Ecological Security Pattern Construction Integrating "Connectivity-Importance-Niche" Approach Under Vertical Zonation: A Case Study in Funiu Mountain Area, China.

With habitat fragmentation causing the isolation of species populations, the construction of ecological security pattern (ESP) has become a vital approach to safeguarding biodiversity. While identifying ecological sources is considered a key step in ESP construction, existing studies often lack an integrated assessment of ecological sources and overlook the influence of vertical zonation on mountainous ESP. Therefore, this study aims to construct three types of ecological security patterns in the Funiu Mountain region: one based on connectivity, one based on ecological importance, and a third that integrates these with niche suitability, in order to examine how vertical zonation influences their spatial configuration and network performance. The results showed that the spatial distribution of ecological sources, corridors and nodes in ESP3 was superior to that in ESP1 and ESP2. ESP3 contained 13 ecological sources (5932 km2), 53 corridors (3308 km) and 48 nodes. The area of ecological sources and the length of ecological corridors in EPS3 were distributed in unimodal peaks at 800-1200 m, with optimal network connectivity (α = 0.6977, β = 2.2083, γ = 0.8030) and a slight improvement in cost ratio (0.9838). The findings provided a scientific basis for enhancing the conservation and sustainable development of mountain ecosystems from a vertical zonation perspective.