The effects of local and landscape-scale habitat characteristics and prey availability on corridor use by carnivores: A comparison of two contrasting farmlands
The effects of local and landscape-scale habitat characteristics and prey availability on corridor use by carnivores: A comparison of two contrasting farmlands
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jnc.2012.11.004
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发表时间：
2013-04-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Smilauer, Petr
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cervinka, Jaroslav;Salek, Martin;Smilauer, Petr
走廊被认为通过为包括食肉动物在内的许多物种提供连通性和合适的栖息地来减少栖息地丧失和碎片化的负面生物影响。尽管廊道结构维护被认为是人类主导景观中食肉动物保护的重要工具，但令人惊讶的是，人们对不同因素在不同空间尺度上的影响知之甚少。这项研究的主要目的是确定当地和景观规模的栖息地特征和猎物的可用性如何影响中欧农业景观中食肉动物对走廊的使用。此外，我们还研究了两个不同生境丧失和碎片化程度的不同景观中食肉动物走廊的出现情况，以评估物种特异性反应对区域环境的相对影响。结果表明，主要猎物(小型哺乳动物)的可获得性是影响食肉动物走廊使用的最关键因素。影响走廊使用的其他重要因素是走廊宽度(正)、灌木比例(正)和当地交通流量低的道路(正)。单一物种模型显示，在两个空间尺度上，种间和区域特定的食肉动物偏好存在差异。我们的发现证实了多层次方法评估物种特定栖息地需求的普遍重要性，将其作为确定在人类主导的农业景观中有效保护食肉动物的适当方法的关键工具。(C)2012年爱思唯尔股份有限公司。版权所有。
Corridors are thought to reduce the negative biological effects of habitat loss and fragmentation by providing connectivity and suitable habitat for many species, including carnivores. Although corridor structure maintenance is considered to be an essential tool for carnivore conservation in a human-dominated landscape, surprisingly little is known about the effects of different factors at various spatial scales. The main aim of this study was to determine how local and landscape-scale habitat characteristics and prey availability influence the corridor use by carnivores in a Central European agricultural landscape. Moreover we investigated carnivore corridor occurrence in two contrasting landscapes that differ in level of habitat loss and fragmentation to evaluate relative effect of species-specific response to regional context. Results show that the availability of principal prey (small mammals) was the most crucial factor affecting carnivore corridor use. Other important factors influencing corridor use were corridor width (positive), proportion of shrubs (positive) and presence of local, low-traffic, roads (positive). Single species models revealed interspecific and area-specific differences in carnivore preference at both spatial scales. Our findings confirm the general importance of multi-level approach to evaluating species-specific habitat requirements as a crucial tool for determining suitable methods for carnivore efficient conservation in human-dominated agricultural landscape. (C) 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.