Connectivity is defined by the flux of organisms across habitat patches and underpins ecological functions. Understanding the key hubs and pathways linking patches is critical to quantifying marine functional connectivity and implementing effective resource management. Importantly, humans have disrupted natural connectivity. Climate change, habitat fragmentation and spatially explicit stressors, such as shipping and fisheries, can reduce flows, but they can also modify pathways and create new ones, promoting the spread of invasive species.
This session calls for studies assessing the role of critical habitats and pathways, physical structures, animal movement, individual behavior etc. on supporting and/or modifying connectivity, and how such knowledge can inform actions to preserve and manage it.
