Spatial Arrangement Of Habitats Research Articles

Landscape composition and configuration relatively affect invasive pest and its associator across multiple spatial scales

Landscape structures affect pests, depending on compositional heterogeneity (the number and proportions of different habitats), configurational heterogeneity (spatial arrangement of habitats), and spatial scales. However, there is limited information on the relative effects of compositional and configurational heterogeneity on invasive pests and their associates (species that can benefit from invasive pests), and how they vary across spatial scales. In this study, we assayed the invasive pest Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) and its associated fly Drosophila melanogaster in 15 landscapes centered on mango orchards. We calculated landscape composition (forest percentage, mango percentage, and Shannon's diversity) and configuration (edge density) using two methods: spatial distance scales and combined scales. Spatial distance scales included buffer rings with radii of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 km, and combined scales referred to cutting or not cutting a smaller ring from larger ones. Our results shown that compositional heterogeneity positively affected B. dorsalis and D. melanogaster due to forest cover percentage, whereas configurational heterogeneity with high edge density negative effect on B. dorsalis. Forest cover had less of an effect on B. dorsalis than configurational heterogeneity, but the opposite effect was observed for D. melanogaster. Importantly, the direction and strength of forest cover and configurational heterogeneity to species did not vary with spatial distance scales or spatial combined scales. Thus, compositional and configurational heterogeneity exhibit differential effects on this invasive pest and its associator, and revealed that the relative effects of landscape structures are consistent across multiple scales. These results provide new insights into landscape effects on interconnected species using a diverse spatial-scale approach.

Connectivity affects species turnover in soil microarthropod communities during Mediterranean forest establishment

AbstractEnvironmental conditions and the spatial arrangement of habitats are thought to play a major role in shaping community assembly during habitat construction and may be key in establishing time lags between habitat establishment and species colonization (colonization credits), and between local species extinction and habitat loss (extinction debts). Despite the importance of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning and their limited dispersal ability, these kinds of shifts in microarthropod communities have rarely been explored. We assessed the roles of the environment and connectivity in soil microarthropod community composition during habitat regeneration in Mediterranean forests. We selected three different forest patches in six study areas: one long‐established (pre‐1956; LONG) control forest patch, and two recent forest patches (post‐1956), one connected (CONN) to and one isolated (ISOL) from the LONG. In each patch, we determined soil temperature, moisture, pH, and fertility and collected soil samples for microarthropod extraction. Our results indicate that the densities of fauna such as oribatid mites and proturans with limited mobility were lower in ISOL than in other forest types; as well, oribatid populations in ISOL were less diverse. Arthropods with greater mobility than the precedent groups, such as collembolans and non‐oribatid mites, were present in lower densities in LONG than in other forest types. Oribatid assemblages in the two recent forest patches were more similar to one another than to those in the LONG. Recent forests were mostly dominated by known pioneer species, while LONG was dominated by the typical species found in well‐developed organic soils. In conclusion, oribatid density and richness had recovered surprisingly well in CONN, more so than in ISOL and to a similar extent as LONG. However, oribatid assemblages in the recent forests are different from those in long‐established forests due to the potential colonization credits and extinction debts triggered by soil development.

On the Cost-Effective Design of Agglomeration Bonus Schemes for the Conservation of Multiple Competing Species

An important mechanism of species co-existence in spatially structured landscapes is the competition-colonisation trade-off which states that co-existence of competing species is possible if, all other things equal, the better competitor is the worse coloniser. The effectiveness of this trade-off for the facilitation of co-existence, however, is likely to depend on the spatial arrangement of the habitat, because too strong agglomeration of the habitat may overly benefit the strong competitor (being the poor disperser), implying extinction of the inferiour competitor, while too much dispersion of the habitat may drive the superiour competitor (being the inferiour coloniser) to extinction. In working landscapes, biodiversity conservation is often induced through conservation payments that offset the forgone profits incurred by the conservation measure. To control the spatial arrangement of conservation measures and habitats in a conservation payment scheme, the agglomeration bonus has been proposed to provide financial incentives for allocating conservation measures in the vicinity of other sites with conservation measures. This paper presents a generic spatially explicit ecological-economic simulation model to explore the ability of the agglomeration bonus to cost-effectively conserve multiple competing species that differ by their competition strengths, their colonisation rates and their dispersal ranges. The interacting effects of the agglomeration bonus and different species traits and their trade-offs on the species richness in the model landscape are analysed. Recommendations for the biodiversity-maximising design of agglomeration bonus schemes are derived.

