Connectivity measures: a review

Abstract One of the central problems in contem-porary ecology and conservation biology is the drastic change of landscapes induced by anthropo-genic activities, resulting in habitat loss and fragmentation. For many wild living species, local extinctions of fragmented populations are common and recolonization is critical for regional survival. Successful recolonization depends on the availability of dispersing individuals and the degree of landscape connectivity. The obvious implications of landscape connectivity for conservation biology have led to a proliferation of connectivity measures. However, general relationships between landscape connectivity and landscape structure are lacking, and so are the relationships between different connectivity metrics. Consequently, there is a need to develop landscape metrics that more accurately characterize the land-scape with an emphasis on the underlying processes. Here we review various definitions of landscape connectivity, explain their mathematical connota-tions, and make some unifying conclusions and suggestions for future research