As a typical metapopulation species, the individual local populations of the Marsh Fritillary are connected through occasional exchanges of individuals. This leads to dynamics of colonization and extinction events between different habitat patches. The more isolated the local populations are, the more vulnerable they are to extinction events.

The key to the persistence of these populations lies in how well they are connected across the landscape matrix—i.e., the surrounding non-habitat areas with their respective spatial resistances between occupied patches. To better assess the status of the Marsh Fritillary metapopulation and to guide the selection of restoration areas, we have determined the Functional Connectivity of all studied patches.

For this purpose, different land types (e.g., habitat, other grasslands, forests, buildings) were assigned spatial resistances. Easily traversable areas, such as grasslands, were given low resistance values, while difficult obstacles (e.g., forests) were assigned high resistance values.

By calculating the cost distance between two habitat patches—i.e., the effort required to move from one patch through the landscape matrix to another—we can now evaluate how well our study areas are connected to surrounding occupied habitat patches. This data provides insight into the connectivity of our study sites and helps inform conservation strategies for maintaining and improving metapopulation dynamics.