
- Promoting stewardship by private landowners to sustain the ecological value of their properties
- Informing strategic acquisition of parcels by public or nonprofit organizations.
The same strategies can be applied to connectors and supporting landscapes. The core-connector network provides context for understanding the ecological importance of areas in the Northeast region.
Organizations can consider regional context along with with other information when setting their own conservation priorities. Areas where core areas coincide with other priorities identified through the RCOA package (e.g., Aquatic Core Networks and RSGCN habitats), as well as state and local priorities, may be especially promising locations for conservation action.
