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Library Intra-specific niche partitioning obscures the importance of fine-scale habitat data in species distribution models

Intra-specific niche partitioning obscures the importance of fine-scale habitat data in species distribution models

Intra-specific niche partitioning obscures the importance of fine-scale habitat data in species distribution models

Resource information

Date of publication
december 2010
Resource Language
ISBN / Resource ID
AGRIS:US201301865283
Pages
2455-2467

Geographic information systems (GIS) allow researchers to make cost-effective, spatially explicit predictions of species' distributions across broad geographic areas. However, there has been little research on whether using fine-scale habitat data collected in the field could produce more robust models of species' distributions. Here we used radio-telemetry data collected on a declining species, the North American wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta), to test whether fine-scale habitat variables were better predictors of occurrence than land-cover and topography variables measured in a GIS. Patterns of male and female occurrence were similar in the spring; however, females used a much wider array of land-cover types and topographic positions in the summer and early fall, making it difficult for GIS-based models to accurately predict female occurrence at this time of year. Males on the other hand consistently selected flat, low-elevation, riparian areas throughout the year, and this consistency in turn led to the development of a strong GIS-based model. These results demonstrate the importance of taking a more sex-specific and temporally dynamic view of the environmental niche.

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Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s)

Tingley, Reid
Herman, Tom B.
Pulsifer, Mark D.
McCurdy, Dean G.
Stephens, Jeff P.

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Data Provider