Abstract
The partitioning of production forests into discretely managed forest stands confronts animals with diversity in forest attributes at scales from point-level tree assemblages to distinct forest patches and range-level forest cover. We have investigated the movement and ranging patterns of male Common Chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs, in heterogeneous forest production landscapes during spring and summer in south-western Germany. We radio-tracked a total of 15 adult males, each for up to six days, recording locations at 10-min intervals. We then performed point-level tree surveys at all tracking locations and classified forest stand attributes for the areal covering of birds’ ranges. Movement distances were shortest in beech forest stands and longer in spruce-mixed and non-spruce conifer stands. Movement distances increased with stand age in beech stands but not in others, an effect that was only detectable in a multilevel hierarchical model. We found negligible effects of point-level tree assemblages and temperature on movement distances. Daily range estimates were from 0.01 to 8.0 hectare (median of 0.86 ha) with no evident impact of forest attributes on ranging patterns but considerable intra-individual variation in range sizes over consecutive days. Most daily ranges covered more than one forest stand type. Our results show that forest management impacts the movement behaviour of chaffinches in heterogeneous production forest. Although point-level effects of movement distances are weak compared with stand-level effects in this study, the hierarchical organization of forest is an important aspect to consider when analysing fine-scale movement and might exert more differentiated effects on bird species that are more sensitive to habitat changes than the chaffinch.
Highlights
The movement of an animal is an intricate interplay of its life history, behaviour, and response to the underlying habitat (Morales & Ellner, 2002; Morris, 2003; Moorcroft, Lewis & Crabtree, 2006; Schick et al, 2008)
Movement distances differed among forest stand types, smallest movements being recorded in beech forest stands and largest movement distances being recorded in non-spruce conifer and spruce-mixed forest stands, explaining 16% of the finite-sample variation in observed movement distances (Fig. 3, see Appendix S2 for all posterior values)
Movement distances varied with stand age, notably with an evident effects of stand age only being found in beech forest stands: movement distances increased with stand age in beech stands but not in other stand types (Fig. 3)
Summary
The movement of an animal is an intricate interplay of its life history, behaviour, and response to the underlying habitat (Morales & Ellner, 2002; Morris, 2003; Moorcroft, Lewis & Crabtree, 2006; Schick et al, 2008). The investigation of movement is important for understanding the relationships of animals with their biotic and abiotic environment, and, in turn, the way that environmental changes possibly affect animals from individual movement to population and community structure (Ovaskainen, 2004; Kokko & Lopez-Sepulcre, 2006; Morales et al, 2010) On this background, an understanding of whether movement and space use differs in structurally homogeneous and heterogeneous environments might provide us with important information about the behaviour of an animal and its potential for adaptation to changing environmental conditions (Zollner & Lima, 1999; Morales et al, 2004; Forester et al, 2007). If environmental heterogeneity is an issue at different scales such as landscapes, habitat patches, and point locations where animals move, identifying which scale is most influential on movement and behaviour may aid in addressing the appropriate scale for management action in informed conservation efforts
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