Disturbance type determines how connectivity shapes ecosystem resilience

Connectivity is fundamentally important for shaping the resilience of complex human and natural networks when systems are disturbed. Ecosystem resilience is, in part, shaped by the spatial arrangement of habitats, the permeability and fluxes between them, the stabilising functions performed by organisms, their dispersal traits, and the interactions between functions and stressor types. Controlled investigations of the relationships between these phenomena under multiple stressors are sparse, possibly due to logistic and ethical difficulties associated with applying and controlling stressors at landscape scales. Here we show that grazing performance, a key ecosystem function, is linked to connectivity by manipulating the spatial configuration of habitats in microcosms impacted by multiple stressors. Greater connectivity enhanced ecosystem function and reduced variability in grazing performance in unperturbed systems. Improved functional performance was observed in better connected systems stressed by harvesting pressure and temperature rise, but this effect was notably reversed by the spread of disease. Connectivity has complex effects on ecological functions and resilience, and the nuances should be recognised more fully in ecosystem conservation.

Effects of Landscape Characteristics on Annual Survival of Lesser Prairie-Chickens

Abstract Agriculture and development have caused landscape change throughout the southwestern Great Plains in the range of the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). Landscape alteration within the lesser prairie-chicken range may contribute to range contraction and population losses through decreases in survival rates. Our objectives were to determine if: (1) landscape configuration (i.e., the spatial arrangement of habitat) or composition (i.e., the amount of habitat), at the study-site scale, affected annual survival of females, (2) relationships exist between landscape context (i.e., landscape configuration and composition) and weekly survival to assess effects of landscape composition and configuration on lesser prairie-chicken populations, and (3) anthropogenic features influenced daily mortality risk. We captured 170 female lesser prairie-chickens and used very-high-frequency and GPS (Global Positioning System) transmitters to track their movement and survival for 2 y. We used known-f...

Pollinator population size and pollination ecosystem service responses to enhancing floral and nesting resources.

Modeling pollination ecosystem services requires a spatially explicit, process‐based approach because they depend on both the behavioral responses of pollinators to the amount and spatial arrangement of habitat and on the within‐ and between‐season dynamics of pollinator populations in response to land use. We describe a novel pollinator model predicting flower visitation rates by wild central‐place foragers (e.g., nesting bees) in spatially explicit landscapes. The model goes beyond existing approaches by: (1) integrating preferential use of more rewarding floral and nesting resources; (2) considering population growth over time; (3) allowing different dispersal distances for workers and reproductives; (4) providing visitation rates for use in crop pollination models. We use the model to estimate the effect of establishing grassy field margins offering nesting resources and a low quantity of flower resources, and/or late‐flowering flower strips offering no nesting resources but abundant flowers, on bumble bee populations and visitation rates to flowers in landscapes that differ in amounts of linear seminatural habitats and early mass‐flowering crops. Flower strips were three times more effective in increasing pollinator populations and visitation rates than field margins, and this effect increased over time. Late‐blooming flower strips increased early‐season visitation rates, but decreased visitation rates in other late‐season flowers. Increases in population size over time in response to flower strips and amounts of linear seminatural habitats reduced this apparent competition for pollinators. Our spatially explicit, process‐based model generates emergent patterns reflecting empirical observations, such that adding flower resources may have contrasting short‐ and long‐term effects due to apparent competition for pollinators and pollinator population size increase. It allows exploring these effects and comparing effect sizes in ways not possible with other existing models. Future applications include species comparisons, analysis of the sensitivity of predictions to life‐history traits, as well as large‐scale management intervention and policy assessment.

A Landscape Ecologist’s Agenda for Landscape Genetics

This review examines the landscape genetics literature from 2011–2015 and summarises the genetic evidence for the roles of habitat amount (i.e. total area of habitat), configuration (i.e. spatial arrangement of habitat), and matrix (i.e. nature of the intervening landscape between habitat patches) in shaping genetic differentiation and diversity of populations. We found that the vast majority of landscape genetic studies focused on the effects of habitat configuration and intervening matrix permeability on genetic differentiation of populations, and very few consider the consequences of habitat loss (i.e. change in habitat amount) versus fragmentation per se (i.e. change in habitat configuration). In addition, disproportionately few studies consider genetic diversity as a response variable in landscape genetic models. We argue that by ignoring the effects of habitat amount, landscape geneticists are missing an important component of how landscape structure shapes patterns of genetic variation. On the other hand, landscape ecologists may need to consider the confounding role of the matrix to resolve the ongoing debate about the relative importance of habitat loss versus fragmentation per se in determining biological diversity.

