Transporting Biodiversity Using Transmission Power Lines as Stepping-Stones?

The most common ecological response to climate change is the shifts in species distribution ranges. Nevertheless, landscape fragmentation compromises the ability of limited dispersal species to move following these climate changes. Building connected environments that enable species to track climate changes is an ultimate goal for biodiversity conservation. Here, we conducted an experiment to determine if electric power transmission lines could be transformed in a continental network of biodiversity reserves for small animals. We analysed if the management of the habitat located inside the base of the transmission electric towers (providing refuge and planting seedlings of native shrub) allowed to increase local richness of target species (i.e., small mammals and some invertebrates' groups). Our results confirmed that by modifying the base of the electric transmission towers we were able to increase density and diversity of several species of invertebrates and small mammals as well as number of birds and bird species, increasing local biodiversity. We suggest that modifying the base of the electric towers would potentially facilitate the connection of fragmented populations. This idea would be easily applicable in any transmission line network anywhere around the world, making it possible for the first time to build up continental scale networks of connectivity.