Importance Of Patches To Maintain Forest Landscape Connectivity: A Case Study of Barluk, Xinjiang, China

Landscape connectivity exerts a significant influence on ecosystem functioning, and is essential for the maintenance of ecosystem integrity, sustainability and stability. The importance of forest landscape connectivity as a key objective in forest landscape management and ecological conservation research is widely recognized. This study examines the Barluk in Xinjiang as a case study. Based on landscape connectivity theory and simulation forest loss scenario, we employed graph theory to assess forest connectivity at various dispersal distances and to identify critical patches essential for maintaining landscape connectivity. Our findings revealed that the forest landscape in Barluk is predominantly composed of a considerable number (62 % of the total area) of small patches (<1 hm2) and a relatively limited number (7 % of the total area)of large patches (>10 hm2). By evaluating the significance of individual patches, we found that large patches are critical for maintaining forest connectivity and should therefore be prioritized for conservation. The simulation results show that small patches also contribute to maintaining the connectivity of the forest landscape. And by calculating the delta number of components (dNC), we found that not all patches contribute to maintaining forest landscape connectivity, and further found that small patches within large patches act as "stepping stones" (with dNC < 0 and area < 1 hm2) to maintain forest landscape connectivity. Therefore, effective identification of important patches is essential to maintain the connectivity of the landscape, which not only helps to enhance the functioning of forest ecosystems, but also helps to protect dispersed ecosystems.