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549 results for “use of habitat”
Continental-scale shift in foraging habitat use by a highly nomadic species following Australia’s Black Summer megafires
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Data and code from: Thermal niche and habitat use by co-occurring lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and brook trout (S. fontinalis) in stratified lakes
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Data from: Differential habitat use and recruitment facilitate coexistence in a community with intraguild predation
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Modelling Avian Habitat Suitability in Boreal Forest using Structural and Spectral Remote Sensing Data
<p>Data used in research regarding avian habitat suitability models in Harry's River Watershed in Newfoundland, Canada</p>
Figure 2 in Habitat use and diet of the endemic lizard Ameivula nigrigula (Squamata: Teiidae) in Caatinga domainı Northeastern Brazil
Figure 2. Frequency of microhabitat use by Ameivula nigrigula in dune fields in the lower-mid São Francisco River valley at Santo Inácio, Gentio do Ouro, Bahia, Brazil. BS = On bare sand; HERB = Under herbaceous vegetation; SUS = On sand under shrubs; and LLS = On leaf litter under shrubs.
Data from: Can patterns of habitat use by western Nearctic-Neotropical migratory landbirds in winter inform conservation priorities?
<p>ABSTRACT—I use point-count survey data collected from 171 locations across 11 vegetation conditions in western Mexico to illustrate common patterns of winter habitat use by 97 Nearctic-Neotropical migratory landbird species. A number of bird species are relatively restricted in their habitat use, with some [e.g., Northern Waterthrush (<i>Parkesia noveboracensis</i>), American Redstart (<i>Setophaga ruticilla</i>)] occurring only in relatively undisturbed habitats, and others [e.g., Say's Phoebe (<i>Sayornis saya</i>), Horned Lark (<i>Eremophila alpestris</i>)] occurring only in relatively disturbed lands associated with agriculture. A large number of bird species [e.g., Cassin's Vireo (<i>Vireo cassinii</i>), MacGillivray's Warbler (<i>Geothlypis tolmiei</i>)] use every one of the vegetation types considered, from low-elevation tropical deciduous forests to high-elevation conifer forests. Bird species showing patterns of restricted habitat use deserve conservation attention, but so might more broadly distributed species that become significantly less abundant in human-altered habitats. Identifying the latter will require the inclusion of a wider spectrum of altered vegetation types/conditions than what I included here, or than what is typically considered in wildlife-habitat relationship programs.</p>
Data from: Mapping Tasmania's cultural landscapes: using habitat suitability modelling of archaeological sites as a landscape history tool
Aim: Understanding past distributions of people across the landscape is key to understanding how people used, affected and related to the natural environment. Here we use habitat suitability modelling to represent the landscape distribution of Tasmanian Aboriginal archaeological sites and assess the implications for patterns of past human activity. Location: Tasmania, Australia Methods: We developed a RandomForest 'habitat suitability' model of site records in the Tasmanian Aboriginal Heritage Register. We applied a best-effort bias correction, considered 31 predictor variables relating to climate, topography and resource proximity, and used a variable selection procedure to optimise the final model. Model uncertainty was assessed via bootstrapping and we ran an analogous MAXENT model as a cross-validation exercise. Results: The results from the RandomForest and MAXENT models are highly congruent. The strongest environmental predictors of site occurrence include distance to coast, elevation, soil clay content, topographic roughness and distance to inland water. The highest habitat suitability scores are distributed across a wide range of environments in central, northern and eastern Tasmania, including coastal areas, inland water body margins, and forests and savannas in the