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opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

Reclaiming urban vacant land to manage stormwater and support insect habitat

Urban green spaces can provide important wildlife habitat and ecosystem services. In legacy cities, built structures are demolished as populations dwindle, resulting in vacant land. Vacant land constitutes an opportunity to establish green infrastructure that provides multiple ecosystem services. Our objective was to determine whether establishing green infrastructure on vacant land to manage stormwater could provide insect habitat in the legacy city of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. Two green infrastructure treatments were implemented on vacant land in the historic Slavic Village neighborhood in 2014 and 2015: rain gardens (lower cost) and bioswales (higher cost). We hypothesized that rain gardens and bioswales would support more abundant, species rich insect communities compared to unaltered vacant lots. Wild bees (Hymenoptera: Aculeata) and lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), two insect groups of conservation concern, were sampled during the summer (June–August) from 2014 to 2016 using pan traps and yellow sticky card traps. Local vegetation and temporal variables were measured. Generalized linear mixed effects models evaluated whether insect biodiversity varied with treatment, habitat variables, site, and time. We collected 3,004 bees from pan traps and 5,438 lady beetles from yellow sticky card traps during this study. Bee biodiversity was similar among treatments. In 2014, alien Coccinellidae abundance was higher in vacant lots compared to rain gardens. In 2015 and 2016, alien Coccinellidae were marginally more abundant in rain gardens compared to vacant lots and bioswales, while native Coccinellidae abundance was significantly higher in vacant lots. In the short term, establishing green infrastructure on vacant land can improve stormwater management without compromising the quality of vacant land as insect habitat.

opencc-zeroMay 2022View details →

Karuk ecological fire management practices promote elk habitat in Northern California

After a century of fire suppression and accumulating fuel loads in North American forests, prescribed burns are increasingly used to prevent conditions leading to catastrophic megafire. There is widespread evidence that prescribed fire was used by Indigenous communities to manage natural and cultural resources tribes for thousands of years. Wildlife habitat is an example of an ecological response that was actively managed with prescribed burns by Indigenous American peoples and is an important factor in western U.S. forest management planning, restoration and climate resilience efforts. We analyzed the effects of modern prescribed burns informed by traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) on the predicted change in elk winter habitat in Karuk aboriginal territory in Northern California between 2013 and 2018 using species distribution and simultaneous autoregressive modeling techniques. Burn types most closely resembling Karuk traditional practices, specifically those incorporating multiple-year broadcast burns, had significant positive effects on elk winter habitat suitability. Conversely, concentrated burns focused solely on reducing fuel loads had significant negative effects on elk winter habitat suitability. However, areas where these fuel-reduction burns were combined with multiple years of broadcast burns featured the highest increases in habitat. Our results suggest that transitioning to prescribed burns that more closely follow Karuk TEK will promote elk habitat in the region. This would be best achieved through continuing to work closely with Indigenous representatives to plan and implement cultural fire prescriptions on a landscape-scale, a trend we posit would benefit environmental management efforts across the globe.

FIG. 4 in Habitat preferences of Papilio alexanor Esper, [1800]: implications for habitat management in the Italian Maritime Alps

FIG. 4.— Pre-imaginal development of Papilio alexanor Esper, [1800] under laboratory conditions; box plots illustrate increases in larval length; vertical lines: median larval length; box: 25th-75th percentiles; whiskers: minimum and maximum observed values; outliers; dark grey band width represents the standard deviations of mean development intervals (days). Abbreviations: e, egg; I-IV, larval instars; p, pupa.

FIG. 2 in Habitat preferences of Papilio alexanor Esper, [1800]: implications for habitat management in the Italian Maritime Alps

FIG. 2.— Stable range of P. alexanor Esper, [1800] in Italy (Balletto et al. 2007), observations from S Italy are interpreted as being based on vagrant specimens from the Balkans, the arrow indicates the Valdieri study area.

FIG. 6 in Habitat preferences of Papilio alexanor Esper, [1800]: implications for habitat management in the Italian Maritime Alps

FIG. 6.— Comparison of mean values of larval survival rates calculated for the 21 (occupied) plots ranked by increasing total number of P. saxifraga (L.) Loret & Barrandon plants.

