Linkage Mapper is widely used and has a large community of practice. There are over 1,900 Linkage Mapper publications in Google Scholar (here), and over 300 publications that cite the original Linkage Mapper publication (McRae and Kavenaugh, 2011). Those are here.

We have compiled some of the most important references for understanding the software, best practices for use, and good illustrative case studies. Additionally, we have an embedded Zotero database coming soon, and are gathering links to grey literature. If you want to make sure your project is in this database, please send us a citation and/or link.

Key References

Belote, R. Travis, Matthew S. Dietz, Brad H. McRae, David M. Theobald, Meredith L. McClure, G. Hugh Irwin, Peter S. McKinley, Josh A. Gage, and Gregory H. Aplet. 2016. “Identifying Corridors among Large Protected Areas in the United States.” PloS One 11 (4): e0154223.

Bhattacharya, Malyasri, Debanjan Sarkar, Sneha Pandey, Indranil Mondal, Sambandam Sathyakumar, R. Suresh Kumar, and Gautam Talukdar. 2025. “Identifying Corridors for Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus Thibetanus) in a Part of Eastern Himalayas, India.” Frontiers in Conservation Science 6 (February): 1470223.

Castilho CS, Hackbart VCS, Pivello VR, dos Santos RF. 2015. Evaluating Landscape Connectivity for Puma concolor and Panthera onca Among Atlantic Forest Protected Areas. Environmental management 55:1377–1389. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0463-7

Dutta, Trishna, Sandeep Sharma, Ninon F. V. Meyer, Jeremy Larroque, and Niko Balkenhol. 2022. “An Overview of Computational Tools for Preparing, Constructing and Using Resistance Surfaces in Connectivity Research.” Landscape Ecology 37 (9): 2195–2224.

Dutta T, Sharma S, McRae BH, Roy PS, DeFries R. 2015. Connecting the dots: mapping habitat connectivity for tigers in central India. Regional Environmental Change 16:53–67. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Gallo, John A., Erin C. Butts, Thomas A. Miewald, and Kai A. Foster. 2019. “Comparing and Combining Omniscape and Linkage Mapper Connectivity Analyses in Western Washington.” Conservation Biology Institute. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.8120924.

Gallo JA, Greene R. 2018. Connectivity Analysis Software for Estimating Linkage Priority. Conservation Biology Institute, Corvallis, OR. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5673715

Gallo, J.A. 2019. Video: Software for prioritizing habitat linkages based on climate gradients, climate analogs, or a balanced blend. In Symposium: Meeting global connectivity targets. International Congress of Conservation Biology. Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. July 25. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9161864

Gallo, JA, J. Strittholt, G. Joseph, H. Rustigian-Romsos, R. Degagne, J. Brice, and A. Prisbrey.2019. Mapping Habitat Connectivity Priority Areas that are Climate-wise and Multi-scale,for Three Regions of California. Conservation Biology Institute. March. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7477532

Jones, A. 2015. Mapping Habitat Connectivity for Greater Sage-Grouse in Oregon’s Sage-Grouse Conservation Partnership (SageCon) Assessment Area. Produced by The Nature Conservancy (Portland OR) in partial fulfillment of BLM Cooperative Agreement L12AC20615

Kavanagh DM, Nuñez TA, McRae BH. 2012. Climate linkage mapper connectivity analysis software. The Nature Conservancy, Seattle WA. Available from http://linkagemapper.org.

Littlefield CE, McRae BH, Michalak JL, Lawler JJ, Carroll C. 2017. Connecting today’s climates to future climate analogs to facilitate movement of species under climate change. Conservation Biology: the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology 31:1397–1408.

Keeley, Annika T. H., Paul Beier, and Jeffrey W. Gagnon. 2016. “Estimating Landscape Resistance from Habitat Suitability: Effects of Data Source and Nonlinearities.” Landscape Ecology 31 (9): 2151–62.

McRae BH. 2012a. Pinchpoint Mapper Connectivity Analysis Software. The Nature Conservancy, Seattle, WA. Available from https://linkagemapper.org [Note: the user guide is in the software zip file from the downloads page.]

McRae BH. 2012b. Centrality Mapper Connectivity Analysis Software. The Nature Conservancy, Seattle WA. Available from https://linkagemapper.org [Note: the user guide is in the software zip file.]

McRae BH. 2012c. Barrier Mapper Connectivity Analysis Software. The Nature Conservancy, Seattle, WA. Available from https://linkagemapper.org [Note: the user guide is in the software zip file.]

McRae BH, Dickson BG, Keitt TH, Shah VB. 2008. Using circuit theory to model connectivity in ecology, evolution, and conservation. Ecology 89:2712–2724.

McRae BH, Hall SA, Beier P, Theobald DM. 2012. Where to restore ecological connectivity? Detecting barriers and quantifying restoration benefits. PloS one 7:e52604. journals.plos.org.

McRae BH, Kavanagh DM. 2011. Linkage Mapper Connectivity Analysis Software. The Nature Conservancy, Seattle, WA. Available from https://linkagemapper.org. [Note: the user guide is in the software zip file.]

McRae B, Shah V. 2009. Circuitscape User Guide. University of California, Santa Barbara. Available from: https://www.circuitscape.org

Nuñez TA, Lawler JJ, McRae BH, Pierce DJ, Krosby MB, Kavanagh DM, Singleton PH, Tewksbury JJ. 2013. Connectivity planning to address climate change. Conservation Biology: the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology 27:407–416. Wiley Online Library.

Wade, Alisa A., Kevin S. McKelvey, and Michael K. Schwartz. 2015. “Resistance-Surface-Based Wildlife Conservation Connectivity Modeling: Summary of Efforts in the United States and Guide for Practitioners.” General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-333. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO. http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr333.pdf.