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opencc-zeroAug 2021View details →

Data and Code for: Isotopic Niche Size of Coregonus artedi (sensu lato) Increases in the Presence of Mysis diluviana, Expanded Habitat Use and Phenotypic Diversity

Post-glacial colonization of lakes in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada resulted in food webs with cisco (Coregonus artedi sensu lato) and either Mysis diluviana or Chaoborus spp. as the dominant diel migrator. Mysis as prey, its diel movements and benthic occupancy, are hypothesized to be key elements of ecological opportunity for cisco diversity in the Laurentian Great Lakes. If correct, the hypothesis strongly implies that lakes with Mysis would have greater trophic niche size and drive greater adaptive radiation of cisco forms relative to lakes without Mysis. The dichotomy in diel migrator in Algonquin Park lakes was an opportunity to assess the isotopic niche size of cisco (δ15N and δ13C) and determine if niche size expands with Mysis presence. We found the presence of Mysis is necessary to expand isotopic niche size in our study lakes. The use of habitats not typically associated with the ancestral form of cisco (e.g., benthic habitats) and phenotypic diversity (blackfin and cisco) also continue to expand niche size in Mysis-based food webs. Partial ecological speciation based on a large niche space appears to be present in one lake (Cauchon Lake) where use of alternative habitats is the only real difference in cisco. The presence of blackfin expands niche space in Cedar and Radiant Lakes. This was not matched in Hogan Lake where niche space was relatively smaller with similar forms. Possible reasons for this discrepancy may be related to the asymmetric basin of Hogan Lake and whether the two forms overlap during cool and cold-water periods of the annual temperature cycle. By comparing trophic niche size among lakes with and without Mysis we conclude that Mysis provides a key ecological opportunity for cisco diversity in our study lakes and likely more widely.

Fig. 4. 1938 in Determining Type Locality Habitat and Historic Land Use at Current Sites of the Miami Tiger Beetle, Cicindelidia floridana (Cartwright) (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae)

Fig. 4. 1938 aerial photograph of Richmond pine rocklands and vicinity. White rectangle indicates location of Fig. 5A–D. Pine rockland forests are visible on elevated terrain (diagonally from upper right to lower left), largely adjacent to riverbeds and interspersed with agricultural development (in the lower left quarter).

Fig. 3. Terrestrial photographs from 1940 in Determining Type Locality Habitat and Historic Land Use at Current Sites of the Miami Tiger Beetle, Cicindelidia floridana (Cartwright) (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae)

Fig. 3. Terrestrial photographs from 1940 at the site of Barry University. Photographs provided by Barry University Archives and Special Collections.

Fig. 2 in Determining Type Locality Habitat and Historic Land Use at Current Sites of the Miami Tiger Beetle, Cicindelidia floridana (Cartwright) (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae)

Fig. 2. Peter's (1981) "island" (outlined area), type locality of Cicidelidia floridana (circle), and approximate location of Fig. 3 (star). A) 1940 aerial photograph, B) 1950 aerial photograph. Satellite image underlay courtesy of Google Earth.

Fig. 5 in Determining Type Locality Habitat and Historic Land Use at Current Sites of the Miami Tiger Beetle, Cicindelidia floridana (Cartwright) (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae)

Fig. 5. Cicindelidia floridana occurrences projected on Richmond pine rocklands. A) 1938 aerial photograph, B) 1952 aerial photograph (arrows indicate areas of modified substrate without canopy), C) 1963 aerial photograph (stars approximately indicate areas with little or no canopy), D) 2017 satellite imagery, courtesy of Google Earth.

opencc-zeroSep 2021View details →

A place to land: spatiotemporal drivers of stopover habitat use by migrating birds

Migrating birds require en route habitats to rest and refuel. Yet habitat use has never been integrated with passage to understand factors that determine where and when birds stopover during spring and autumn migration. Here, we introduce the stopover-to-passage ratio (SPR), the percentage of passage migrants that stop in an area, and use eight years of data from 12 weather surveillance radars to estimate over 50% SPR during spring and autumn through the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts of the southeastern U.S., the most prominent corridor for North America's migratory birds. During stopovers, birds concentrated close to the coast during spring and inland in forested landscapes during autumn, suggesting seasonal differences in habitat function and highlighting the vital role of stopover habitats in sustaining migratory communities. Beyond advancing understanding of migration ecology, SPR will facilitate conservation through identification of sites that are disproportionally selected for stopover by migrating birds.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2021View details →