Determinants of Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin recruitment under oligotrophic conditions: Implications for conservation management

Sea urchins may deeply shape the structure of macrophyte-dominated communities and require the implementation of sustainable management strategies. In the Mediterranean, the identification of the major recruitment determinants of the keystone sea urchin species Paracentrotus lividus is required, so that source areas of the populations can be identified and exploitation or programmed harvesting can be spatially managed. In this study a collection of eight possible determinants, these encompassing both the biotic (larvae, adult sea urchins, fish, encrusting coralline algae, habitat type and spatial arrangement of habitats) and abiotic (substrate complexity and nutritional status) realms was considered at different spatial scales (site, area, transect and quadrat). Data from a survey including sites subject to different levels of human influence (i.e. from urbanized to protected areas), but all corresponding to an oligotrophic and low-populated region were fitted by means of a generalized linear mixed model. Despite the extensive sampling effort of benthic quadrats, an overall paucity of recruits was found, recruits being aggregated in a very small number of quadrats and in few areas. The analysis of data detected substrate complexity, and adult sea urchin and predatory fish abundances as the momentous determinants of Paracentrotus lividus recruitment. Possible mechanisms of influence are discussed beyond the implications of conservation management.

REVIEW: Beyond the fragmentation debate: a conceptual model to predict when habitat configuration really matters

Summary Research addressing the effects of habitat fragmentation on species, assemblages or ecosystems has been fraught with difficulties, from its conceptual foundation to statistical analyses and interpretation. Yet, it is critical to address such challenges as ecosystems are rapidly being altered across the world. Many studies have concluded that effects of habitat loss exceed those of fragmentation per se, that is, the degree to which a given amount of habitat is broken apart. There is also evidence from different biomes and taxa that habitat configuration, that is, the spatial arrangement of habitat at a given time, may influence several landscape processes such as functional connectivity, edge and matrix effects, and thus population viability. Instead of focusing attention on the relative influence of either habitat loss or fragmentation, we must identify portions of the gradient in habitat amount where configuration effects are most likely to be observed. Here, we suggest that all species are, to a certain degree, sensitive to landscape change and that, assuming a homogeneous matrix, habitat configuration will have a higher influence on species at intermediate values of habitat amount, where configuration has potentially the greatest variability. On the basis of empirical studies and simulations, we expect that species that are relatively tolerant to fragmentation of their habitat will exhibit a wider band where amount and configuration interact compared to species less tolerant to fragmentation. Synthesis and applications. Reducing habitat loss should be a top priority for conservation planners. However, researchers should also investigate the indirect impacts of habitat loss on biodiversity through fragmentation effects. This research aims to identify windows of opportunity where habitat configuration can mitigate to some extent the effects of habitat loss, particularly through the maintenance of functional connectivity.

Effects of global environmental changes on parasitoid–host food webs and biological control

Global environmental changes threaten biodiversity and the interactions between species, and food-web approaches are being used increasingly to measure their community-wide impacts. Here we review how parasitoid–host food webs affect biological control, and how their structure responds to environmental change. We find that land-use intensification tends to produce webs with low complexity and uneven interaction strengths. Dispersal, spatial arrangement of habitats, the species pool and community differences across habitats have all been found to determine how webs respond to landscape structure, though clear effects of landscape complexity on web structure remain elusive. The invasibility of web structures and response of food webs to invasion have been the subject of theoretical and empirical work respectively, and nutrient enrichment has been widely studied in the food-web literature, potentially driving dynamic instability and altering biomass ratios of different trophic levels. Combined with food-web changes observed under climate change, these responses of food webs could signal changes to biological control, though there have been surprisingly few studies linking food-web structure to pest control, and these have produced mixed results. However, there is strong potential for food-web approaches to add value to biological control research, as parasitoid–host webs have been used to predict indirect effects among hosts that share enemies, to study non-target effects of biological control agents and to quantify the use of alternative prey resources by enemies. Future work is needed to link food-web interactions with evolutionary responses to the environment and predator–prey interactions, while incorporating recent advances in predator biodiversity research. This holistic understanding of agroecosystem responses and functioning, made possible by food-web approaches, may hold the key to better management of biological control in changing environments.

