Fig 1.
The area (in blue) is in north-central Victoria, Australia.
Fig 2.
Land cover classes and major towns within the study area.
Different land cover classes are shown by shading (see Table 1 for details). Continuous forest cover is shown in dark green.
Table 1.
Resistance scores for each species for each land-cover class in the study area.
Scores are the average of the values assigned by the experts. A higher score indicates greater resistance to the movement of a species through that land-cover class. Land cover classes include (1) Dryland pasture; (2) Dense forest cover; (3) Woodland and open forest; (4) Open woodland (which was split into 41 Open woodland–open woodland with numerous gaps and 42 Open woodland–where canopy vegetation is relatively continuous); (5) Temperate grassland and chenopod shrubland; (6) Urban–suburbs; (8) Irrigated crops, pasture and horticulture; (9) Plantation forestry; (10) Waterbodies and wetlands; and (11) Dry-land cropping.
Fig 3.
Least-cost paths identified for two species with two types of resistance surface.
Left panel: from resistance surfaces based on species distribution models; Right panel: from resistance surfaces based on expert assigned scores; Top panel: for brush-tailed phascogale; Bottom panel: for buff-rumped thornbill. Habitat patches are shown in green, and least-cost paths are shown with blue lines.
Fig 4.
Composite regional connectivity map using resistance surfaces based on species distribution models.
It is based on the combined results across all 12 study species. Favoured pathways are shown by darker blue shading, and existing wooded vegetation is in green.
Fig 5.
Composite regional connectivity map using resistance surfaces based on expert-assigned scores for land-cover classes.
It is based on the combined results across all 12 study species. Favoured pathways are shown by darker blue shading, and existing wooded vegetation is in green.