FIG. 5 in Habitat preferences of Papilio alexanor Esper, [1800]: implications for habitat management in the Italian Maritime Alps

FIG. 5.— Pre-imaginal development of P. alexanor Esper, [1800] in the field. Mean (± SE) number of eggs and larvae of P. alexanor collected during the four sampling events (2010).

publicJan 2024View details →

Reclaiming urban vacant land to manage stormwater and support insect habitat

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publicFeb 2025View details →

Data from: Impacts of management practices on habitat selection during juvenile mountain lion dispersal

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publicMay 2022View details →

Karuk ecological fire management practices promote elk habitat in Northern California

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opencc-by-4.0Oct 2020View details →

Density responses of lesser-studied carnivores to habitat and management strategies in southern Tanzania's Ruaha-Rungwa landscape

Study using camera trapping and Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) to provide baseline status estimates for population densities of serval, striped hyaena and aardwolf in the Ruaha-Rungwa landscape and to assess the impact of habitat, management strategies and levels of anthropogenic impact on their population densities.

opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

Selection of a diversionary field and other habitats by large grazing birds in a landscape managed for agriculture and wetland biodiversity

Several populations of cranes, geese, and swans are thriving and increasing in modern agricultural landscapes. Abundant populations are causing conservation conflicts, as they may affect agricultural production and biodiversity negatively. Management strategies involving provisioning of attractive diversionary fields where birds are tolerated can be used to reduce negative impact to growing crops. To improve such strategies, knowledge of how the birds interact with the landscape and respond to current management interventions is key. We used GPS locations from tagged common cranes (Grus grus) and greylag geese (Anser anser) to assess how they use and select differentially managed habitats, such as diversionary fields to decrease impact on agriculture and wetlands protected for biodiversity conservation. Our findings show a high probability of presence of common cranes and greylag geese in the protected area and in the diversionary field, but also on arable fields, potentially causing negative impact on agricultural production and wetland biodiversity. We outline recommendations for how to improve the practice of diversionary fields and complementary management to reduce risk of negative impact of large grazing birds in landscapes tailored for both conservation and conventional agriculture.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

The decline of ground-nesting birds in Europe: do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?

Bird populations are declining globally with losses recorded in many European breeding birds. Habitat management measures have not resulted in a widespread reversal of these declines. We analysed national bird population trends from ten European countries (France, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK) in relation to the species' nesting strategy ('ground-nesting' or 'other'), Annex I designation ('designated' or 'not designated') and association with agricultural habitats for breeding ('associated' or 'not associated'). For each country in our dataset, we also defined the following factors: farming intensity; predator community complexity; and predator control effort. Our results showed additive effects of nesting strategy, designation, and breeding habitats on the likelihood of population decline. Ground-nesting birds were 86% more likely to decline than birds with other nesting strategies. Annex I designated species of the Birds Directive were 50% less likely to decline than non-designated birds. Birds breeding primarily in agricultural habitats were more likely to decline than birds breeding in other habitats, interactively with farming intensity. Homogenous trends across Europe (i.e., trends in two or more countries that were either not declining in all countries or declining in all countries) indicate that the probability of population decline was related to nesting strategy and breeding habitat, with ground-nesting birds being 15.6 times more likely than other birds to have a declining trend across Europe, and birds nesting in agricultural habitat being 17.8 times more likely than birds nesting in other habitats to have a declining trend across Europe. Our results highlight a widespread challenge, therefore widespread instruments (e.g. legislation, economic policies, agri-environment schemes) will be required to reserve these declines. Ground-nesting species requirements can be complex and multiple strategies will be needed to restore populations including the development of predation management tools.

opencc-zeroJan 2022View details →

Data from: Predicting habitat suitability and connectivity for management and conservation of urban wildlife: A real-time web application for grassland water voles

<ol> <li>Natural habitats in urban areas provide benefits for both humans and biodiversity. However, to achieve biodiversity gains we require new techniques to determine habitat suitability and ecological connectivity that will inform urban planning and development.</li> <li>Using an example of an urban population of water voles (Arvicola amphibius) we developed a habitat suitability model and a resistance-surface-based model of landscape connectivity to identify potential connectivity between areas of suitable habitat. We then updated the environmental variables according to new urban development plans and used our models to generate spatially explicit predictions of both habitat suitability and connectivity.</li> <li>To make models accessible to urban and conservation planners we developed an interactive mapping tool that provided users with a graphical user interface (GUI) to inform conservation planning for this species.</li> <li>The model found that habitat suitability for water voles was related to distance from key environmental variables, such as built-up areas and urban green spaces, while the connectivity model identified important corridors connecting areas of potential distribution for this species.</li> <li>Future development plans altered the potential spatial distribution of the water vole population, reducing the extent of suitable habitat in some core areas. The interactive mapping tool made available suitable habitat and connectivity maps for conservation managers to assess new planning applications and for the development of a conservation action plan for water voles.</li> <li>Synthesis and applications: We believe this approach provides a framework for future development of nature conservation tools that can be used by planners to inform ecological decision making, increase biodiversity and reduce human-wildlife conflict in urban environments.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

From nature reserve to mosaic management: improving matrix survival, not permeability, benefits regional populations under habitat loss and fragmentation