Breeding habitat selection of Skylarks varies with crop heterogeneity, time and spatial scale, and reveals spatial and temporal crop complementation

While many studies having investigated the effects of landscape complexity or heterogeneity on farmland biodiversity were focus on semi-natural habitats (e.g. forests, hedgerows), few have analyzed the consequences of local crop heterogeneity on species abundance. Here we quantify the effects of crop heterogeneity on the breeding habitat selection of the Skylark Alauda arvensis at spatial scales ranging from micro-habitat to landscape, in a western France farmland. We address the question of finding the processes behind the crop heterogeneity effect, usually never studied whatever the taxa. We first studied how crop composition at continuous spatial scales from within the breeding territory to the landscape (20-2000m) affected Skylark habitat selection within a breeding season (i.e. the effect of each crop compared to the others), and how this selection changed with time. Second, we examined how the diversity of crops within areas of radius from 20 to 2000m affected habitat selection by Skylarks. Third, we investigated for the processes behind the crop diversity, examining the detailed pattern of crop selection at the territory scale in presence of only two crops, to identify the synergetic effects of the simultaneous presence of two crops. Using an adequate spatial sampling of 200m radius circular plots in which Skylarks positions were mapped twice the year, we observed a strong selection for grasslands, an intermediate selection for cereals and spring-sown crops (changing with scale and time), and an avoidance of oilseed rape. Selection for grasslands increased with the season, selection for spring-sown crops and oilseed rape was stable, while selection for cereals decreased but only at fine scale. Skylarks selected high crop diversity at the territory scale. Similarly, the synergetic effect of the presence of two crops was positive in most cases, and Skylarks preferred area with two crops rather than only one for some pairs of crops, indicative of landscape complementation (requirement for complementary resources located in different crop types). Our results suggest that smaller fields and crops well mixed in the landscape may benefit this farmland specialist, favouring the positive effects of the simultaneous presence of several crops. The study demonstrates the importance of considering simultaneously time and spatial scale dependencies, as well as the synergetic effects and the spatial arrangement of habitats in habitat selection studies, particularly in patchy dynamics environments such as farmlands.

The Speed of Range Shifts in Fragmented Landscapes

Species may be driven extinct by climate change, unless their populations are able to shift fast enough to track regions of suitable climate. Shifting will be faster as the proportion of suitable habitat in the landscape increases. However, it is not known how the spatial arrangement of habitat will affect the speed of range advance, especially when habitat is scarce, as is the case for many specialist species. We develop methods for calculating the speed of advance that are appropriate for highly fragmented, stochastic systems. We reveal that spatial aggregation of habitat tends to reduce the speed of advance throughout a wide range of species parameters: different dispersal distances and dispersal kernel shapes, and high and low extinction probabilities. In contrast, aggregation increases the steady-state proportion of habitat that is occupied (without climate change). Nonetheless, we find that it is possible to achieve both rapid advance and relatively high patch occupancy when the habitat has a “channeled” pattern, resembling corridors or chains of stepping stones. We adapt techniques from electrical circuit theory to predict the rate of advance efficiently for complex, realistic landscape patterns, whereas the rate cannot be predicted by any simple statistic of aggregation or fragmentation. Conservationists are already advocating corridors and stepping stones as important conservation tools under climate change, but they are vaguely defined and have so far lacked a convincing basis in fundamental population biology. Our work shows how to discriminate properties of a landscape's spatial pattern that affect the speed of colonization (including, but not limited to, patterns like corridors and chains of stepping stones), and properties that affect a species' probability of persistence once established. We can therefore point the way to better land use planning approaches, which will provide functional habitat linkages and also maintain local population viability.

Habitat area, quality and connectivity: striking the balance for efficient conservation

Summary1. Population viability can depend on habitat area, habitat quality, the spatial arrangement of habitats (aggregations and connections) and the properties of the intervening non‐breeding (matrix) land. Hodgson et al. [Journal of Applied Ecology46 (2009) 964] and Doerr, Barrett & Doerr (Journal of Applied Ecology, 2011) disagree on the relative importance of these landscape attributes in enabling species to persist and change their distributions in response to climate change.2. A brief review of published evidence suggests that variations in habitat area and quality have bigger effects than variations in spatial arrangement of habitats or properties of the intervening land. Even if structural features in the matrix have a measurable effect on dispersal rates, this does not necessarily lead to significant increases in population viability.3. Large and high‐quality habitats provide source populations and locations for colonisation, so they are the main determinants of the capacity of species to shift their distributions in response to climate change because populations must be established successively in each new region.4. Synthesis and applications. Retaining as much high quality natural and semi‐natural habitat as possible should remain the key focus for conservation, especially during a period of climate change.

