How Does Conversion of Natural Tropical Rainforest Ecosystems Affect Soil Bacterial and Fungal Communities in the Nile River Watershed of Uganda?

Uganda''s forests are globally important for their conservation values but are under pressure from increasing human population and consumption. In this study, we examine how conversion of natural forest affects soil bacterial and fungal communities. Comparisons in paired natural forest and human-converted sites among four locations indicated that natural forest soils consistently had higher pH, organic carbon, nitrogen, and calcium, although variation among sites was large. Despite these differences, no effect on the diversity of dominant taxa for either bacterial or fungal communities was detected, using polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). Composition of fungal communities did generally appear different in converted sites, but surprisingly, we did not observe a consistent pattern among sites. The spatial distribution of some taxa and community composition was associated with soil pH, organic carbon, phosphorus and sodium, suggesting that changes in soil communities were nuanced and require more robust metagenomic methods to understand the various components of the community. Given the close geographic proximity of the paired sampling sites, the similarity between natural and converted sites might be due to continued dispersal between treatments. Fungal communities showed greater environmental differentiation than bacterial communities, particularly according to soil pH. We detected biotic homogenization in converted ecosystems and substantial contribution of β-diversity to total diversity, indicating considerable geographic structure in soil biota in these forest communities. Overall, our results suggest that soil microbial communities are relatively resilient to forest conversion and despite a substantial and consistent change in the soil environment, the effects of conversion differed widely among sites. The substantial difference in soil chemistry, with generally lower nutrient quantity in converted sites, does bring into question, how long this resilience will last.     

近20年我国森林碳汇政策演变和评价

巩固提升生态系统碳汇能力是碳达峰十大行动计划之一,是助力碳中和目标实现、应对气候变化的重要举措。森林作为陆地生态系统中最大的碳库,是我国当前碳汇政策的主体。研究梳理了2000年以来我国森林碳汇有关政策的发展演变历程,并从生态政策、经济政策和保障体系建设三个维度分析和评价了政策成效与存在问题,以期为构建适应“双碳”目标的碳汇政策体系提供决策依据。研究结果表明：(1)从生态政策看：天然林保护、退耕还林还草和“三北”防护林三大林业工程增加了我国森林面积和蓄积量,显著提升了森林碳汇增量,但森林可持续经营管理体系尚未健全,需进一步精准提升森林质量,健全成果长效巩固机制,增强森林固碳能力;(2)就经济政策而言：我国已形成多层级林业碳汇交易市场,有效推动林业碳汇项目建设,同时各类金融产品的开发和补贴政策的实施为碳汇项目提供了多元化资金支持体系,但整体融资规模和补贴范围有限,需拓宽融资渠道,强化资金支持;(3)在保障体系建设方面：我国森林碳汇保障体系处于重点建设阶段,需完善森林碳汇有关法律法规、加快各类森林技术研发与标准制定,保障我国森林碳汇政策平稳运行。     