The bear cuscus habitat use calculation

The table contains information about the habitat use calculation of the bear cuscus in various land cover types within each ecosystem type in Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park (BBNP) and Hasanuddin University Educational Forest (HUEF), South Sulawesi. Four sheets are available: 1. Lowland limestone forest 2. Lowland non-dipterocarp forest 3. Lowland monsoon deciduous forest 4. Lowland monsoon evergreen forest

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland

Reduced food availability during chick raising is a major driver of farmland bird declines. For the Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis), food availability is determined by various factors (i.e., arthropod abundance/diversity, accessibility of the vegetation, distance to foraging sites). In modern farmland, it is supposed to decrease over the breeding season due to less penetrable vegetation. We explored foraging habitat selection by chick-raising Skylarks with a focus on the seasonal dynamics of habitat use and food availability. We investigated i) habitat selection concerning prey biomass/diversity, vegetation cover, and distance to foraging sites, ii) the overall and seasonal habitat use, and iii) seasonal developments of foraging parameters (e.g., the feeding frequency) as indicators of food availability. We collected data on foraging habitats and foraging parameters of chick-raising Skylark pairs at 51 nests from a Central European population in 2018 and 2019. Prey biomass/diversity and vegetation cover were measured for all habitats around 42 of these nests. As revealed by multivariate and compositional analyses, Skylarks mainly selected foraging habitats based on the proximity to nests. The most frequent habitats within home ranges could not be ranked according to an overall importance for foraging and their use partially changed over time. The feeding frequency increased throughout the breeding season, while other foraging parameters did not show significant changes. In contrast to our expectations, our data indicated therefore an increase, not a decrease in food availability in the late breeding season. This also implies that the habitat use was constantly suitable to raise offspring. We interpret this to be a consequence of the heterogeneous farmland composition of the study area that enabled Skylarks to establish a diverse home range and to benefit from synergetic effects of neighboring habitat types. Thus, our findings provide support for the high importance of crop diversity in Skylark conservation.

opencc-zeroJan 2023View details →

Does weather drive habitat use and movement of a non-migratory bird?

Climate change is predicted to increase the intensity and frequency of weather extremes (e.g., extreme heat and drought), which will likely affect wildlife species in significant ways. Maintaining landscape heterogeneity has been suggested as a potential conservation strategy to buffer animals from weather extremes. Because animal movement influences survival and population connectivity, understanding animal space use and movement in response to shifts in weather is useful for the conservation of wildlife. Non-migratory species are predicted to be more negatively affected by climate change because they have a limited ability to disperse to find resources. We studied the Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) to understand how weather alters habitat use and movement of a non-migratory animal across a landscape. We collected telemetry locations on bobwhite across western Oklahoma during 2019–2020 and paired these data with meteorological and vegetation data. We analyzed the data at 2 temporal scales – hourly locations and 12-hour paths. At the hourly scale, we analyzed tree cover use, shrub cover use, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) use using generalized or linear-mixed models. At the 12-hour scale, we calculated three different movement metrics: cumulative distance, net displacement, and sinuosity, and analyzed each movement metric separately using generalized linear-mixed models. We found that bobwhite used denser tree cover and higher NDVI values as air temperature increased in conjunction with solar radiation. Bobwhite used denser shrub cover as air temperature increased and average wind speed was high as well as when air temperature and average wind speed were low. The interaction between variability in vegetation and climate influenced bobwhite movement. Bobwhite in areas with higher NDVI variance moved farther when mean air temperatures were > 0°C than bobwhite in areas with low NDVI variance. When mean air temperatures were ≤ 0°C, NDVI variance had little effect on the cumulative distance moved of bobwhite. Our findings show that some animals use different vegetation types during different weather conditions and that variability in vegetation on the landscape and weather together alters animal movement. Managing for landscape heterogeneity is a solution that may buffer animals from increased climate variability in the future.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2023View details →

Data used to generate results for Meireles et al. 2023. The future of suitable habitats of an endangered Neotropical grassland bird: a path to extinction? Ecology and Evolution.

Here we include all occurrence records (264) found for Campo Miner, in addition to the 47 records of current distribution of the species (*) used for ecological niche modeling analyses.

opennotspecifiedNov 2018View details →

FIG. 2 in Movement and Habitat Use of Eastern Hellbenders (Crŋptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) Following Population Augmentation

FIG. 2.—(A) Mean size (±1 SE) of linear home ranges (LHR; [A]) and minimum convex polygon (MCP; [B]) home range size of resident (Res) and translocated (Trans) Eastern Hellbenders (Crŋptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) at two sites in the Blue River in Indiana following population augmentation.

opennotspecifiedNov 2018View details →

FIG. 4 in Movement and Habitat Use of Eastern Hellbenders (Crŋptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) Following Population Augmentation

