Movement patterns of an arboreal gecko in fragmented agricultural landscapes reveal matrix avoidance

Hansen, Nicole A.; Driscoll, Don A.; Michael, Damian; Lindenmayer, David B.

doi:10.1111/acv.12505

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…individual tendency to dispersal) and extrinsic factors (e.g. habitat quality, predation pressure) (Santos‐Barrera et al ., 2008; Doherty & Driscoll, 2018; Hansen et al ., 2020). These punctuated movements could reflect behavioural decisions of lizards to move between land cover types within the home range.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We predicted high hourly and inter‐day movement rates by lizards inhabiting farms compared to animals in tree patches and grasslands, because tree and grassland areas may offer more cover and abundant prey than harvested farms (Gehring & Swihart, 2004; Rotem et al ., 2013). Conservation strategies often aim to mitigate the impacts of fragmentation on animals through restoration and protection of core habitats (Hansen et al ., 2020). Using the kind of tracking information that we present in this study, research can identify the habitats that animals prefer to use in farming landscapes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of land cover on reptile movement and habitat use in farming landscapes

Balouch

Driscoll

Naseer

et al. 2022

Animal Conservation

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Agriculture is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity worldwide, but knowledge of how agriculture modifies animal movement, which is crucial for survival, is limited. Here, we examined the effect of landscape composition on the movements of the oriental garden lizard Calotes versicolor in agricultural landscapes of north‐central Pakistan. We radio‐tracked 32 individuals over 5 months to determine whether land cover type (farmland, tree patches, grassland) influences hourly movement rate, inter‐day distance moved, and activity area size. We found that hourly movement rates were higher in tree patches compared to grasslands, and higher when animals moved between land cover types rather than within individual land cover types. Activity area size and movement rates became smaller as the season progressed, but they did not differ according to animal sex or body size. Habitat selection analysis showed that lizards preferred tree patches, avoided farms, roads, water bodies and human dwellings, and used grasslands in proportion to availability. When lizards used farmlands, they were found in field margins 85% of the time. Our results emphasize the importance of treed areas as reptile habitat in these highly modified agricultural lands. Agricultural intensification that reduces the availability of tree patches and field margins will likely reduce the extent to which lizards can use the landscape by removing preferred habitat. Maintaining tree cover and small fields with field margins should promote the coexistence of wildlife conservation and food production in agricultural landscapes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of land cover on reptile movement and habitat use in farming landscapes

Balouch

Driscoll

Naseer

et al. 2022

Animal Conservation

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“…Further, changes in the spatial configuration and distance between habitat patches can alter connectivity and affect the capacity of species to move through the landscape and access key resources (Driscoll et al 2013;Nimmo et al 2019). In modified landscapes, species may alter their movement patterns to avoid unfavourable habitat (Hansen et al 2020). This may in turn influence migration patterns and rates of recolonisation and dispersal, leading to reduced gene flow and consequently reduced genetic diversity (Neuwald and Templeton 2013;Herrmann et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2019). In modified landscapes, species may alter their movement patterns to avoid unfavourable habitat (Hansen et al . 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation cover and configuration drive reptile species distributions in a fragmented landscape

2022

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Context Habitat loss and fragmentation are key drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide, yet the influence of landscape structure on species distributions is unknown. Globally, reptiles are thought to be especially sensitive to landscape modification due to their limited capacity for dispersal and reliance on native vegetation. New knowledge of how landscape structure influences species distributions is needed to inform conservation strategies. Aims Our principal aim was to examine the influence of landscape structure on the distributions of 40 terrestrial reptile species in Victoria, southeast Australia. Methods We obtained species occurrence records from the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas, and used MaxEnt to model the distributions of reptile species within Victoria using biophysical and landscape structure variables. A moving window analysis was applied to a land cover map to derive five landscape structure metrics; two metrics represented landscape cover and three represented landscape configuration. Key results Climate variables were generally found to be the strongest drivers of species distributions, although 80% of reptile species were also influenced by landscape structure (permutation importance ≥5%). Of the five landscape structure variables, extent of native vegetation had the greatest influence (30 of 40 species), followed by habitat shape. For Lerista bougainvillii and Tiliqua rugosa, native vegetation cover had a greater influence on their distributions than climate variables. Most species responded positively to native vegetation extent, whereas responses to other landscape structure variables were varied. Conclusions Although most studies of reptile distributions only use biophysical variables in modelling, our research shows that at the scale of our study area, reptile species distributions were also influenced by landscape structure; extent of native vegetation was an important predictor for most species. Integrating landscape structure in modelling has the potential to improve our ability to predict species distributions. Implications Because species distributions are likely to shift due to climate change, knowledge of the influence of landscape structure on distributions will help land managers to facilitate successful range expansions in fragmented landscapes. Our findings indicate that management focused on increasing the extent of native vegetation is likely to provide benefit to most reptile species.

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“…In particular, with the growing availability of high resolution movement data and constant improvement of the applied tagging devices ). The provided overview on pathsegmentation methods should therefore help to utilize the available date to its full potential and propagate this kind of analyses or spark new ideas for research in movement ecology (e.g., Hansen et al 2019) Benchmarking resistance models for red deer…”

Section: Identifying Changes In Movement Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining landscape genetics and movement ecology to assess functional connectivity for red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Hendrik¹

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Red deer (Cervus elaphus) throughout central Europe are impacted by different anthropogenic activities including habitat fragmentation, selective hunting and translocations. This has substantial influences on genetic diversity and the long-term conservation of local populations of this species. Here we use genetic samples from 480 red deer individuals to assess genetic diversity and differentiation of the 12 administrative management units located in Schleswig Holstein, the northernmost federal state in Germany.We applied multiple analytical approaches and show that the history of local populations (i.e., translocations, culling of individuals outside of designated red deer zones, anthropogenic infrastructures) has led to comparably low levels of genetic diversity. Mean expected heterozygosity was below 0.6 and we observed on average 4.2 alleles across 12 microsatellite loci. Effective population sizes below the recommended level of 50 were estimated for multiple local populations.Our estimates of genetic structure and gene flow show that red deer in northern Germany are best described as a complex network of asymmetrically connected subpopulations, with high genetic exchange among some local populations and reduced connectivity of others. Genetic diversity was also correlated with population densities of neighbouring management units.Based on these findings, we suggest that connectivity among existing management units needs to be considered in the practical management of the species, which means that some administrative management units should be managed together, while the effective isolation of other units needs to be mitigated.

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Movement patterns of an arboreal gecko in fragmented agricultural landscapes reveal matrix avoidance

Cited by 8 publications

References 67 publications

Impacts of land cover on reptile movement and habitat use in farming landscapes

Impacts of land cover on reptile movement and habitat use in farming landscapes

Vegetation cover and configuration drive reptile species distributions in a fragmented landscape

Combining landscape genetics and movement ecology to assess functional connectivity for red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

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