不同城市绿地类型碳源/汇的城乡梯度格局——以杭州市为例

探究城市化对绿地空间碳源/汇的空间分布格局的影响,对评估城市生态系统的碳足迹和制定相应的碳收支管理措施具有重要意义。以净生态系统生产力(NEP)做为碳源/汇的反映指标,基于净初级生产力和土壤呼吸估算杭州市主城区绿地碳源/汇的空间分布格局,关注城乡梯度对不同绿地类型碳源/汇水平的作用。基于净初级生产力和土壤呼吸数据综合获得绿地空间NEP,通过土地利用数据和Fragstats软件进行景观格局分析,采用多元线性回归模型和逐步回归模型筛选影响NEP的景观、植被和气象因子,最后利用广义加性模型探讨NEP与各因子之间的关系。此外,分别比较了相同统计过程在不同城乡梯度和不同绿地类型之间的模型差异。结果表明:杭州市绿地空间NEP分布及其影响因子存在显著的城乡梯度与绿地类型差异。2019-2022年杭州市主城区绿地空间,整体表现为碳源,年均NEP为-0.277 kg C m^-2 a^-1;其中表现为碳汇的绿地主要分布在杭州市主城区的西部,而碳源绿地主要分布在中部和东部。整体绿地空间的NEP大小与绿地斑块面积、乔木盖度和灌木盖度呈正相关,与灌木物种丰富度和气温呈负相关。NEP随城区、城郊结合部、郊区的城乡梯度逐步增强;城区NEP与乔木盖度呈正相关,与景观多样性和气温呈负相关;城郊结合部NEP与乔木物种丰富度和灌木盖度呈正相关,与绿地斑块密度和气温呈负相关;郊区NEP则与聚集度指数、乔木盖度和灌木盖度呈正相关。公园、农田、自然植被的NEP依次增大并受到不同因素的调控。公园NEP与聚集度指数、乔木盖度和灌木盖度呈正相关,与景观分割指数、灌木物种丰富度和气温呈负相关;农田NEP与聚集度指数和灌木盖度呈正相关,与气温呈负相关;而自然植被NEP则与乔木盖度呈正相关,与景观多样性指数和气温呈负相关。研究进一步揭示了城市化对绿地空间碳源/汇的影响,为城乡碳收支的差异化管理提供了一定的理论和数据支持。     

A Niche-Based Framework to Assess Current Monitoring of European Forest Birds and Guide Indicator Species' Selection

Concern that European forest biodiversity is depleted and declining has provoked widespread efforts to improve management practices. To gauge the success of these actions, appropriate monitoring of forest ecosystems is paramount. Multi-species indicators are frequently used to assess the state of biodiversity and its response to implemented management, but generally applicable and objective methodologies for species'' selection are lacking. Here we use a niche-based approach, underpinned by coarse quantification of species'' resource use, to objectively select species for inclusion in a pan-European forest bird indicator. We identify both the minimum number of species required to deliver full resource coverage and the most sensitive species'' combination, and explore the trade-off between two key characteristics, sensitivity and redundancy, associated with indicators comprising different numbers of species. We compare our indicator to an existing forest bird indicator selected on the basis of expert opinion and show it is more representative of the wider community. We also present alternative indicators for regional and forest type specific monitoring and show that species'' choice can have a significant impact on the indicator and consequent projections about the state of the biodiversity it represents. Furthermore, by comparing indicator sets drawn from currently monitored species and the full forest bird community, we identify gaps in the coverage of the current monitoring scheme. We believe that adopting this niche-based framework for species'' selection supports the objective development of multi-species indicators and that it has good potential to be extended to a range of habitats and taxa.     

Macroecological analyses reveal historical factors influencing seed dispersal strategies in Brazilian Araucaria forests

Aim Our objective was to evaluate the influence of distinct macroecological factors (space, floristics and environment) on the variation in seed dispersal strategies of shrubs and trees in the Araucaria forest biome in the southern and south‐eastern Brazilian highlands. We hypothesize that history‐related factors (space, floristics) are major determinants of the proportion of endo‐ and syn‐zoochorous species in Araucaria forests, despite the current gradients in environmental conditions. Location Araucaria forest is the main forest biome in southern Brazil, at altitudes above 500 m a.s.l. (latitude ≤ 30° S). Their northern limit in Brazil is at latitude 20° S, where forests occur at elevations above 1000 m a.s.l. Methods We compiled information from 27 floristic checklists comprising shrub and tree species distributed along the geographical range of the Brazilian Araucaria forest biome. We classified species as zoochorous and non‐zoochorous, based on morphological attributes of their diaspores. Sites were described by geographical coordinates (latitude, longitude) and five environmental variables. We evaluated separately the influence of floristic, spatial and environmental variables on zoochory using correspondence analysis and linear regressions. Further, we evaluated causal connections between these variable groups using Mantel tests and path analysis. Results Zoochory increased with both latitude and longitude. Regression analysis showed that rainfall seasonality was the only environmental variable explaining the variation in the proportion of zoochorous species. All pairwise Mantel correlations between space, rainfall seasonality, floristics and zoochory were significant. Path analysis showed that rainfall seasonality was strongly determined by spatial distances between sites, and floristics was directly determined by rainfall seasonality. Further zoochory was mostly determined by floristics. Main conclusions Taking into account historical factors in the interpretation of macroecological patterns improves our understanding of biodiversity gradients. Hypotheses based on long‐term dynamics of distinct floristic groups provide some useful insights into patterns shown by studies elsewhere. Here we offer an analytical solution to incorporate history‐related factors into macroecological analyses. While history‐based hypotheses do not replace any other ideas concerning macroecological patterns, they are likely to improve our understanding on factors determining present‐day ecological patterns.     