FIG. 4.—Mean probability (±1 SE) of artificial nest rock (ANR) use for wild resident adult, captive-reared translocated juvenile, and wild translocated adult Eastern Hellbenders (Crŋptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) at two sites in the Blue River in Indiana.

opennotspecifiedNov 2018View details →

FIG. 3 in Movement and Habitat Use of Eastern Hellbenders (Crŋptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) Following Population Augmentation

FIG. 3.—Mean monthly linear home range size (±1 SE) of resident and translocated adult Eastern Hellbenders (Crŋptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) at two sites in the Blue River in Indiana over four seasons following population augmentation.

opencc-zeroApr 2023View details →

Data from: Habitat use, survival and migration of a little-known East Asian endemic, the Yellow-throated Bunting Emberiza elegans

Basic information on the ecology of species is key for their conservation. Here we study the ecology of the little-known Yellow-throated Bunting Emberiza elegans based on a multi-year study on its breeding grounds in the Russian Far East. For the first time in this species, we quantified breeding habitat parameters, calculated sex-specific apparent survival, and determined individual non-breeding locations using light-level geolocation. We found that the habitat around song posts of male Yellow-throated Buntings is characterized by tree and shrub layers on richly littered moist ground. Habitat use overlaps with co-occurring Tristram´s Buntings Emberiza tristrami and Black-faced Buntings E. spodocephala, but territories differ especially in tree cover and litter cover. Based on four years of colour-ringing data of 72 individuals, we calculated an apparent survival rate of 36 %, with higher survival estimates for male than for female Yellow-throated Buntings. We found no effect of carrying a geolocator on survival. We retrieved six geolocators from males. All birds migrated south-westward during autumn and spent the non-breeding season at locations in China 700-1700 km away from their breeding sites. At least two individuals spent the boreal winter outside of the known range in northern or central China. Birds left the breeding area between early October and early November and returned between mid-March and mid-April. Our data on habitat use, survival rate, and migratory connectivity will help to assess threats to the populations of this enigmatic species, which might include habitat loss due to forest fires on the breeding grounds, and unsustainable harvest for consumption during the non-breeding season.

Fig. 4 in Big Cypress fox squirrel (Sciurus niger avicennia) ecology and habitat use in a cypress dome swamp-pine forest mosaic

Fig. 4.—Mean (± SD) length (km) of linear features (roads, random lines) and area (ha) of rectangular features (oilpads, random rectangles) overlapped by Big Cypress fox squirrel male and female 95% home range kernels from 2007 to 2011, within the Raccoon Point area of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida.

Fig. 2 in Big Cypress fox squirrel (Sciurus niger avicennia) ecology and habitat use in a cypress dome swamp-pine forest mosaic

Fig. 2.—Mean (± SD) percent overlap of individual Big Cypress fox squirrel 95% home range kernels by dyad (MF = males overlapping females, MM = males overlapping males, FF = females overlapping females) within the Raccoon Point area of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida. Overlaps are summarized for animals that actually overlapped in time and space from 2007 to 2011 (i.e., telemetry data were collected contemporaneously) and animals that potentially overlapped spatially (i.e., home ranges were calculated across years and seasons and overlaps calculated among all home ranges independent of year and season). Means were calculated from overlapping kernels only.

Fig. 1 in Big Cypress fox squirrel (Sciurus niger avicennia) ecology and habitat use in a cypress dome swamp-pine forest mosaic

Fig. 1.—Color phases of Big Cypress fox squirrels captured from 2007 to 2011 within the Raccoon Point area of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida. A) Orange phase BCFS (n = 17); B) Black phase BCFS (n = 6); C) Tan phase BCFS (n = 1). Photos copyright Ralph Arwood. BCFS = Big Cypress fox squirrels.

Fig. 3 in Big Cypress fox squirrel (Sciurus niger avicennia) ecology and habitat use in a cypress dome swamp-pine forest mosaic

Fig. 3.—Comparison of use versus availability for 7 vegetation types used by Big Cypress fox squirrels from 2007 to 2011, in the Raccoon Point area of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida. Bars represent the mean percentage of each vegetation community type used minus the mean percentage of vegetation community type available at 3 orders of selection.

Fig. 5 in Big Cypress fox squirrel (Sciurus niger avicennia) ecology and habitat use in a cypress dome swamp-pine forest mosaic

Fig. 5.—Total male (n = 10) and female (n = 10) Big Cypress fox squirrel food item use (n = 702) percentage per month within the Raccoon Point area of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, from 2007 to 2011.