Quantifying habitat use is vital to understanding animal ecology. Herein, we contrast classification‐based (i.e., animal locations are placed into habitat categories for subsequent analyses) and distance‐based (i.e., distance between animal locations and habitat features are used in subsequent analyses) approaches for analyzing habitat use data. Compositional analysis (CA) and a distance‐based analysis (DA) were used to quantify habitat selection of Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). We qualitatively compared the outcome of these different procedures to illustrate advantages of the DA approach. The DA approach identified edges as an important habitat feature, and location error did not alter conclusions from DA. In contrast, CA did not detect the importance of edge, and presence of location errors altered conclusions. Moreover, modeling the distribution of location error did not effectively reduce sensitivity to error within CA. Distance‐based approaches to habitat analyses are not restricted to linear or point habitat features, require no explicit error handling, and permit extraction of more information from the data than classification‐based analyses alone. Corresponding Editor: J. M. Fryxell
Carrion is a valuable nutrient resource used by a diversity of vertebrates across the globe. However, vertebrate scavenging ecology remains an understudied area of science, especially in regards to how biotic and abiotic factors influence scavenging community composition. Here we elucidate how fundamental biotic and abiotic factors interact to modulate the efficiency and composition of vertebrate scavengers by investigating scavenging dynamics across a large gradient in carcass sizes and habitat types representative of many temperate ecosystems, as well as between two seasons reflecting differences in invertebrate activity. We found carcass size and season influenced carcass fate and persistence, as well as the richness and composition of vertebrate scavenger communities utilizing carrion resources. Species richness, which increased as carcass size increased and was higher during the cool season, had a significant effect on carcass persistence. In addition, habitat type influenced carcass detection times by vertebrates, and we observed relatively distinct scavenging communities associated with carcasses of differing sizes. This research highlights a pervasive limitation to the interpretation of results of previous studies as research failing to incorporate carcass size and habitat type could result in the over or underrepresentation of vertebrate scavengers in food web dynamics.
Some tick populations have increased dramatically in the past several decades leading to an increase in the incidence and emergence of tick-borne diseases. Management strategies that can effectively reduce tick populations while better understanding regional tick phenology is needed. One promising management strategy is prescribed burning. However, the efficacy of prescribed burning as a mechanism for tick control is unclear because past studies have provided conflicting data, likely due to a failure of some studies to simulate operational management scenarios and/or account for other predictors of tick abundance. Therefore, our study was conducted to increase knowledge of tick population dynamics relative to long-term prescribed fire management. Furthermore, we targeted a region, southwestern Georgia and northwestern Florida (USA), in which little is known regarding tick dynamics so that basic phenology could be determined. Twenty-one plots with varying burn regimes (burned surrounded by burned [BB], burned surrounded by unburned [BUB], unburned surrounded by burned [UBB], and unburned surrounded by unburned [UBUB]) were sampled monthly for two years while simultaneously collecting data on variables that can affect tick abundance (e.g., host abundance, vegetation structure, and micro- and macro-climatic conditions). In total, 47,185 ticks were collected, of which, 99% were Amblyomma americanum, 0.7% were Ixodes scapularis, and fewer numbers of Amblyomma maculatum, Ixodes brunneus, and Dermacentor variabilis. Monthly seasonality trends were similar between 2010 and 2011. Long-term prescribed burning consistently and significantly reduced tick counts (overall and specifically for A. americanum and I. scapularis) regardless of the burn regimes and variables evaluated. Tick species composition varied according to burn regime with A. americanum dominating at UBUB, A. maculatum at BB, I. scapularis at UBB, and a more even composition at BUB. These data indicate that regular prescribed burning is an effective tool for reducing tick populations and ultimately may reduce risk of tick-borne disease.
Species intolerant to fire, defined as lacking adaptations needed to establish dominance in a frequently burned landscape, are found within fire‐prone ecosystems globally. Such species are frequently targeted for reduction or eradication to further conservation or restoration of biological diversity because the dominant paradigm in restoration of fire‐dependent communities is to reduce the dominance or eliminate fire‐intolerant invaders. To explore this paradigm, we examined the role of oaks (Quercus spp.) within fire‐dependent upland and sandhill longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystems of the southeastern United States. These pine‐oak ecosystems have among the highest levels of biodiversity in the temperate zone. This diversity is inextricably linked to a frequent fire regime and includes many species readily top‐killed by fire, particularly oaks, which were common in the early settlement landscape. In examining the diversity of oak species found within longleaf pine ecosystems, we identify a group of pyrophytic oaks and show that these oaks are critical components of sandhill and other longleaf pine ecosystems, and their occurrence should be considered as part of conservation and restoration goals. Providing a better understanding of the ecological role of such species will benefit conservation management and strategic planning in fire‐prone southeastern ecosystems and more broadly where fire is used as a management tool. © 2014 The Wildlife Society.
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