Living on the edge: Space use of Eurasian red squirrels in marginal high-elevation habitat

Romeo, Claudia; Wauters, Luc A.; Preatoni, Damiano; Tosi, Guido; Martinoli, Adriano

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2010.09.005

Cited by 28 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Animals can show high plasticity in their ranging behaviour to cope with the ecological constraints imposed in marginal habitats (Romeo et al ., ). Higher altitudes are less productive (Costin et al ., ) and, as the results here show, wombat home range increased with altitude, providing support for the hypothesis that low food availability leads to larger home range sizes in mammals (Jones, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Field data on the movement of individuals at the range boundary are sparse (Kanda et al, 2009). However, several studies have shown that space use and movements of animals are greater in marginal habitats at the range edge (Sunde et al, 2001;Romeo et al, 2010), or on the invading front of an expanding range (Alford et al, 2009). These differences in behavioural traits might give animals in marginal populations the advantage of increased dispersal ability (Phillips, Brown & Shine, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seasonal and altitudinal influences on the home range and movements of common wombats in the Australian Snowy Mountains

Matthews

Green

2012

Journal of Zoology

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Many animals throughout the world are excluded from areas because of seasonal snow cover. The aim of this study was to determine how snow influences the home range use and movements of the common wombat, a large burrowing mammal that remains active in the subalpine zone of the Australian Snowy Mountains throughout winter but is not resident in the alpine zone (above treeline). Global positioning system collars were deployed on wombats to monitor nightly movements continuously over both the winter and non‐winter periods. Home ranges of wombats (six male, five female) were far larger than previously reported (mean = 172 ha; 95% kernel method), and increased significantly with altitude. Wombats typically remained in their non‐winter home range during winter, but they contracted their range (by 7–43%) and shifted their centre of activity. Some wombats also moved more slowly and did not travel as far each night during winter. This study has shown that wombats at their upper range limit in marginal habitat exhibit a high degree of behavioural flexibility and have a surprising capacity for long‐distance movements over large home ranges, despite their need to burrow. This suggests that the alpine zone is easily within their dispersal range, but they are currently constrained by snow depth. If the snow cover continues to decline, then wombats will be limited only by the suitability of the habitat in the alpine zone, such as for burrowing.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal and altitudinal influences on the home range and movements of common wombats in the Australian Snowy Mountains

Matthews

Green

2012

Journal of Zoology

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“…1). This pattern has been found in plants (Volis et al 1998), insects (Otaki et al 2010), mammals (Romeo et al 2010), and birds (Sunde et al 2001).…”

Section: A Conceptual Model Based On Observed Alternatives For Intrassupporting

confidence: 54%

The effects of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation on forecasts of species range shifts under climate change

et al. 2014

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Species are the unit of analysis in many global change and conservation biology studies; however, species are not uniform entities but are composed of different, sometimes locally adapted, populations differing in plasticity. We examined how intraspecific variation in thermal niches and phenotypic plasticity will affect species distributions in a warming climate. We first developed a conceptual model linking plasticity and niche breadth, providing five alternative intraspecific scenarios that are consistent with existing literature. Secondly, we used ecological niche-modeling techniques to quantify the impact of each intraspecific scenario on the distribution of a virtual species across a geographically realistic setting. Finally, we performed an analogous modeling exercise using real data on the climatic niches of different tree provenances. We show that when population differentiation is accounted for and dispersal is restricted, forecasts of species range shifts under climate change are even more pessimistic than those using the conventional assumption of homogeneously high plasticity across a species' range. Suitable population-level data are not available for most species so identifying general patterns of population differentiation could fill this gap. However, the literature review revealed contrasting patterns among species, urging greater levels of integration among empirical, modeling and theoretical research on intraspecific phenotypic variation.

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“…Most tree squirrels reduce home-range size when overall food abundance is high and the converse occurs when food availability is low (Lurz et al 2000;Wauters et al 2005;Romeo et al 2010).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

The effects of seed availability on habitat use by a specialist seed predator

et al. 2010

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Space-use patterns of seed predators are strongly affected by spatiotemporal variation in the abundance of different tree seeds, their major food source. However, most studies have measured relationships between overall food availability and space use, and there are few cases where effects of different food resources have been explored. We studied the effects of two food resources, Norway spruce and silver fir seeds, on space and habitat use in red squirrel in a subalpine conifer forest from 2000 to 2006. Fir seeds disperse in the autumn of the year they are produced, spruce the following spring. We estimated spruce and fir seed availability within individual home ranges and monitored home-range size using radiotelemetry. Males had larger home ranges than females and the sexes responded differently to variation in food and density. Spruce seed availability negatively affected home-range and core-area sizes of males in spring-summer. Space use was not affected by fir seed availability. Squirrels positively selected spruce for foraging and spruce was always preferred over fir. Our results showed that spruce, but not fir, affected space and habitat use of squirrels, suggesting they do not behaviourally respond to early seed dispersal in fir.

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Living on the edge: Space use of Eurasian red squirrels in marginal high-elevation habitat

Cited by 28 publications

References 66 publications

Seasonal and altitudinal influences on the home range and movements of common wombats in the Australian Snowy Mountains

Seasonal and altitudinal influences on the home range and movements of common wombats in the Australian Snowy Mountains

The effects of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation on forecasts of species range shifts under climate change

The effects of seed availability on habitat use by a specialist seed predator

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