drier parts of Tasmania. With the exception of coastal areas much of western Tasmania has low habitat suitability scores, consistent with theories of low-density Holocene Tasmanian Aboriginal settlement in this region. Main conclusions: Our modelling suggests Tasmanian Aboriginal people occupied a heterogeneity of habitats but targeted coastal areas around the whole island, and drier, less steep, and/or open forest and savanna environments in the central lowlands. The western interior was identified as being rarely used by Aboriginal people in the Holocene, with the exception of isolated pockets of habitat; yet whether this is a true reflection of Aboriginal resource use demands increased archaeological surveys, particularly in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
The type of leg lost affects habitat use but not survival in a non-regenerating arthropod
<p>Finding shelter and surviving encounters with predators are pervasive challenges for animals. These challenges may be exacerbated after individuals experience bodily damage. Certain forms of damage arise voluntarily in animals, for instance, some taxa release appendages (tails, legs, or other body parts) as a defensive strategy ('autotomy'). This behavior, however, may pose long-term negative consequences for habitat use and survival. Additionally, these putative consequences are expected to vary according to the function of the lost body part. We tested the effects of losing different functional leg types (locomotor or sensory) on future habitat use and survival in a Neotropical species of Prionostemma harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones) that undergo frequent autotomy but do not regrow limbs. Daytime surveys revealed that both eight-legged harvestmen and harvestmen missing legs roosted in similar frequencies across habitats (tree bark, mossy tree, or fern), and perched at similar heights. Mark-recapture data showed that harvestmen that lost sensory legs roosted in tree bark less frequently, but on mossy trees more frequently. On the contrary, we did not observe changes in habitat use for eight-legged animals or animals that lost locomotor legs. This change might be related to sensory exploration and navigation. Lastly, we found that recapture rates across substrates were not affected by the type of legs lost, suggesting that leg loss does not impact survival. This potential lack of effect might play a role in why a defensive strategy like autotomy is so prevalent in harvestmen despite the lack of regeneration.</p>
Technical note: Estimating light-use efficiency of benthic habitats using underwater O2 eddy covariance
<p>This datafile contains all data required to recreate figures presented in Attard KM & Glud RN (2020) Technical Note: Estimating light-use efficiency of benthic habitats using underwater O2 eddy covariance. Biogeosciences https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2020-140 </p> <p>Paper abstract</p> <p>Light-use efficiency defines the ability of primary producers to convert sunlight energy to primary production and is computed as the ratio between the gross primary production and the intercepted photosynthetic active radiation. While this measure has been applied broadly within the atmospheric sciences to investigate resource-use efficiency in terrestrial habitats, it remains underused within the aquatic realm. This report provides a conceptual framework to compute hourly and daily light-use efficiency using underwater O<sub>2</sub> eddy covariance, a recent technological development that produces habitat-scale rates of primary production under unaltered in situ conditions. The analysis, tested on two benthic flux datasets, documents that hourly light-use efficiency may approach the maximum theoretical limit of 0.125 O<sub>2</sub> photon<sup>-1</sup> under low light conditions but it decreases rapidly towards the middle of the day and is typically tenfold lower on a 24 h basis. Overall, light-use efficiency provides a useful measure of habitat functioning and facilitates site comparison in time and space.</p>
Data from: Does vegetation change over 28 years affect habitat use and reproductive success?
