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Ellen Damschen
By Erik Stokstad
Habitat loss leads to most extinctions. When farms or roads cut forests or fields into fragments, isolated survivors are more likely to be exterminated. A new study now suggests that connecting these areas to suitable habitat corridors can help save populations and species – far more than scientists have imagined.
The researchers focused on the long-leafed pine savanna, an ecosystem that existed in the southeastern United States. This meadow habitat is home to many unique plants, such as flaming stars, as well as the more common butterfly milkweed (above), as well as the endangered red rooster. But only 3% of the original ecosystem remains, and what remains is only in the form of small fragments.
To investigate the effect of habitat corridors, scientists have created new savannah fragments inside a large pine plantation in South Carolina and have connected some of the species to their homes. between them to habitat corridors. Each year, the team calculated the number of native plant species.
And every year, they found new species in the patches. But many others have appeared in the connected patches; the annual rate of colonization was 5% higher than in unconnected plots – a surprisingly important boost, they report today in Science. Many species have probably arrived after their seeds have been transported to the plots by wind or animals. Bluebirds, for example, prefer to forage in pasture and grassland corridors only in the dense pine forest, so they carry more seeds between connected savannah patches.
After 18 years – a long time for an ecological experiment – connected plots averaged 200 plant species, 14% more than unconnected plots. The duration of the study also shows that the benefits of habitat fragment binding continue to grow.
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