Although matrix improvement in fragmented landscapes is a promising conservation measure, matrix permeability (willingness of an organism to enter the matrix) and movement survival in the matrix are usually aggregated. Consequently, it is unknown which matrix property needs to be improved. It also remains unclear whether matrix upgrading from dispersal passage to providing reproduction opportunities has large conservation benefits and whether there are interactive effects between habitat and matrix management. We examined matrix effects on regional populations across a gradient of habitat loss and fragmentation using simulation experiments that integrated demographic processes and movement modeling based on circuit theory. We separately modified the levels of matrix permeability and movement survival to evaluate their individual effects. We also altered the amount and configuration of not only habitat but also improved matrix to assess their effects on population vital rates (size, survival and density). In binary landscapes comprising habitat and unimproved matrix, matrix movement survival had larger effects on population vital rates than matrix permeability. Increasing movement survival increased vital rates, yet, increasing matrix permeability decreased vital rates. Increased permeability required corresponding increased movement survival to offset potential negative population outcomes. When subsets of the matrix functioning as dispersal passage only (where no reproduction opportunities existed) were improved, increasing matrix permeability but holding movement survival constant reduced all vital rates, especially with increasing habitat fragmentation. In contrast, when movement survival increased, vital rates increased given strong habitat fragmentation. The benefits of upgrading dispersal passage to provide reproduction opportunities for population survival were greatest when habitat amount was moderate. We also found synergetic effects between amounts of habitat and improved matrix, and the benefits of matrix improvement were promoted when improvement was achieved in a spatially aggregated manner. Synthesis and applications: Matrix improvement and connectivity modeling aimed at increasing movement survival will likely bring larger conservation benefits than those for improving permeability alone. Buffering and connecting habitat remnants with improved matrix could provide benefits as long as movement survival is increased. Simultaneous implementation of habitat management and matrix improvement would yield synergistic conservation benefits.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2024View details →

Functional responses in habitat selection as a management tool to evaluate agri-environment schemes for farmland birds

The folder "functional_responses.zip" contains data analyzed for "Functional responses in habitat selection as a management tool to evaluate agri-environment schemes for farmland birds" The raw LPIS/IACS data are owned by the Saxon State Ministry for Energy, Climate Protection, Environment and Agriculture; they hold sensitive information and hence cannot be made publicly available. They can be requested from the agency for research purposes. Processed data are retrievable from .RDATA in "rdata_mixed_model" and "rdata_functional_responses" folders. "rscript" folder contains R functions of JAGS codes (jags_code.R), data processing (process.R), utility functions (utils.R), and figures (figure_all.R or figure_all_by_sp.R). Dg: Common whitethroat (Curruca communis) Fl: Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis) G: Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) Ga: Corn bunting (Emberiza calandra)   If you have questions regarding data, please contact ryo.ogawa@uni-bonn.de.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2018View details →

Code and data for "Optimising habitat management for amphibians: from simple models to complex decisions"

The zip archive contains code and data to reproduce the analysis contained in the following manuscript: Scroggie, M.P., Preece, K., Nicholson, E., McCarthy, M.A., Parris, K.M. and Heard, G.W. Optimising habitat management for amphibians: from simple models to complex decisions. Included in the archive is the source code of two R packages (METAPOP, and METAPOPPLAN), which must first be installed, along with their various dependencies which include Rcpp, RcppArmadillo, sp, spdep and rgeos. As package METAPOPPLAN contains C++ code, installation requires the presence of the appropriate C++ compilers and other software development tools. These should be available or easily installable on Linux or other Unix based systems, but Microsoft Windows users must first install the appropriate version of Rtools, which can be downloaded from https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/. With all appropriate packages installed, the analysis can be replicated by running the included Makefile. Total execution time will be quite long, due to the large number of simulations that must be run. On my Windows system, with 12 cores and 4GB of RAM, execution took approximately 10 days. The code will run much faster if the various management scenarios included in the analysis are executed in parallel. This can be done by executing make with a -j argument specifying the number of cores to utilise. For example, if your system has 12 cores, invoke *make* as follows: make -j 12 Overall execution time will scale roughly with the number of available cores, up to a maximum of 24 (the total number of management scenarios).

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2019View details →

Dataset accompanying Riesch et al. 2019. Grazing by wild red deer: management options for the conservation of semi-natural open habitats. Journal of Applied Ecology

This repository contains vegetation biomass and forage quality data used by Riesch et al. in an article accepted in Journal of Applied Ecology. Metadata are provided in the first excel worksheet ('explanation_overview'). For further details please see the original article.

FIG. 1 in Habitat preferences of Papilio alexanor Esper, [1800]: implications for habitat management in the Italian Maritime Alps

FIG. 1. — Papilio alexanor Esper,[1800].Photograph:Davide Piccoli.