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Boosting large-scale river connectivity restoration by planning for the presence of unrecorded barriers

Ioannidou, Christina T., Neeson, Thomas M., O'Hanley, Jesse R. (2023) Boosting large-scale river connectivity restoration by planning for the presence of unrecorded barriers. Conservation Biology, 37 (3). Article Number e14093. ISSN 0888-8892. E-ISSN 1523-1739. (doi:10.1111/cobi.14093) (KAR id:98797)

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Abstract

Conservation decisions are invariably made with incomplete data on species’ distributions, habitats, and threats, but frameworks for allocating conservation investments rarely account for missing data. In this study, we examined how explicit consideration of missing data can boost return on investment in ecosystem restoration, focusing on the challenge of restoring aquatic ecosystem connectivity by removing dams and road crossings from rivers. A novel way of integrating the presence of unmapped barriers into a barrier optimization model was developed and applied to the U.S. state of Maine to maximize expected habitat gain for migratory fish. Failing to account for unmapped barriers during prioritization led to nearly 50% lower habitat gain than would was anticipated using a conventional barrier optimization approach. Explicitly acknowledging that data are incomplete during project selection, however, boosted expected habitat gains by 20-273% on average, depending on the true number of unmapped barriers. Importantly, these gains occurred without any additional data. Simply acknowledging that some barriers are unmapped, regardless of their precise number and location, improved conservation outcomes. Given incomplete data on ecosystems worldwide, our results demonstrate the value of accounting for data shortcomings during project selection.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/cobi.14093
Additional information: For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence (where permitted by UKRI, an Open Government Licence or CC BY ND public copyright licence may be used instead) to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.
Uncontrolled keywords: Habitat restoration; river connectivity; missing data; hidden barriers; optimization
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Analytics, Operations and Systems
Funders: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (https://ror.org/0439y7842)
Depositing User: Jesse O'Hanley
Date Deposited: 06 Dec 2022 12:45 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Jan 2024 05:06 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/98797 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Ioannidou, Christina T..

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O'Hanley, Jesse R..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3522-8585
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