<p>Individuals should prefer and use habitats that confer high fitness, but habitat use is not always adaptive. Vegetation in natural landscapes changes gradually and the ability of species to adaptively adjust their habitat use to long-term changes is largely unstudied. We studied nest patch and territory use over 28 years in Orange-crowned Warblers (Oreothlypis celata) in a system that has undergone natural long-term changes in vegetation. Abundance of maple (Acer grandidentatum), its preferred nesting habitat, has gradually declined from 1987 to 2015. We examined whether habitat use and its fitness consequences changed as the availability of preferred habitat decreased. We used resource selection function models to determine changes over time in the probability of using a nest patch given available patches, and the probability of using a territory given available territories. We estimated nest survival to evaluate changes over time in the fitness consequences of nest patch use. We also compared habitat use (nest patch and territory) and fitness (nest survival) between areas with naturally reduced abundance of maple and experimentally increased abundance of maple (fenced areas). Nest patch use depended on maple abundance and did not change drastically across 28 years, even though the availability of preferred maple patches decreased over time. In contrast, nest survival tended to decrease over time. We did not see differences in nest patch use and nest survival between unfenced and fenced areas, unlike territory use, which increased with the abundance of maple in fenced areas and decreased in unfenced areas. Our study depicts one example of relatively unchanged habitat use in the face of decreased availability of preferred vegetation across years, with a resulting decrease in reproductive success. Investigating changes in habitat use and fitness consequences for animals exposed to long-term habitat change is necessary to understand adaptive behavioral responses. </p>
Data from: Robust inference on large-scale species habitat use with interview data: the status of jaguars outside protected areas in Central America
Evaluating range-wide habitat use by a target species requires information on species occurrence over broad geographic regions, a process made difficult by species rarity, large spatiotemporal sampling domains, and imperfect detection. We address these challenges in an assessment of habitat use for jaguars (Panthera onca) outside protected areas in Central America. Occurrence records were acquired within 12 putative corridors using interviews with knowledgeable corridor residents. We developed a Bayesian hierarchical occupancy model to gain robust inference, allowing for heterogeneity introduced in the sampling process over space and time, using records of jaguar occurrence prone to false positives and false negatives. Probability of false detection of jaguars increased with the number of interviews conducted per unit (from 5.42% to 7.74% given <4 and ≥4 observers per unit). True probability of detection (mean=0.58) increased with the number of days interviewees spent in a survey unit per year. Failing to account for false positives biased predicted habitat use high (˜1.8x), especially where occurrence records were sparse. Probability of site use by jaguars increased with greater forest cover, prey richness, and distance from human settlements, and decreased with greater agricultural cover, elevation, and distance from protected areas. Site use probabilities averaged 0.15-0.97 by corridor, providing relatively fine-scale resolution of predicted jaguar occurrence consistent with known patterns of jaguar gene flow across Central America. Model validation, accounting for both false positives and negatives in the observation process, indicated moderate correspondence between model-predicted observations and actual observations for withheld data (0.65, 95% CRI 0.59–0.71), with sensitivity and specificity rates of 0.69 (0.61 – 0.77) and 0.59 (0.50 – 0.68), respectively. These results demonstrate that reliable predictions can be achieved despite the complexity of large-scale, interview-based analyses of species occurrence. Synthesis and applications. Our Bayesian hierarchical occupancy model accommodated heterogeneity caused by typical sampling inequities and idiosyncrasies associated with interview data, yielding robust estimates of jaguar habitat use. Our approach is applicable to any wide-ranging and readily identifiable species and has particular utility for rare species in human-dominated landscapes where traditional survey techniques (e.g., camera traps) may be impractical.
Habitat use of co-occurring burying beetles (genus Nicrophorus) in southeastern Ontario, Canada
