Modeling of potential habitat suitability of Hippocamelus bisulcus: effectiveness of a protected areas network in Southern Patagonia

Abstract

Introduction: Huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus Molina) is the most threatened flag species of Southern Patagonia, where conservation efforts were not effective to avoid the retraction of its distribution area. Habitat quality modeling can assist to design better management strategies for regional conservation planning. The objective was to elaborate one habitat suitability map for huemul, defining the environmental characteristics at landscape level, and determining the distribution of the suitable habitat inside the current natural reserve network. Methods: We used a database of 453 records and explored 40 potential explanatory variables (climate, topographic, and landscape variables including human-related ones) to develop one habitat suitability map using the Environmental Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) for Santa Cruz province (Argentina). We combined the outputs in a GIS project using different shapes, including the current natural reserve network. Results: We defined the potential habitat for huemul, where forest edges and ecotone zones (e.g., mainly alpine environments) were the most important environmental variables, as well as some forest types (e.g., Nothofagus pumilio). Habitat losses were found in the extreme potential distribution areas (northern and southern areas), probably related to the increasing ranch activities. The current natural reserve network maintains approximately half of the huemul potential habitat in Santa Cruz province, where National Parks presented the similar conservation importance than the Provincial natural reserves. Conclusions: Habitat suitability model for huemul can be used as a decision support system for new management strategies at different landscape levels to improve the current conservation efforts.

Improving the knowledge of plant potential biodiversity-ecosystem services links using maps at the regional level in Southern Patagonia

“…Then, the database was complemented with the available data for the selected species in the Sistema Nacional de Datos Biológicos of Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (www.datosbiologicos.mincyt.gob.ar) (final presence points = 5914). Additionally, we explored 40 potential explanatory variables, which were rasterized at 90 × 90 m resolution using the nearest resampling technique on the ArcMap 10.0 software (ESRI 2011), where all variables (climate, topography, landscape) used in this study were previously described in Rosas et al (2017Rosas et al ( , 2018.…”

“…ENFA used a cross-validation (Hirzel et al 2006), evaluating the robustness and the predictive power of the models through Boyce index (B), continuous Boyce index (Bcont), proportion of validation points (P), absolute validation index (AVI), and contrast validation index (CVI) (Boyce et al 2002;Hirzel and Arlettaz 2003;Hirzel et al 2004Hirzel et al , 2006. All these indices were described in Rosas et al (2017Rosas et al ( , 2018.…”

“…Remote sensing techniques became a powerful tool for qualitative and quantitative modelling of plant species distribution and habitat prediction at the landscape level (Wiersma et al 2011). One of the most employed methods is based on the combination of field plots with satellite data (Dubuis et al 2013;Pottier et al 2013), where the Biomapper software showed its advantage to the development of potential habitability suitability (PHS) models (Hirzel et al 2001(Hirzel et al , 2006 in areas with scarce data as Southern Patagonia (Rosas et al 2017). These models relate regional environmental characteristics (e.g.…”

“…The efforts to increase landscape ecology studies represent a challenge in remote areas such as Santa Cruz Province, where available data is scarce. Biodiversity mapping was studied through endangered species (Rosas et al 2017), as well as lizards and darkling beetles (Rosas et al 2018(Rosas et al , 2019c, which represent good proxies for specific vegetation types. Martínez proposed understory plants as proxies of potential biodiversity in Tierra del Fuego forests, because they have a wider distribution than other taxonomic groups, and Rosas et al (2019a) also apply this methodology for Santa Cruz forests.…”

Analysis of the effectiveness of landscape protection in the Liancheng National Nature Reserve, Gansu, China

“…The former mainly refers to natural landscapes but also includes some human-made landscapes that are beneficial to wildlife; the latter refers to the types of human-made landscape that cause interference and damage to natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats (Rovero et al 2017;Richard et al 2011;Lin et al 2017). It is generally accepted that PAs are effective for the conservation of natural habitats (Rosas et al 2017;Guo et al 2017). However, some scholars have argued that the loss of wildlife habitat in some PAs due to increased anthropogenic interference has still not been effectively curtailed, questioning the conservation effectiveness of nature reserves (Fuller et al 2010;Guadilla-Sáez et al 2019).…”