Habitat fragmentation and amphibian conservation: building a tool for assessing landscape matrix connectivity

We have attempted modelling biological connectivity for a toad population in a floodplain in the combined framework of population dynamics and landscape ecology. We took advantage of the GIS package for establishing friction maps for the focal species by attributing to each habitat type a resistance index. This approach made it possible to draw migration zones around each pond the area and the shape of which depended on landscape structure. We included mortality from road traffic by assigning a virtual population to each pond. The resulting map shows the potentiality of such an approach in the assistance of landscape management. (C) 2003 Academic des sciences. Published by Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.