Hemmingmoore, Heather and Aronsson, Malin and Åkesson, Mikael and Persson, Jens and Andren, Henrik
(2020).
Evaluating habitat suitability and connectivity for a recolonizing large carnivore.
Biological Conservation. 242
, 108352
, 2-9
[Journal article]
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Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. 2MB |
Abstract
The conservation of wide-ranging species presents challenges in a world of intensified human land use, forcing animals to occupy and recolonize human-modified landscapes. Although identifying suitable habitat and ensuring connectivity are important in supporting natural recolonization, these actions are rarely validated due to difficulties in monitoring such events. In Sweden, the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is now recolonizing its former range, after centuries of persecution. We investigated resource selection based on telemetry data from 108 lynx monitored over 20 years. We assessed the differences between the established population in central Sweden and the recolonizing population in southern Sweden, and between established and dispersing individuals. We found that models based on central Sweden successfully identified core habitat patches for establishment in southern Sweden, validated after recolonization. We also found that lynx selected for higher habitat suitability during the recolonization phase, and that dispersing individuals were less selective than established lynx. Using cost-distance analysis, we assessed connectivity between central and southern Sweden, and found that landscape permeability was higher when based on dispersing lynx compared to established lynx. Altogether, our findings suggest that when landscapes are sufficiently similar between source and recolonization areas, resource selection information from an established population can be useful for managers seeking to facilitate recolonization of wide-ranging species. We recommend more frequent use of validation during and after recolonization events, to improve our common understanding of habitat suitability and connectivity modeling, and therefore to enable more active management of recolonization events.
Authors/Creators: | Hemmingmoore, Heather and Aronsson, Malin and Åkesson, Mikael and Persson, Jens and Andren, Henrik | ||||||
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Title: | Evaluating habitat suitability and connectivity for a recolonizing large carnivore | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Biological Conservation | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 242 | ||||||
Article number: | 108352 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 9 | ||||||
Publisher: | Elsevier | ||||||
ISSN: | 0006-3207 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Journal article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology | ||||||
Keywords: | Lynx lynx-lynx, resource selection functions, home-range size, eurasian lynx, fragmented landscapes, patch connectivity, population-size, conservation, prey, dispersal | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-105316 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-105316 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 16936 | ||||||
Faculty: | S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Ecology (S) > Dept. of Ecology | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 26 May 2020 12:58 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:22 |
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