Landscape connectivity in ecology is, broadly, "the degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes movement among resource patches". Alternatively, connectivity may be a continuous property of the landscape and independent of patches and paths.Fischer, J. and D.B. Lindenmayer. 2006. Beyond fragmentation: the continuum model for fauna research and conservation in human-modified landscapes. Oikos, 112: 473–480. Connectivity includes both structural connectivity (the physical arrangements of disturbance and/or patches) and functional connectivity (the movement of individuals across contours of disturbance and/or among patches).  The degree to which a landscape is connected determines the amount of dispersal there is among patches, which influences gene flow, local adaptation, extinction risk, colonization probability, and the potential for organisms to move as they cope with climate change.Hodgson, J.A., C.D. Thomas, B.A. Wintle, and A. Moilanen. 2009. Climate change, connectivity and conservation decision-making: back to basics. Journal of Applied Ecology, 46: 964-969.McRae, B. H., Hall, S. A., Beier, P., Theobald, D. M. 2012. Where to Restore Ecological Connectivity? Detecting Barriers and Quantifying Restoration Benefits. PLoS ONE 7:e52604. Importance Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation have become ubiquitous in both natural and human modified landscapes, resulting in detrimental consequences for local species interactions and global biodiversity.Fahrig, L. (2003). Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Biodiversity. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. Vol. 34:487-515 Human development now modifies over 50\% of the earth's landscape, leaving only patches of isolated natural or semi-natural habitats for the millions of other species we share this planet with.  Patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functions are changing worldwide resulting in a loss of connectivity and ecological integrity for the entire global ecological network. Loss of connectivity can influence individuals, populations and communities through within species, between species, and between ecosystem interactions. These interactions affect ecological mechanisms such as nutrient and energy flows, predator-prey relationships, pollination, seed dispersal, demographic rescue, inbreeding avoidance, colonization of unoccupied habitat, altered species interactions, and spread of disease,.Rudnick DA, et al. The role of landscape connectivity in planning and implementing conservation and restoration priorities. Issues Ecol. 2012;16.Ayram, C., Mendoza, M., Etter, A., Salicrup, D. (2016). Habitat connectivity in biodiversity conservation: A review of recent studies and applications. Progress in Physical Geography. Vol. 40 (1) Pg 7–37 Accordingly, landscape connectivity facilitates the movement of biotic processes such as animal movement, plant propagation, and genetic exchange, as well as abiotic processes such as water, energy, and material movement within and between ecosystems. Connectivity conservation Preserving or creating landscape connectivity has become increasingly recognized as a key strategy to protect biodiversity, maintain viable ecosystems and wildlife populations, and facilitate the movement and adaptation of wildlife populations in the face of climate change.Meiklejohn, K., R. Ament, and G. Tabor. (2010). Habitat corridors & landscape connectivity: clarifying the terminology. Center for Large Landscape Conservation, New York The degree to which landscapes are connected determines the overall amount of movement taking place within and between local populations. This connectivity has influences on gene flow, local adaptation, extinction risk, colonization probability, and the potential for organisms to move and adapt to climate change. With habitat loss and fragmentation increasingly deteriorating natural habitats, the sizes and isolation of the remaining habitat fragments are particularly critical to the long-term conservation of biodiversity. Thus, connectivity among these remaining fragments, as well as the characteristics of the surrounding matrix, and the permeability and structure of the habitat edges are all important for biodiversity conservation and affect the overall persistence, strength and integrity of the remaining ecological interactions.Fortuna, M., Bascompte, J. (2006). Habitat loss and the structure of plant–animal mutualistic networks. Ecology Letters, (2006) 9: 281–286 Quantifying landscape connectivity Since the definition of landscape connectivity has both a physical and a behavioural component, quantifying landscape connectivity is consequently organism-, process- and landscape-specific. According to (Wiens & Milne, 1989), the first step in the quantification process of landscape connectivity is defining the specific habitat or habitat network of the focal species, and in turn, describe the landscape elements from its point of view.Wiens, J. A. and Milne, B. T. 1989. Scaling of ‘landscapes’ in landscape ecology, or, landscape ecology from a beetle’s perspective. – Landscape Ecol. 3: 87–96. The next step is to determine the scale of the landscape structure as perceived by the organism. This is defined as the scale at which the species responds to the array of landscape elements, through its fine-scale (grain), and large-scale (extent), movement behaviours.Wiens, J. A. 1997. Metapopulation dynamics and landscape ecology. – In: Hanski, I. and Gilpin, M. E. (eds), Metapopulation biology. Academic Press, pp. 43–62 Lastly, how the species responds to the different elements of a landscape is determined. This comprises the species’ movement pattern based on behavioural reactions to the mortality risk of the landscape elements, including habitat barriers and edges  &  .
