"Ancho óptimo de las rutas de conectividad biológica, en el subcorredor Barbilla-Destierro, Zona Central-Caribe De Costa Rica."

Abstract

This study was conducted in the province of Limon and Cartago, Costa Rica, where the Subcorredor Biological Chin-Exile (SCBD) is located. The overall objective was to determine the main routes suitable for displacement of wildlife in the SCBD wide. Analysis of spatial data with ArcGIS 10.1 software was used for the material and methods, the current coverage of the site was verified by a matrix validation. Physical environmental variables for creating a resistance layer for modeling cost routes to connectivity between protected areas were weighted. The main route connectivity was performed an analysis of the structural connectivity of natural hedges, through evaluation of landscape metrics for three different widths of 250, 500 and 1000 m. The validation matrix showed a 70% concordance between field data and theoretical, with an error of 72%. 14 routes of different cost connectivity were obtained, showing marked variations in their distribution. It was concluded that the width of 500 m showed the best average values regarding diversity, distance to the nearest neighbor, number of patches, mean patch size related to the total area evaluated for everyone of the widths.