CriticaL

The intensifying anthropogenic appropriation of finite resource land is driving habitat fragmentation and biodiversity declines worldwide (Foley et al. 2005, IPCC 2019, WBGU 2021, Seto and Reenberg, 2014). Ecological permeability of a landscape is defined as the unimpeded movement of wildlife (CMS/UNEP 2020), which is crucial for maintaining natural processes, mitigating biodiversity loss, and enhancing overall ecological connectivity. However, urban settlements and other human-made structures, such as roads and fences, disrupt the movement of wildlife. In addition to the increasing fragmentation caused by sprawling urban growth, the expansion of solar and wind power systems as additional anthropogenic structures may further reduce the ecological permeability of landscapes and exacerbate land-use conflicts (Rehbein et al. 2020).

The goal of our project is to gain a deeper understanding of how the spatial configuration of settlements, solar power installations, and wind power systems impact animal movement. Methodologically, our research is grounded in percolation theory, which describes the phase transition of a system from a percolating to a non-percolating state (Stauffer and Aharony, 2014). Anthropogenic structures, such as buildings, tend to cluster in space, and percolation theory can be used to define a critical threshold at which numerous small settlement clusters coalesce into a single large cluster. Our hypothesis is that large clusters of anthropogenic objects impede the movement of wildlife, thereby reducing the ecological permeability of landscapes.

We are investigating this relationship in close collaboration with experts in animal movement from the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F). Our research spans a global scale, examining the permeability of landscapes for a wide range of species. Additionally, we are conducting a national study focused on the expanding wolf population, which is recolonizing areas in Europe after near extinction on the continent.