Habitat Fragmentation Assessment And Habitat Corridor Construction Of Black Muntjac In Qianjiangyuan National Park

Black muntjac(Muntiacus crinifrons),commonly known as red headed muntjac and shaggy headed muntjac,is a class I key protected animal in China.Due to climate change and human activities,its habitat was fragmented,which threatened the survival of black muntjac population.In order to effectively protect the black muntjac population and its habitat,Qianjiangyuan National Park was selected as the research area.Based on the field survey of the habitat in the study area,combined with the remote sensing image,infrared camera black muntjac monitoring data,Kaihua County forest resources survey data and other data,the Landscape pattern index,landscape connectivity index and MaxEnt model were used to evaluate the status of habitat fragmentation of black muntjac,then the potential habitat corridor of black muntjac was identified by minimum cumulative resistance model(MCR)and Linkage Mapper corridor design model.At the same time,through the calculation and analysis of landscape connectivity index to evaluate the effectiveness of corridor construction.The main results are as follows:(1)The fragmentation analysis of habitat structure using landscape pattern index method showed that the dominant habitat landscape in the study area was composed of suitable forest landscape and other forest landscape,which accounted for 88.2%of the total area of the study area,and had absolute advantages in area and quantity.Forest landscape,especially suitable forest landscape,was mainly distributed in large patches,while other non forest landscapes were mainly scattered in small patches,which greatly affected the fragmentation of black muntjac habitat.Each habitat landscape type in the study area had a more complex patch shape,low patch connectivity and discrete patch distribution,showing a certain degree of fragmentation.Compared with the active area of black muntjac,the patches of various habitats in the inactive area of black muntjac were more complex in shape,smaller in aggregation degree,more discrete in distribution state,lower in connection degree,greater in edge density,and more unbalanced in patch area and quantity,indicating that the fragmentation degree of each habitat landscape type in the inactive area of black muntjac was higher than that in the active area.(2)MaxEnt model and landscape connectivity index were used to evaluate the habitat fragmentation of black muntjac.The results showed that the suitable habitat area of black muntjac was 44.78km~2,accounting for only 17.8%of the whole study area,and the distance from broad-leaved forest was the most important environmental factor affecting the habitat selection of black muntjac.The landscape connectivity index of suitable habitat patches in black muntjac active area was slightly higher than that in inactive area,indicating that the degree of functional fragmentation of habitat in inactive area was higher than that in active area.The fragmentation of forest landscape(especially the fragmentation of broad-leaved forest)was the main reason of habitat function fragmentation of black muntjac in the study area.(3)The construction and evaluation of potential habitat corridor of black muntjac showed that there were four habitat‘source'patches in the study area,and three potential habitat corridors of black muntjac were identified,which were mainly located in Liyangtian village,Tianfan village,Kukeng village and Xiachuan village.The total length of the corridor was 12.70km,and the minimum width of the corridor was set as 766m of the diameter of the minimum family area of black muntjac.The landscape connectivity index values of the suitable habitat key areas were higher than those of the suitable habitat key areas before the construction of the corridor.It showed that the construction of the corridor could improve the connectivity between the habitat patches,reduce the fragmentation of the habitat of black muntjac,protect the population and habitat of black muntjac.