The evolutionary and population ecology of habitat selection

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All organisms require space in which to live and all are capable, at some point in their life cycle, of moving from one habitat to another.  The range of habitats occupied, and dispersal among habitats, determines the geographical range of species and how the sizes of their populations change from place to place and through time.  But ecologists are only beginning to learn the rules that animals use to select habitat, how their choice responds to environmental change, and how habitat, and movement among habitats, influences population density.  Most researchers studying these issues attempt to gain insight using only theoretical models, maps of the current distribution of species, or observations on individuals in the lab.  Our approach is fundamentally different.  We merge theory, computer simulations, controlled experiments and detailed observations on individuals to assess habitat selection.  To do this, we designed and built the world's first Habitron; a field facility designed explicitly to study habitat and habitat selection on mammals.  Gates between the Habitron's 24 enclosures allow us to manipulate the habitat choices that are available to individuals.  The Habitron is equipped with the most recent technologies to simulate habitat selection with computer programs, to monitor the movement of individuals, and to evaluate their success.  We will use the Habitron to learn whether animals choose habitats that maximize their evolutionary fitness, how  patch use by animals can measure the quality of their habitat, how environmental change modifies habitat choice, and how habitat selection helps to regulate population density.  We will then ground-truth our results on free-living populations to evaluate how our understanding of habitat selection can aid in the conservation and management of natural populations.