DOI: 10.5061/dryad.r7kj2
title: Data from: Landscape Corridors (LSCorridors): a new software package for modeling ecological corridors based on landscape patterns and species requirements

description: 1.Maintaining connectivity is one of the main challenges for biodiversity
 conservation worldwide. Ecological corridors are important to maintain
 landscape connectivity, but their efficiency depends on landscape patterns
 and species responses at different spatial extents and landscape contexts.
 2.We developed a new ecologically oriented free software package,
 LandScape Corridors (LSCorridors), to improve ecological corridor design
 by considering biodiversity responses to landscape attributes at a variety
 of spatial extents. LSCorridors considers stochastic variation, species
 perception and landscape influence on organisms in the design of
 ecological corridors. In addition to the least cost path algorithm, we
 propose four different methods for the simulation of multiple-path
 functional ecological corridors. One method uses the information for each
 pixel separately whereas the three other methods permit corridor
 simulation considering the landscape context at different spatial extents.
 3.LSCorridors permits to simulate corridors for species with different
 requirements and considers that different species perceive and respond to
 the surrounding landscape in different ways, as many species may choose to
 move through areas that may not be the most permeable ones in the
 landscape. Two parameters in LSCorridors modulate the stochasticity in
 corridors simulations. The first parameter is the level of variability
 added to the input resistance map in each simulation, resulting in more
 variable and spatially spread-out corridors. The other parameter is the
 spatial extent that may influence each pixel; larger extents result in
 larger spatial zones affecting each pixel during corridors simulations.
 Additionally, when considering spatial influence, the simulations may be
 performed for species highly, medially or less sensitive to habitat
 quality. 4.Some currently available software are not free or depend on a
 paid GIS software to work. In addition, some software do not support large
 matrices in their simulations, limiting their use. LSCorridors is designed
 to deal with large rasters, is based on strictly freeware software, and is
 freely available online. This allows the users to implement new methods
 for modeling multi-scale and ecologically-based corridors. 5.LSCorridors
 is a potential tool for the identification of protected areas, as corridor
 simulation considers species movement and landscape connectivity,
 essential characteristics to aid in large-scale biodiversity conservation,
 especially in anthropogenic landscapes. LSCorridors provides what we may
 call a zone for conservation, showing a set of connected areas in the
 landscape which may be ordered according to their potential for ecological
 corridors or which may be used as an aid for conservation strategies or
 ecological restoration projects.
description: Manuscript_dataMaps used to simulate ecological corridors in the manuscript. a) resistance surface and b) source target patches. The maps used to generate the simulations showed in the supplementary material - S2, also are available.