Using animal movement behavior to categorize land cover and predict consequences for connectivity and patch residence times

Context Landscape-scale population dynamics are driven in part by movement within and dispersal among habitat patches. Predicting these processes requires information about how movement behavior varies among land cover types. Objectives We investigated how butterfly movement in a heterogeneous landscape varies within and between habitat and matrix land cover types, and the implications of these differences for within-patch residence times and among-patch connectivity. Methods We empirically measured movement behavior in the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly ( Euphydryas phaeton ) in three land cover classes that broadly constitute habitat and two classes that constitute matrix. We also measured habitat preference at boundaries. We predicted patch residence times and interpatch dispersal using movement parameters estimated separately for each habitat and matrix land cover subclass (5 categories), or for combined habitat and combined matrix land cover classes (2 categories). We evaluated the effects of including edge behavior on all metrics. Results Overall, movement was slower within habitat land cover types, and faster in matrix cover types. Butterflies at forest edges were biased to remain in open areas, and connectivity and patch residence times were most affected by behavior at structural edges. Differences in movement between matrix subclasses had a greater effect on predictions about connectivity than differences between habitat subclasses. Differences in movement among habitat subclasses had a greater effect on residence times. Conclusions Our findings highlight the importance of careful classification of movement and land cover in heterogeneous landscapes, and reveal how subtle differences in behavioral responses to land cover can affect landscape-scale outcomes.