京津冀城市群生态空间固碳服务功能及其与景观格局的关系特征

在全球气候变暖、城市群快速发展导致景观格局破坏与生态系统服务功能受损的背景下,研究城市群生态系统服务功能与景观格局的关系具有重要的意义。基于以上背景与前人研究,选取在中国经济社会发展中最具代表性的城市群京津冀城市群,通过遥感解译、ArcGIS 10.6制图分析及SPSS软件相关性分析等,从土地利用的角度研究其生态空间固碳服务功能及其与景观格局的关系特征,并提出相关探讨。结果表明：1)京津冀生态空间中耕地、林地、草地均为碳汇用地,2000—2018年期间用地面积排序为：耕地>林地>草地,用地面积减少量排序为：林地>耕地>草地。耕地为研究区东南半部的主导类型,林地作为区域西北半部的主导类型,草地分布呈与林地相间状态。2018年北京市内西北部大面积的林地转化为耕地。2)2000—2018年期间生态空间三种用地的年固碳量排序为：耕地>林地>草地,用地年固碳量增长量排序为耕地>林地>草地。从平均单位固碳量来说,四个时间点均表现为：林地>耕地>草地。单位固碳量区域分布差异明显且随时间变化量大。3)不同生态空间用地的固碳量与不同景观指数的相...     

典型亚热带森林生态系统碳密度及储量空间变异特征

以浙江省森林生态系统为研究对象,基于GIS网格布点,采集了838个森林样地样本(土壤、枯落物等),结合浙江省森林资源监测中心相关数据,利用地统计学和Moran's I相结合的方法系统研究了浙江省森林生态系统碳密度及碳储量空间变异特征。结果表明:浙江省森林生态系统平均碳密度为145.22 t/hm~2,其中森林植被、土壤、枯落物和枯死木层碳密度分别为27.34、108.89、1.79、1.38 t/hm~2。克里格空间插值和局部Moran's I指数结果表明碳密度空间分布规律呈现从西南向东北方向逐渐递减的趋势,与浙江省地形、地势较为一致,受海拔、树龄、森林类型、台风气候等自然因素和人类活动共同影响。浙江省森林生态系统碳储量为877.19 Tg C,森林植被、土壤、枯落物和枯死木层碳储量分别为203.88、656.20、10.84、6.27 Tg C,分别占总碳储量的23%、75%、1.3%、0.7%。在浙江省森林生态系统碳储量空间分布格局中,土壤层是森林生态系统中最大的碳库,约是森林植被层的3.22倍,是整个浙江省森林生态系统碳储量最主要的贡献者。浙江省森林资源丰富,大多数森林仍处于中幼龄林阶段,碳密度水平较低,但是中幼龄林生长速度较快,加强对全省中幼龄林的健康管理,是未来整体提升浙江省森林生态系统固碳潜力的关键。     

Forest biogeochemistry in response to drought

Trees alter their use and allocation of nutrients in response to drought, and changes in soil nutrient cycling and trace gas flux (N₂O and CH₄) are observed when experimental drought is imposed on forests. In extreme droughts, trees are increasingly susceptible to attack by pests and pathogens, which can lead to major changes in nutrient flux to the soil. Extreme droughts often lead to more common and more intense forest fires, causing dramatic changes in the nutrient storage and loss from forest ecosystems. Changes in the future manifestation of drought will affect carbon uptake and storage in forests, leading to feedbacks to the Earth's climate system. We must improve the recognition of drought in nature, our ability to manage our forests in the face of drought, and the parameterization of drought in earth system models for improved predictions of carbon uptake and storage in the world's forests.     