<p>The coexistence of closely related species plays an important role in shaping local diversity. However, competition for shared resources can limit the ability of species to coexist. Many species avoid the costs of coexistence by diverging in habitat use, known as habitat partitioning. We examine patterns of habitat use in seven co-occurring species of burying beetles (genus <em>Nicrophorus</em> Fabricius, 1775), testing the hypothesis that <em>Nicrophorus</em> species partition resources by occupying distinct habitats. We surveyed <em>Nicrophorus</em> abundance and 54 habitat characteristics at 100 random sites spanning an environmentally diverse region of southeastern Ontario, Canada. We found that three species occupied distinct habitat types consistent with habitat partitioning. Specifically, <em>Nicrophorus pustulatus</em> Herschel, 1807, <em>Nicrophorus hebes</em> Kirby, 1837, and <em>Nicrophorus marginatus</em> Fabricius, 1801 appear to be specialists for forest canopy, wetlands, and open fields, respectively. In contrast, <em>Nicrophorus orbicollis</em> Say, 1825, <em>Nicrophorus sayi</em> Laporte, 1840, and <em>Nicrophorus tomentosus</em> Weber, 1801 appear to be generalists with wide breadths of habitat use. We were unable to identify the habitat associations of <em>Nicrophorus defodiens</em> Mannerheim, 1846. Our findings are consistent with habitat acting as an important resource axis along which some <em>Nicrophorus </em>species partition; however, divergence along other resource axes (e.g., temporal partitioning) also appears important for <em>Nicrophorus</em> coexistence.</p>
Dynamic evolution and scenario simulation of habitat quality under the impact of land-use change in the Huaihe River Economic Belt, China
<p>1. Land-use data</p> <p>Meaning of the value in the layers:<br> 11: Paddy field <br> 12: Dry land<br> 21: Forestland<br> 22: Shrubland<br> 23: Sparse woodland<br> 24: Other woodland<br> 31: High coverage grassland<br> 32: Medium coverage grassland<br> 33: Low coverage grassland<br> 41: River canal<br> 42: Lake<br> 43: Reservoir and pond<br> 44: Permanent glacial snow<br> 45: Coastal mud flat <br> 46: Inland tidal flat<br> 51: Urban land<br> 52: Rural residential land<br> 53: Industrial and traffic land<br> 61: Dene<br> 62: Gobi Desert<br> 63: Saline and alkaline land<br> 64: Marshland<br> 65: Bare land<br> 66: Bare rock<br> 67: Other unused land</p> <p>2. GDP data (Meaning of the value in the layer: yuan/km<sup>2</sup>)</p> <p>3. Population density data (Meaning of the value in the layer: person/km<sup>2</sup>)</p> <p>4. Meteorological data</p> <p>temperature data (unit: ℃)</p> <p>perception data(unit:mm)</p> <p>5. Terrain data including elevation, slope and aspect</p> <p>6. Vector data including railways, highways, national roads, provincial roads and county roads</p>
Data from: The importance of using topographic features to predict climate-resilient habitat for migratory forest landbirds: an example for the Rusty Blackbird, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and Canada Warbler
<p>Maintaining a functionally-connected network of high-quality habitat is one of the most effective responses to biodiversity loss. However, the spatial distribution of suitable habitat may shift over time in response to climate change. Taxa such as migratory forest landbirds are already undergoing climate-driven range shifts. Therefore, patches of climate-resilient habitat (also known as "climate refugia") are especially valuable from a conservation perspective. Here, we performed maximum entropy (Maxent) species distribution modeling to predict suitable and potentially climate-resilient habitat in Nova Scotia, Canada, for three migratory forest landbirds: Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus), Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), and Canada Warbler (Cardellina canadensis). We used a reverse stepwise elimination technique to identify covariates that influence habitat suitability for the target species at broad scales, including abiotic (topographic control of moisture and nutrient accumulation) and biotic (forest characteristics) covariates. As topography should be relatively unaffected by a changing climate and helps regulate the structure and composition of forest habitat, we posit that the inclusion of appropriate topographic features may support the identification of climate-resilient habitat. Of all covariates, Depth to water table was the most important predictor of relative habitat suitability for the Rusty Blackbird and Canada Warbler, with both species showing a strong association with wet areas. Mean canopy height was the most important predictor for the Olive-sided Flycatcher, whereby the species was associated with taller trees. Our models, which comprise the finest scale species distribution models available for these species in this region, further indicated that, for all species, habitat (1) remains relatively abundant and well distributed in Nova Scotia and (2) is often located in wet lowlands (a climate-resilient topographic landform). These findings suggest that opportunities remain to conserve breeding habitat for these species despite changing temperature and precipitation regimes.</p>
Data from: How do habitat amount and habitat fragmentation drive time-delayed responses of biodiversity to land-use change?