Landscape connectivity in ecology is, broadly, "the degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes movement among resource patches". Alternatively, connectivity may be a continuous property of the landscape and independent of patches and paths.Fischer, J. and D.B. Lindenmayer. 2006. Beyond fragmentation: the continuum model for fauna research and conservation in human-modified landscapes. Oikos, 112: 473–480. Connectivity includes both structural connectivity (the physical arrangements of disturbance and/or patches) and functional connectivity (the movement of individuals across contours of disturbance and/or among patches). Functional connectivity includes actual connectivity (requires observations of individual movements) and potential connectivity in which movement paths are estimated using the life-history data. The degree to which a landscape is connected determines the amount of dispersal there is among patches, which influences gene flow, local adaptation, extinction risk, colonization probability, and the potential for organisms to move as they cope with climate change.Hodgson, J.A., C.D. Thomas, B.A. Wintle, and A. Moilanen. 2009. Climate change, connectivity and conservation decision-making: back to basics. Journal of Applied Ecology, 46: 964-969.McRae, B. H., Hall, S. A., Beier, P., Theobald, D. M. 2012. Where to Restore Ecological Connectivity? Detecting Barriers and Quantifying Restoration Benefits. PLoS ONE 7:e52604. Importance Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation have become ubiquitous in both natural and human modified landscapes, resulting in detrimental consequences for local species interactions and global biodiversity.Fahrig, L. (2003). Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Biodiversity. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. Vol. 34:487-515 Human development now modifies over 50\% of the earth's landscape, leaving only patches of isolated natural or semi-natural habitats for the millions of other species we share this planet with. Loss of natural habitat and fluctuations in landscape patterns is one of the many problems in biogeography and conservation biology. Patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functions are changing worldwide resulting in a loss of connectivity and ecological integrity for the entire global ecological network. Loss of connectivity can influence individuals, populations and communities through within species, between species, and between ecosystem interactions. These interactions affect ecological mechanisms such as nutrient and energy flows, predator-prey relationships, pollination, seed dispersal, demographic rescue, inbreeding avoidance, colonization of unoccupied habitat, altered species interactions, and spread of disease,.Rudnick DA, et al. The role of landscape connectivity in planning and implementing conservation and restoration priorities. Issues Ecol. 2012;16.Ayram, C., Mendoza, M., Etter, A., Salicrup, D. (2016). Habitat connectivity in biodiversity conservation: A review of recent studies and applications. Progress in Physical Geography. Vol. 40 (1) Pg 7–37 Accordingly, landscape connectivity facilitates the movement of biotic processes such as animal movement, plant propagation, and genetic exchange, as well as abiotic processes such as water, energy, and material movement within and between ecosystems. Connectivity conservation Preserving or creating landscape connectivity has become increasingly recognized as a key strategy to protect biodiversity, maintain viable ecosystems and wildlife populations, and facilitate the movement and adaptation of wildlife populations in the face of climate change.Meiklejohn, K., R. Ament, and G. Tabor. (2010). Habitat corridors & landscape connectivity: clarifying the terminology. Center for Large Landscape Conservation, New York The degree to which landscapes are connected determines the overall amount of movement taking place within and between local populations. This connectivity has influences on gene flow, local adaptation, extinction risk, colonization probability, and the potential for organisms to move and adapt to climate change. With habitat loss and fragmentation increasingly deteriorating natural habitats, the sizes and isolation of the remaining habitat fragments are particularly critical to the long-term conservation of biodiversity. Thus, connectivity among these remaining fragments, as well as the characteristics of the surrounding matrix, and the permeability and structure of the habitat edges are all important for biodiversity conservation and affect the overall persistence, strength and integrity of the remaining ecological interactions.Fortuna, M., Bascompte, J. (2006). Habitat loss and the structure of plant–animal mutualistic networks. Ecology Letters, (2006) 9: 281–286 Quantifying landscape connectivity Since the definition of landscape connectivity has both a physical and a behavioural component, quantifying landscape connectivity is consequently organism-, process- and landscape-specific. According to (Wiens & Milne, 1989), the first step in the quantification process of landscape connectivity is defining the specific habitat or habitat network of the focal species, and in turn, describe the landscape elements from its point of view.Wiens, J. A. and Milne, B. T. 1989. Scaling of ‘landscapes’ in landscape ecology, or, landscape ecology from a beetle’s perspective. – Landscape Ecol. 3: 87–96. The next step is to determine the scale of the landscape structure as perceived by the organism. This is defined as the scale at which the species responds to the array of landscape elements, through its fine-scale (grain), and large-scale (extent), movement behaviours.Wiens, J. A. 1997. Metapopulation dynamics and landscape ecology. – In: Hanski, I. and Gilpin, M. E. (eds), Metapopulation biology. Academic Press, pp. 43–62 Lastly, how the species responds to the different elements of a landscape is determined. This comprises the species’ movement pattern based on behavioural reactions to the mortality risk of the landscape elements, including habitat barriers and edges . Landscape networks can be constructed based on the linear relationship between a species home range size and its dispersal distance. For example, small mammals will have a small range and short dispersal distances and large ones will have larger range and long dispersal distances. In short this relationship can help in scaling& constructing landscape networks based on a mammals body size .
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Functional connectivity includes actual connectivity (requires observations of individual movements) and potential connectivity in which movement paths are estimated using the life-history data.
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Loss of natural habitat and fluctuations in landscape patterns is one of the many problems in biogeography and conservation biology.
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Landscape networks can be constructed based on the linear relationship between a species home range size and its dispersal distance. For example, small mammals will have a small range and short dispersal distances and large ones will have larger range and long dispersal distances. In short this relationship can help in scaling
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constructing landscape networks based on a mammals body size