Modelling the distribution of short-toed eagle (Circaetus gallicus) in semi-arid Mediterranean landscapes: identifying important explanatory variables and their implications for its conservation

Iborra, Germán M. López; Limiñana, Rubén; Pavón, Diego; Martínez-Pérez, José Emilio

doi:10.1007/s10344-010-0402-0

Cited by 24 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…Forests are important for short-toed snake eagles because the species nests in these habitats; this is in agreement with previous research (Sa´nchez-Zapata and Calvo 1999; Bustamante and Seoane 2004;Bakaloudis et al 2005;Lo´pez-Iborra et al 2011). As shown by the high Wald value of the variable ''square root forest'' (Table 2), the increase of forested areas is important for the presence of short-toed snake eagles; however, there is a threshold value beyond which the extension of forests becomes limiting for this species, since snake eagles hunt in open areas where reptilian prey are probably abundant and most accessible (see Moreno-Rueda and Pizarro 2007;Bakaloudis 2009;Lo´pez-Iborra et al 2011). Mean altitude may be important in the BRT model because, in Italy, forests are almost absent from lowlands, such as the Po valley, and because agriculture on the Italian plains is intensive (monoculture).…”

Section: Ecological Parameterssupporting

confidence: 88%

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Motion capacity, geography and ecological features explain the present distribution of a migratory top predator

Panuccio

Lucia²,

Agostini³

et al. 2014

Ecological Research

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Presence and distribution of ecological barriers shapes the distribution of migratory birds as well as any other living organism. In Italy, short-toed snake eagles (Circaetus gallicus) breed in the northern and western areas of the peninsula but the species is rare in the south or the islands. The Italian population of this species migrates across the Mediterranean at the Strait of Gibraltar rather than crossing the large stretch of sea between Sicily and Tunisia. This suggests that, in Italy, fall migration is oriented south-north and spring migration north-south. In this paper we test the hypothesis that the accessibility of the suitable habitat area along the Italian Peninsula is in relation to the geographical migration pattern of the studied species. We integrated information from the movement ecology, the geography and the traditional ecological features in order to provide an ecological explanation of the current biogeographical pattern of our model species. We compared statistical models with and without latitude as a predictor. Each model was based on ecological and geographical variables, including land use, prey availability, spatial distribution of environmental elements (patch analysis), geomorphology, and geography. These models predict two patterns of suitability for short-toed snake eagles in Italy. Our results suggest that the abundance of this species increases with latitude despite the existence of large areas of suitable habitat in southern Italy. We suggest that the actual distribution of the short-toed snake eagle in Italy is influenced by the particular migration path used by this population, supporting the hypothesis that this species is still colonizing the Italian Peninsula through an unexpected colonization direction from north to south.

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Section: Ecological Parameterssupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Its effect is the opposite of that documented in Spain (Lo´pez-Iborra et al 2011), where latitudinal increase was shown to have a negative effect on the distribution of the species. By contrast, we found that eagle presence seems to increase with latitude.…”

Section: Ecological Parameterscontrasting

confidence: 69%

Motion capacity, geography and ecological features explain the present distribution of a migratory top predator

Panuccio

Lucia²,

Agostini³

et al. 2014

Ecological Research

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“…VIF values > 10 (López‐Iborra et al . ) indicate collinearity between variables. We also calculated the proportion of process variance explained by the covariates: R 2 _var = (σ 2 (t) – σ 2 (cov) )/σ 2 (t) , where σ 2 (t) and σ 2 (cov) are the estimates of process variance in the random effects model without and with the covariate, respectively (Altwegg et al .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental correlates of annual survival differ between two ecologically similar and congeneric owls