<p><span>Land-use change is a root cause of the extinction crisis, but links between habitat change and biodiversity loss are not fully understood. While there is evidence that habitat loss is an important extinction driver, the relevance of habitat fragmentation remains debated. Moreover, while time-delays of biodiversity responses to habitat transformation are well-documented, time-delayed effects have been ignored in the habitat loss vs. fragmentation debate. Here, using a hierarchical Bayesian multi- species occupancy framework, we systematically tested for time-delayed responses of bird and mammal communities to habitat loss and to habitat fragmentation. We focused on the Argentine Chaco, where deforestation has been widespread recently. We used an extensive field dataset on birds and mammals, along with a time series of annual woodland maps from 1985-2016 covering recent and historical habitat transformations. Contemporary habitat amount explained bird and mammal occupancy better than past habitat amount. However, occupancy was affected more by past rather than recent fragmentation, indicating a time-delayed response to fragmentation. Considering past landscape patterns is therefore crucial for understanding current biodiversity patterns. Not accounting for land-use history ignores the possibility of extinction debt and can thus obscure impacts of fragmentation, potentially explaining contrasting findings of habitat loss vs. fragmentation studies.</span></p>
Data from: A probable case of incipient speciation in Schizocosa wolf spiders driven by allochrony, habitat use and female mate choice
There is growing evidence that speciation can occur between populations that are not geographically isolated. The emergence of assortative mating is believed to be critical to this process, but how assortative mating arises in diverging populations is poorly understood. The wolf spider genus Schizocosa has become a model system for studying mechanisms of assortative mating. We conducted a series of experiments to identify the factors that control mate pair formation in a Schizocosa population that includes both ornamented and non-ornamented males. We show that the population also includes two previously unrecognised female phenotypes. One female phenotype mates mostly or exclusively with ornamented males, and the other mates mostly or exclusively with unornamented males. Assortative mating within these groups is maintained by differences in maturation time, microhabitat use, and female mate preference. We conclude that the population is not a single species as previously believed, but rather an incipient species pair with multiple overlapping mechanisms of reproductive isolation. The identification of a new incipient species pair in the well-studied and rapidly speciating Schizocosa clade presents new opportunities for the study of speciation without geographic isolation.
Data from: Artificial light at night confounds broad-scale habitat use by migrating birds
With many of the world's migratory bird populations in alarming decline, broad-scale assessments of responses to migratory hazards may prove crucial to successful conservation efforts. Most birds migrate at night through increasingly light-polluted skies. Bright light sources can attract airborne migrants and lead to collisions with structures, but might also influence selection of migratory stopover habitat and thereby acquisition of food resources. We demonstrate, using multi-year weather radar measurements of nocturnal migrants across the northeastern U.S., that autumnal migrant stopover density increased at regional scales with proximity to the brightest areas, but decreased within a few kilometers of brightly-lit sources. This finding implies broad-scale attraction to artificial light while airborne, impeding selection for extensive forest habitat. Given that high-quality stopover habitat is critical to successful migration, and hindrances during migration can decrease fitness, artificial lights present a potentially heightened conservation concern for migratory bird populations.
Data from: Local weather and body condition influence habitat use and movements on land of molting female southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina)
Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) are known to move and aggregate while moulting, but little is known about their behaviour on land during this time. In this study, 60 adult females were monitored (23 with GPS tags) during four moulting seasons, between 2012 and 2016 at Kerguelen Archipelago, Indian Ocean. Population surveys were recorded each year (N = 230 daily counts) and habitat use was analysed in relation to the stage of the moult and local weather. Based on stage of moult, habitat use and movements on land, we classified the moult of elephant seals into three phases: 1) a "search phase" at the initial stage of moult when grass and wallow habitats were used and characterised by greater mean distances travelled on land per day compared with the two other phases, 2) a "resident phase": during initial and mid-stage of moult when animals were found in grass and wallow habitats but with less distance moved on land, and 3) a "termination phase" at the final stage of moult where grass and beach habitats were occupied with no change in distances. Windchill and solar radiation influenced individual distances moved per day (mean 590 ± 237.0 m) at the mid and final stage of moult, such that animals travelled greater distances on days of low windchill or high solar radiation. Individual variation in distance moved and relative habitat use were also linked to body mass index (BMI) at arrival on the colony, as females with higher BMI moved less and preferred beach habitat. Moreover, the individual rate of moult increased with the use of wallows. Aggregation rate tended to be negatively correlated with distances moved. We therefore suggest that individuals face an energetic trade-off while moulting, balancing energy expenditure between movement and thermoregulation.
