A COMPARATIVE PROCEDURE OF AQUATIC ECOLOGICAL NETWORK RESTORATION PLANS BY ANALYZING GENETIC INFORMATION AND COST DISTANCE

Abstract

The aim of this study is to propose a comparative procedure of aquatic ecological network restoration plans by analyzing genetic information and cost distance. Because ecological network restoration projects have not only benefits but also risks to biological diversity, it is very important to choose places where we restore the network path in fact. Therefore, we developed an evaluation method by analyzing genetic data and cost distance value to explore suitable network path that has high connectivity between native population patches and low connectivity from nonnative population patch. We proposed an index named cost index of ecological network (CIEN). The suitability of restoration plans can be compared by the index. We compared three virtual network plans on a small area (5*10km) covering from paddy field to Lake Kasumigaura as a case study. Our result suggests that the cost index of ecological network can show the difference between network restoration plans and that it is useful as a quantitative measure.