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| − | A '''wildlife corridor''' or''' habitat corridor''' is a generally defined as a relatively narrow area/strip of land that acts as a link between larger habitat areas that have been fragmented by human activity. The linkage between larger habitat areas allows for an exchange of individuals between populations and thus increases the opportunity for [[gene flow]] between the habitats and improves [[biodiversity]]. Corridors may also help facilitate [[colonization]] and [[migration]] to habitats that have recently experienced [[disturbance events]].
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| − | Although corridors have been implemented with the assumption that they will increase biodiversity, not enough research has been done to come to a definitive conclusion. The case for corridors has been built more on intuition and much less on empirical evidence (Tewksbury et al. 2002). In addition corridors are species specific, not every kind of animal will utilize every kind of corridor, and a corridor for one species could act as a barrier for another species.
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| − | Corridors can also be quite costly to develop and implement. For example, Daniel Simberloff et al. states that “a bridge that would maintain a riparian corridor costs about 13 times as much per lane-mile as would a road that would sever the corridor.” Corridors are also more costly to maintain than simple ecological refuges as it would be logistically easier and more cost effective to manually transport animals between different refuges than to buy land, install a corridor and keep it properly maintained.However, if the goal is to protect biodiversity among all plants and animals, and not to just preserve a few large species, then habitat corridors may be the only option. Corridors are going to be expensive to implement no matter what, but it does depend on the type, location, and size, which can all vary to a great degree. With the lack of field data on the effectiveness, many management agencies are tentative to turn to wildlife corridors as the 'solution' to their ecological 'issues'.
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Revision as of 11:28, 28 March 2014
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