Deer density drives habitat use of establishing wolves in the Western European Alps
<p>1. The return of top carnivores to their historical range triggers conflicts with the interests of different stakeholder groups. Anticipating such conflicts is key to appropriate conservation management, which calls for reliable spatial predictions of future carnivore occurrence. Previous models have assessed general habitat suitability for wolves, but the factors driving the settlement of dispersing individuals remain ill-understood. In particular, little attention has been paid to the role of prey availability in the recolonization process. 2. High-spatial-resolution, area-wide relative densities of the wolf's main ungulate prey species (red deer, roe deer and chamois) were assessed from snow-track surveys and modelled along with wolf presence data and other environmental descriptors to identify the main drivers of habitat selection of re-establishing wolves in the Western European Alps. 3. Prey species abundance was estimated from the minimum number of individuals recorded from snow-tracks along 218 1km transects surveyed twice a year during four successive winters (2012/13–2015/16). Abundance estimates per transect, corrected for species-specific detection probabilities and averaged across winters, were used to model area-wide relative prey density and biomass. 4. Confirmed wolf observations during the same four winters were used to develop a spatially-explicit habitat selection model for establishing wolves, based on our estimates of prey supply and other environmental descriptors of topography, land-use and climate. 5. Detection-corrected ungulate prey abundances and modelled relative densities varied considerably in space (0–2.8, 1.3–4.5 and 0–6.3 per 50ha in red deer, roe deer and chamois, respectively; 1.3–11.65 pooled), while total predicted prey biomass ranged from 23–304kg per 50ha. 6. Red deer density was the most important factor explaining wolf occurrence (31% contribution), followed by roe deer density (22%), winter precipitation (19%) and presence of game reserves (16%), showing that food supply, especially red deer as the most profitable prey in the Western Alps, was the main driver of winter habitat selection during the settlement phase. 7. Synthesis and applications. We demonstrate the crucial importance of including accurate, fine-grained information about prey supply for predicting recolonization patterns of carnivores and thus anticipating areas with potential human-wildlife conflicts where preventive measures should be prioritized.</p>
Data from: Identifying spawning sites and other critical habitat in lotic systems using eDNA "snapshots": a case study using the sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus L.
Many aquatic species of conservation concern exist at low densities and are inherently difficult to detect or monitor using conventional methods. However, the introduction of environmental (e)DNA has recently transformed our ability to detect these species and enables effective deployment of limited conservation resources. Identifying areas for breeding, as well as the ecological distribution of a species are vital to the survival or recovery of a conservation species (i.e. critical habitat). In many species, spawning events are associated with a higher relative abundance of DNA released within an aquatic system (i.e. gametes, skin cells etc.), making this the ideal time to monitor these species using eDNA techniques. This study aims to examine whether a 'snapshot' eDNA sampling approach (i.e. samples taken at fixed points in chronological time) could reveal areas of critical habitat including spawning sites for our target species Petromyzon marinus. We utilised a species-specific qPCR assay to monitor spatial and temporal patterns in eDNA concentration within two river catchments in Ireland over three consecutive years. We found that eDNA concentration increased at the onset of observed spawning activity and patterns of concentration increased from downstream to upstream over time, suggesting dispersal into the higher reaches as the spawning season progressed. We found P. marinus to be present upstream of several potential barriers to migration, sometimes in significant numbers. Out results also show that the addition of lamprey-specific fish-pass at an 'impassable' weir, although assisting in ascent, did not have any significant impact on eDNA concentration upstream after pass had been installed. eDNA concentration was also found to be significantly correlated with both the number of fish and the number of nests encountered. The application of snapshot sampling techniques for species monitoring therefore has substantial potential for the management of low-density species in fast-moving aquatic systems.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.