Seasonality in functional connectivity: A case study with the American marten in Forillon National Park

<p>Protected areas are essential tools for reducing global biodiversity loss. To fulfill their ecological functions, protected areas must be connected to their surroundings, a requirement that is difficult to meet in landscapes intensively disturbed by anthropogenic activities. Therefore, protecting movement corridors at the edges of protected areas is crucial, especially for species with broad habitat needs, such as the American marten (<em>Martes americana</em>). However, habitat selection and space use patterns are dynamic processes, so we could expect that functional connectivity would vary temporally in response to changing environmental conditions and levels of human activities. In this study, we aimed to predict the location of movement corridors for the American marten in Forillon National Park and its periphery during two contrasted periods (snow-free: May–November; snow-covered: December–April). We used "seasonal" resource selection functions to identify core areas (interpreted as circuit "nodes") and CircuitScape to delineate movement corridors between them based on the electrical circuit theory. Habitat selection patterns differed between periods, with martens avoiding open areas, high elevations, and road proximity during the snow-free period, while avoiding areas closer to secondary roads but selecting areas closer to primary roads and housing structures during the snow-covered period. Consequently, the location of movement corridors differed partially between periods; functional connectivity was favored by the presence of forest patches for both periods, while being constrained by open environments, especially during the snow-free period. Our study highlights the importance of modeling functional connectivity at fine temporal scales to provide movement corridors that fulfill the requirements of a species at each period of its annual cycle.</p>