What limits the spread of two congeneric butterfly species after their reintroduction: quality or spatial arrangement of habitat?

AbstractPopulation growth and spread of recently reintroduced species is crucial for the success of their reintroduction. We analysed what limits the spread of two congeneric butterfly species Maculinea teleius and Maculinea nausithous, over 10 years following their reintroduction. During this time, their distributions appeared to be limited to a few sites although it was thought that more suitable habitats were available. Thus, we question, does the quality or the spatial arrangement of their habitat limit their spread? Although adult individuals of both species can select high‐quality plots, we show that selection of suitable plots in the area of reintroduction is spatially constrained. A low colonization probability of unoccupied distant plots of high quality was found for both species. The abandonment of occupied plots in Ma. teleius was also found to be dependent on the distance to occupied plots. We conclude that the spatial distribution of the two species during the 10 years following reintroduction was limited by the spatial arrangement of their habitat, rather than by the availability of high‐quality plots. The spatial constraints in movement can explain observed source–sink structures when female butterflies deposit their eggs on low‐quality plots. We conclude that although these species have very similar life histories, they require different approaches to their conservation due to subtle differences in adult habitat use and movement. Conservation of Ma. teleius should concentrate on improving local habitat quality, whereas conservation of Ma. nausithous is predicted to be more effective by creating a spatial network of suitable habitat plots, such as along road verges.

A conceptual framework for predicting the effects of urban environments on floras

1. With the majority of people now living in urban environments, urbanization is arguably the most intensive and irreversible ecosystem change on the planet. 2. Urbanization transforms floras through a series of filters that change: (i) habitat availability; (ii) the spatial arrangement of habitats; (iii) the pool of plant species; and (iv) evolutionary selection pressures on populations persisting in the urban environment. 3. Using a framework based on mechanisms of change leads to specific predictions of floristic change in urban environments. Explicitly linking drivers of floristic change to predicted outcomes in urban areas can facilitate sustainable management of urban vegetation as well as the conservation of biodiversity. 4. Synthesis. We outline how the use of our proposed framework, based on environmental filtering, can be used to predict responses of floras to urbanization. These floristic responses can be assessed using metrics of taxonomic composition, phylogenetic relatedness among species, plant trait distributions or plant community structure. We outline how this framework can be applied to studies that compare floras within cities or among cities to better understand the various floristic responses to urbanization.

Interlinkage between Caribbean coral reefs and seagrass beds through feeding migrations by grunts (Haemulidae) depends on habitat accessibility

Tropical marine habitats are often energetically linked through feeding migrations by fish. A widely accepted assumption is that species of Haemulidae (grunts) undertake nocturnal feed- ing migrations from coral reefs to seagrass beds. This has been based on studies investigating migra- tions between small patch reefs and surrounding seagrass beds located in lagoons. Due to the size and location of these patch reefs, we argue that this does not represent migration from coral reef to seagrass ecosystems, and a literature search shows limited proof for such migration. We hypothesised that the spatial arrangement of these habitats in the seascape may have profound effects on the degree to which such migrations occur. Haemulon flavolineatum caught from seagrass beds located in semi-enclosed embayments, and thus isolated to a high degree from adjacent reefs, showed a diet and stable isotope signature of muscle tissue that differed from those collected from the coral reef. In contrast, fishes from open seagrass systems without restricted access from the reef showed the same stable isotope signature as those collected from the coral reef, suggesting feeding from the same habitat, viz. the seagrass beds. Additional visual census data showed that semi-enclosed seagrass beds did not have elevated densities of large-sized fish at night, which would be expected if large individuals from the reef migrated to the seagrass beds to feed. The data thus show that interlinkages between coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs and seagrass beds, by fishes may strongly depend on the spatial arrangement of habitats within the seascape.

Using estuarine landscape structure to model distribution patterns in nekton communities and in juveniles of fishery species

