Enhancing ecological connectivity: providing climate change resilience to the Rural Municipality of Ritchot
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Date
2020
Authors
Lagasse, Natalie
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Abstract
Over the last century land conversion has led to natural land loss and fragmentation in the Rural Municipality of Ritchot. This loss has changed the composition and configuration of biological elements in the landscape altering biodiversity and contributing to a degradation of ecosystem services. Climate change is expected to increase the potential for flooding, drought, heat stress, fire, and pest problems, and alter terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem. This threatens to further alter biodiversity and ecosystem services by reconfiguring ecosystems and their associated functions as they respond to anticipated effects. Building resilience into the landscape requires a balance between land use pressure. The ecological network planning approach balances these priorities by connecting fragmented ecosystems to support biodiversity and ecological function within a human land use context. Using the Sustainable Land Planning Framework and GIS spatial analysis, the research quantified landscape ecosystem composition and configuration of a sample site in the Rural Municipality of Ritchot. The research determined that natural lands consisted of forest, grassland, wetland, and riparian ecosystems, were fragmented, and occupied substantially less area than their historical range. These natural lands are found within an agriculture dominant landscape with clustered settlement. The ecological network was developed to reflect natural land clusters, and ecosystem patches were prioritized for protection and restoration according to size and proximity criteria. Prioritized sites have greater potential to support biodiversity and ecosystem services and their conservation and restoration may help build landscape resilience into the municipality. Further application requires greater understanding of species and genetic level biodiversity and abiotic biophysical characteristic that shape the landscape to confirm and quantify ecosystem services. Also, application would require a greater focus on agricultural lands to identify how productive lands can contribute positively to the ecological network and support biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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Keywords
Biodiversity, Ecological Network Planning, Climate Change, Natural Land Loss, Fragmentation, Landscape Composition, Landscape Configuration