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Simple Summary: Understanding the ecological processes involved in establishing a metacommunity, a collection of small communities linked by species dispersal, could help with biodiversity conservation. In this work, we examine how local community connectivity affects the distributional patterns of various bird species across metacommunities in the strikingly different Altai landscapes. We discovered that connectivity was most important for determining community composition in metacommunities. High beta diversity and a high turnover component in the research region showed that regional-scale conservation efforts should consider overall biodiversity. Although they are not part of the Altai-Sayan biodiversity ecoregion, the riparian and desert landscapes are essential to the birds that reside in the mountain ranges and should be regarded as integral parts of the ecoregion, and high connectivity stepping-stone habitats in these landscapes should be protected. Located on the southwest slope and plain areas of the Altai Mountains in China, this study aims to explore bird composition variation (beta diversity) in mountain landscape (metacommunity M), riparian landscape (metacommunity R), desert landscape (metacommunity D) and across the three landscapes (metacommunity A), and to assess how patch connectivity with environmental and spatial factors influence species distributional patterns across multiple metacommunities. In 78 transect lines over the study area, 9724 detections of 139 bird species were detected. We calculated the beta diversity, its turnover and nestedness components in four metacommunities. We used the variation partitioning method to investigate the relative importance between the environment, spatial variation and locality connectivity in driving bird community composition variation. We found high beta diversities with a small contribution of nestedness components in all four metacommunities. When only a single set of predictors is contained in the model, the predictor that best explains the variation of bird community composition is connectivity in metacommunity M, R and D and spatial predictor in metacommunity A. In all three sets of predictors, 73.8~85.4% of variations of community composition can be explained in the four metacommunities, and connectivity always contributed the most. High beta diversity and a high turnover component imply that regional-scale conservation efforts should be thought of as preserving overall biodiversity. A conservation strategy is to keep stepping-stone habitats with good connectivity in the middle of the riparian landscape. Along with the Altai-Sayan biodiversity ecoregion, the desert and riparian environments are essential for birds residing in the mountainous terrain. Furthermore, they should be regarded as integral parts of the ecoregion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Habitat fragmentation, associated with human population expansion, impedes dispersal, reduces gene flow and aggravates inbreeding in species on the brink of extinction. Both scientific and conservation communities increasingly realize that maintaining and restoring landscape connectivity is of vital importance in biodiversity conservation. Prior to any conservation initiatives, it is helpful to present conservation practitioners with a spatially explicit model of functional connectivity for the target species or landscape. Methodology/Principal Findings:Using Przewalski’s gazelle (Procapra przewalskii) as a model of endangered ungulate species in highly fragmented landscape, we present a model providing spatially explicit information to inform the long-term preservation of well-connected metapopulations. We employed a Geographic Information System (GIS) and expert-literature method to create a habitat suitability map, to identify potential habitats and to delineate a functional connectivity network (least-cost movement corridors and paths) for the gazelle. Results indicated that there were limited suitable habitats for the gazelle, mainly found to the north and northwest of the Qinghai Lake where four of five potential habitat patches were identified. Fifteen pairs of least-cost corridors and paths were mapped connecting eleven extant populations and two neighboring potential patches. The least-cost paths ranged from 0.2 km to 26.8 km in length (averaging 12.4 km) and were all longer than corresponding Euclidean distances. Conclusions/Significance:The model outputs were validated and supported by the latest findings in landscape genetics of the species, and may provide impetus for connectivity conservation programs. Dispersal barriers were examined and appropriate mitigation strategies were suggested. This study provides conservation practitioners with thorough and visualized information to reserve the landscape connectivity for Przewalski’s gazelle. In a general sense, we proposed a heuristic framework for species with similar biological and ecological characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]