Spatial relationships between distribution patterns of many species and vegetated habi- tats over multiple scales have been used in terrestrial ecosystems to help identify and map important areas for conservation and management. This approach is not widely used in characterizing habitat use of nekton species in estuaries, but it has great potential because these systems contain fairly dis- crete vegetated habitat types, and the distribution of nekton species can be influenced by the spatial arrangement of habitat. We examined the spatial relationships between estuarine habitats and nekton species to help map estuarine nekton communities for use in conservation planning. Using a Geographic Information System (GIS), we measured area (m 2 ) and edge density (m km -2 ) of estuar- ine habitats over multiple scales in Charlotte Harbor, Florida (USA). We used redundancy analysis (RDA) to examine spatial patterns of nekton community composition, habitat, and local habitat characteristics. RDA revealed that spatial patterns in nekton community composition were most highly correlated with distance from the nearest pass to the Gulf of Mexico (r = -0.97) and with salinity (r = 0.94) and area of continuous seagrass habitat (r = 0.91). We used GIS maps of 2 variables (distance from the nearest pass and area of continuous seagrass habitat) to model spatial patterns in nekton community composition and the distribution of several juveniles of fishery species (red drum Sciaenops ocellatus, gray snapper Lutjanus griseus, lane snapper L. synagris, sand seatrout Cynoscion arenarius, and spotted seatrout C. nebulosus). The results suggest that incorporating measures of habitat area (over multiple scales) and spatial position into spatial models of nekton distribution is useful in conservation and management planning.

Community processes as emergent properties: Modelling multilevel interaction in small mammals communities

Community interactions of small rodents have attracted the attention of ecologists for many years due to their abrupt changes in population numbers, their impact on the whole biocoenosis and also because of immense damages to agricultural production and forestry. In particular, regularly oscillating rodent populations in Scandinavia have been subject of discussions among theoretically and empirically working ecologists for many decades. Spatial and temporal restrictions in empirical work led to various attempts to model these dynamics to understand large scale effects resulting from complex interactions in variable cause-effect networks of the numerous involved system components. The presented individual-based model for the first time described small rodent communities as a set of interacting autonomously acting agents with a detailed life history and behavioural repertoire in a food-web setup composed of three trophic levels (rodents, rodents food and predators). It thus allowed to integrate all relevant factors accounting for the dynamics of rodents which acted in a simulated environment containing the spatial arrangement of habitats and seasonal changing conditions. Due to the representation with interacting entities, the dynamics on higher levels resulted in a self-organisation process as emergent properties. This differentiation between the focal and the operational level allowed to investigate processes interacting between different integration levels and to adapt the model to different scenarios easily as well as to specify it for a large range of rodents species. Simulations have been executed for two different scenarios. The Bornhöved scenario simulating the situation of a Northern German rodent community in a beech forest represented bottom-up effects of mast events on population dynamics. The Scandinavian scenario which depicted the most important actors of these oscillating rodent communities, gave new insights into the processes causing the sudden decline of rodent populations. Both, lack of resources and predation, contributed to about 90% of mortality, but no pattern could be found when relating either cause with the properties of the respective cycle. Bottom up and top down control vary unpredictably and chaotically in the model. These results may explain considerable parts of contradicting empirical findings.

Simulation of alpine chamois Rupicapra r. rupicapra habitat use

We developed a spatially explicit, individual-based model with the following aims: (a) to model daily activity and movement of chamois using behavioural data, (b) to investigate the effects of data-based and random parameters, respectively, on simulated habitat use patterns and (c) to explore the effects of changes in habitat preference on habitat use by chamois. Simulated habitat use on different habitat preference maps was consistent with expected habitat use resulting from preference for and abundance of the habitat types. The spatial pattern of habitat use depended on the activity rather than on the movement parameters. Realistic patterns were only obtained when parameter values for activity were based upon field data, regardless of whether movement parameters were random or data-based. While activity parameters have no explicit information on habitat use, those describing the occurrence and duration of the behaviours do contain implicit spatial information. Data-based movement and/or random activity resulted in a larger range than random movement and/or data-based activity. Simulated forest use by chamois was not affected by the changes in habitat preference for the alpine pastures when the spatial arrangement of habitat was taken into account.

Simulation of alpine chamois Rupicapra r. rupicapra habitat use

We developed a spatially explicit, individual-based model with the following aims: (a) to model daily activity and movement of chamois using behavioural data, (b) to investigate the effects of data-based and random parameters, respectively, on simulated habitat use patterns and (c) to explore the effects of changes in habitat preference on habitat use by chamois. Simulated habitat use on different habitat preference maps was consistent with expected habitat use resulting from preference for and abundance of the habitat types. The spatial pattern of habitat use depended on the activity rather than on the movement parameters. Realistic patterns were only obtained when parameter values for activity were based upon field data, regardless of whether movement parameters were random or data-based. While activity parameters have no explicit information on habitat use, those describing the occurrence and duration of the behaviours do contain implicit spatial information. Data-based movement and/or random activity resulted in a larger range than random movement and/or data-based activity. Simulated forest use by chamois was not affected by the changes in habitat preference for the alpine pastures when the spatial arrangement of habitat was taken into account.