Final Tasks

Lesson 7 Deliverables

1. Complete the Lesson 7 quiz.
2. Complete the Lesson 7 Weekly Project activities. This includes inserting maps and graphics into your write-up along with accompanying commentary. Submit your assignment to the 'Project 7 Drop Box' provided in Lesson 7 in Canvas.

Reminder - Complete all of the Lesson 7 tasks!

You have reached the end of Lesson 7! Double-check the to-do list on the Lesson 7 Overview page to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there before you begin Lesson 8.

Additional Resources

Least-cost paths are used for more than modeling the movements of people or goods. They are frequently used in animal ecology as well.

A number of researchers have turned to least-cost paths to help in identifying potential movement corridors that should be preserved to maintain landscape connectivity and avoid negative effects on animal population numbers and density because of increasing habitat fragmentation.

A key challenge in this type of modelling lies in defining the habitat and animal species characteristics that can inform the cost weights that describe how the animal moves through the landscape.

If these applications are of interest to you, the two papers below are worth looking at:

LaPoint, S., Gallery, P., Wikelski, M., & Kays, R. (2013). Animal behavior, cost-based corridor models, and real corridors. Landscape Ecology, 28(8), 1615-1630.

Belote, R.T., Dietz, M.S., McRae, B.H., Theobald, D.M., McClure, M.L., Irwin, G.H., McKinley, P.S., Gage, J.A. and Aplet, G.H., 2016. Identifying corridors among large protected areas in the United States. PLoS One, 11(4), p.e0154223.