The genes must flow: using movement ecology to understand connectivity of Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) populations in altered landscapes
type: CreativeWork
description: Maintaining historic connectivity across animal populations is important to ensure a species can persist into the future. Human infrastructure and activities often fragment habitat, so understanding how connectivity functions is important in mitigation efforts. Connectivity arises from the movement of individuals within and between populations; understanding the movement ecology of a species can provide crucial information in how to best manage populations to maintain gene flow across a landscape. The Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is a threatened species of the southwestern United States that historically had range-wide genetic connectivity. Human activity has and continues to alter and fragment tortoise habitat and maintaining/restoring connectivity across the range has been identified as an important conservation goal. In this work, I study the movement ecology of Mojave desert tortoises to understand how natural and anthropogenic features contribute to patterns of connectivity in the species. Corridors are important areas of a landscape that allow movement of animals between population centers through areas of unsuitable habitat. Due to assumed modest dispersal capabilities of the species, tortoises have been classified as corridor-dwellers that primarily rely on overlapping home ranges within an area for gene flow through a corridor. I studied tortoise movement selection and home ranges to understand what delineates both natural corridors through mountain passes and artificial corridors of suitable habitat left on the landscape after construction of utility-scale solar installations. Tortoises avoided areas of high slope and low perennial vegetation cover, avoided moving near low-density roads, and traveled along linear barriers. Results suggested that corridors through mountain passes can function differently in allowing tortoise movement, supporting prior findings using genetic differences. Artificial corridors created with fencing may not functi…
abstract: Maintaining historic connectivity across animal populations is important to ensure a species can persist into the future. Human infrastructure and activities often fragment habitat, so understanding how connectivity functions is important in mitigation efforts. Connectivity arises from the movement of individuals within and between populations; understanding the movement ecology of a species can provide crucial information in how to best manage populations to maintain gene flow across a landscape. The Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is a threatened species of the southwestern United States that historically had range-wide genetic connectivity. Human activity has and continues to alter and fragment tortoise habitat and maintaining/restoring connectivity across the range has been identified as an important conservation goal. In this work, I study the movement ecology of Mojave desert tortoises to understand how natural and anthropogenic features contribute to patterns of connectivity in the species. Corridors are important areas of a landscape that allow movement of animals between population centers through areas of unsuitable habitat. Due to assumed modest dispersal capabilities of the species, tortoises have been classified as corridor-dwellers that primarily rely on overlapping home ranges within an area for gene flow through a corridor. I studied tortoise movement selection and home ranges to understand what delineates both natural corridors through mountain passes and artificial corridors of suitable habitat left on the landscape after construction of utility-scale solar installations. Tortoises avoided areas of high slope and low perennial vegetation cover, avoided moving near low-density roads, and traveled along linear barriers. Results suggested that corridors through mountain passes can function differently in allowing tortoise movement, supporting prior findings using genetic differences. Artificial corridors created with fencing may not functi…
author: Hromada, Steven John
date published: 2022
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:47:25Z
provider: University of Nevada - Reno
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Nevada - Reno

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11714/8305