[ South Carolina ] Conservation corridors are a boon for plant diversity, according to a new study that researchers say proves a widely practiced but still controversial theory. Proof that the networks help preserve multiple plants and animals at large scales has remained elusive until now. A team of scientists led by Ellen Damschen, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, carved up a vast swath of a South Carolina pine forest into six 5,382-square- foot (500-square- meter) experimental plots. Over five years open patches of habitat that were connected to other patches via narrow corridors grew about 20 percent more plant species in each plot than isolated patches did.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org