Habitat modification alters species' capacities to track shifting climatic conditions. Broad-scale analyses that explore demographical responses to on-going climate change tend to neglect the influence of the underlying landscape pattern. However, many landscapes are fragmented by human activities, which might make dispersal for many species more challenging. Determining the extent to which landscape factors affect broad-scale distributional patterns has implications for our ability to predict realistic climate change impacts on species. Here, we constructed species-specific measurements of landscape permeability for 96 butterfly species in southern Ontario to test whether this landscape characteristic affected species' distributions at macroecological scales. We used multiple logistic regression models to test for the effects of permeability and its interaction with temperature on butterfly species presence/absence. We found that 48% of butterfly species responded to landscape permeability alone or in interaction with temperature. In general, the effect was positive (87%) and species were more likely to be present with increasing landscape permeability. For 61% of the species that responded to broad-scale landscape permeability, the interaction of temperature with permeability was statistically significant. In warm areas, species were more likely to be present if landscape permeability was high. Landscape permeability explained 3-43% of residual variability in species' presences after accounting for temperature. Finally, we show how fine-scale permeability measurements can be combined with large-scale patterns of diversity to inform conservation efforts. Landscape permeability can affect species' distributions at broad-scales and understanding factors that potentially influence species' dispersal can improve predictions for how species respond to changing climatic conditions.

Landscape permeability is currently significantly decreasing mainly due to anthropogenic barriers - transportation infrastructure and sub/urban development. The construction of these barriers has various environmental impacts on animals that differ among taxa. Ensuring a certain degree of permeability of the landscape is crucial for the survival of many species of organisms. Effective tools for the planning protection and restoration of the permeability of the landscape are series of models, whose theoretical framework and practical use are described in this thesis. The practical part deals with the modeling of changes in landscape permeability in the southern hinterlands of Prague. The effectiveness of the implemeted mitigation measures is also evaluated. Keywords: landscape fragmentation, landscape permeability, ecoducts, mitigation measures, suburbanization