Pavón‐Jordán

Karell

Ahola³

et al. 2013

Ibis

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Understanding how survival is affected by the environment is essential to gain insight into population dynamics and the evolution of life‐history traits as well as to identify environmental selection pressures. However, we still have little understanding of the relative effect of different environmental factors and their interactions on demographic traits and population dynamics. Here we used two long‐term, individual‐based datasets on Tawny Owl Strix aluco (1981–2010) and Ural Owl S. uralensis (1986–2010) to undertake capture‐mark‐recapture analysis of annual survival of adult females in response to three biologically meaningful environmental variables and their two‐way interactions. Despite the similar ecology of these two species, their survival was associated with different and uncorrelated environmental drivers. The main correlate of Tawny Owl survival was an inverse association with snow depth (winter severity). For Ural Owl, high food (vole) abundance improved survival during years with deep snow, but was less important during years with little snow. In addition, Ural Owl survival was strongly density‐dependent, whereas Tawny Owl survival was not. Our findings advise caution in extrapolating demographic inferences from one species to another, even when they are very closely related and ecologically similar. Analyses including only one or few potential environmental drivers of a species' survival may lead to incomplete conclusions because survival may be affected by several factors and their interactions.

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“…dispersal or competition), as well as historical and contingent factors that shape species distributions; aiming at the selection of the "best" model for each species in terms of predictive accuracy (e.g. Pearce et al 2001, Cabeza et al 2004, Claridge et al 2008, López-Iborra et al 2011. Studies modelling the habitat preference of species commonly follow a correlative approach based on multiple regression methods (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat preferences of edible dormouse,Glis glis italicus: implications for the management of arboreal mammals in Mediterranean forests

Marteau¹,

Sarà²

2015

Folia Zoologica

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Abstract.Research on arboreal mammals living in Mediterranean forests is poor. Molecular research assessed the existence of an evolutionary significant unit in the edible dormouse populations living in south Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, and we decided to investigate the environmental factors capable of explaining its occurrence and abundance in Sicily, for a better management of these populations. We assessed the species habitat preferences by setting 25 large and 25 small nestboxes in five sample areas along an altitudinal gradient of the Madonie Range, and recorded habitat variables, food availability, and demographic data for two years. To obtain synthetic descriptors of the dormice habitat requirements, we extracted uncorrelated linear combinations of original variables by Principal Component Analysis; then we modelled habitat preferences of dormice by Generalized Linear Models, and selected the best models by Akaike's information criterion and model averaging. Dormice abundances varied markedly between the two years of study. Population peaked and reproduced in 2010, a masting year of oaks and beeches. In the following non-masting year, a much lower number of adults and yearlings used nestboxes, without any sign of reproduction. In both years we found a significant effect of altitudinal vegetation belt. Dormice seem to prefer mixed broad-leaved and evergreen (cork, holm) oak forests below 800-1300 m a.s.l, to beech forests at higher altitude, and avoid coniferous plantations. Inside these woodlands they seem to prefer monotypic and mature oak-stands with dense canopies. Large nestboxes are more preferred than small ones only during reproductive years. Protection of large and mature woodland from wildfires and forestry management caring the retention of significant elements like old trees, logs and litter mounds are necessary to maintain the habitat of edible dormouse in Southern Mediterranean forests. Artificial nestboxes are a viable device to help population restocking in degraded forests. 137Often authors refer to habitat selection and habitat preference as they were equivalent (e.g. Berg & Berg 1998, Suárez-Seoane et al. 2002, Jeganathan et al. 2004. We prefer to make a distinction between habitat selection, the behavioural process with which individuals choose resources, and habitat preference, i.e. the final pattern of habitats used with respect to their availability (Manly et al. 2002, Martínez et al. 2003. In addition, habitat preferences have been assumed to be adaptive (Martin 1998), as they involve a hierarchical discrimination of environmental features that provide the use of different pattern of resources, which in turn affect survival and reproduction of animal species. We therefore referred our research in terms of habitat preference, because we aimed to determine the habitat features on which the settlement of our focal species (the edible dormouse, Glis glis) depends in a Mediterranean forest, and whether habitat requirements are the same between different age cohorts of individuals. The ph...

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Modelling the distribution of short-toed eagle (Circaetus gallicus) in semi-arid Mediterranean landscapes: identifying important explanatory variables and their implications for its conservation

Cited by 24 publications

References 26 publications

Motion capacity, geography and ecological features explain the present distribution of a migratory top predator

Motion capacity, geography and ecological features explain the present distribution of a migratory top predator

Environmental correlates of annual survival differ between two ecologically similar and congeneric owls

Habitat preferences of edible dormouse,Glis glis italicus: implications for the management of arboreal mammals in Mediterranean forests

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