Habitat Quality and Quantity: Features and Metrics

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Habitat quality and quantity play a vital role in maintaining ecosystems and populations of target species, and a deep understanding of features and metrics within the landscape is required to determine them. This chapter reviews the complexities involved in the assessment of these features and metrics to support evidence-based conservation strategies and long-term ecosystem sustainability. Evaluating habitat quality is related to structural diversity, management, natural disturbance legacy, and species richness and diversity as well as the presence of indicator or umbrella species. Generally, complex stand structures and the abundance of veteran trees and deadwood indicate ecosystems with higher levels of overall biodiversity and stability. The non-linear relationship between population viability and habitat size emphasizes the need for landscape-level management. Viability decreases significantly when the ecological capacity for a minimum viable population is exceeded, and recognizing this tipping point is therefore crucial for evidence-based conservation. This means that habitat size assessed as a single variable is insufficient to determine habitat quality, and a wider range of metrics like structural diversity and connectivity should be considered in population management at the landscape level.