Creating individual accessible area hypotheses improves stacked species distribution model performance

Aim

Stacked species distribution models (SDMs) are an important step towards estimating species richness, but frequently overpredict this metric and therefore erroneously predict which species comprise a given community. We test the idea that developing hypotheses about accessible area a priori can greatly improve model performance. By integrating dispersal ability via accessible area into SDM creation, we address an often‐overlooked facet of ecological niche modelling.

Innovation

By limiting the training and transference areas to theoretically accessible areas, we are creating more accurate SDMs on the basis of a taxon's explorable environments. This limitation of space and environment is a more accurate reflection of a taxon's true dispersal properties and more accurately reflects the geographical and environmental space to which a taxon is exposed. Here, we compare the predictive performance of stacked SDMs derived from spatially constrained and unconstrained training areas.

Main conclusions

Restricting a species’ training and transference areas to a theoretically accessible area greatly improves model performance. Stacked SDMs drawn from spatially restricted training areas predicted species richness and community composition more accurately than non‐restricted stacked SDMs. These accessible area‐based restrictions mimic true dispersal barriers to species and limit training areas to the suite of environments to those which a species is exposed to in nature. Furthermore, these restrictions serve to ‘clip’ predictions in geographical space, thus removing overpredictions in adjacent geographical regions where the species is known to be absent.     

中国陆地生态系统碳源/汇整合分析

国家尺度陆地生态系统碳收支及其循环过程的研究对于提升地球系统科学与全球变化科学的科技创新能力、提高我国参与应对全球气候变化国际行动和维护国家利益的话语权、保障国家生态安全和改进生态系统管理都具有重要意义。近年来,我国已经在气候变化与陆地生态系统碳循环领域开展了大量的研究工作,主要包括国家清查、生态系统模型模拟、大气反演等手段。然而,由于大尺度陆地生态系统碳源/汇的估算存在很大的不确定性,目前尚未形成国家尺度的陆地生态系统碳源/汇的整合分析。通过搜集已发表的关于中国陆地生态系统及其组分碳源/汇的59篇文献,整合国家清查、生态系统模型模拟、大气反演3种研究手段,分析中国陆地生态系统碳源/汇大小以及时间尺度上的动态变化。结果表明,在1960s-2010s期间中国陆地生态系统碳汇整体呈上升趋势,平均为（0.213±0.030）Pg C/a,其中森林、草地、农田和灌木生态系统碳汇分别为（0.101±0.023）Pg C/a、（0.032±0.007）Pg C/a、（0.043±0.010）Pg C/a和（0.028±0.010）Pg C/a。森林生态系统中的植被碳汇远大于土壤碳汇,然而这种格局在草地和农田生态系统却相反,而且1960s-2010s期间中国主要植被类型的生态系统碳汇总体上随时间呈增加趋势。融合多源数据（地面观测、激光雷达、卫星遥感等）、多尺度数据（样地尺度、站点尺度、区域尺度）以及多手段数据（联网观测、森林清查、模型模拟）,有助于全面准确地评估中国陆地生态系统碳源/汇及其对气候变化的响应。     

Species-environment patterns of forest vegetation on the uplifted reef limestone of Atiu,Mangaia, Ma'uke and Miti'aro,Cook Islands

Abstract. We examined woody species composition and its relation to environmental variables in native forest growing on four limestone islands in the southern Cook Islands: Atiu, Mangaia, Ma'uke, and Miti'aro. Relative dominance (percent basal area) of woody species in 74 sites was sampled using the point-centered quarter method, and the data were analyzed using clustering and ordination techniques. These tropical forests have a relatively low diversity of native woody species (32 native and 10 introduced species occurred in our sites). Four forest types were recognized: Pandanus/Guettarda littoral forest (with several subtypes), Hernandia nymphaeifolia littoral forest, Barringtonia littoral forest, and makatea forest (dominated by Elaeocarpus tonganus and Hernandia moeren-houtiana). These types were related, using canonical correspondence analysis, to geographical attributes (wind-wardness, elevation, and proximity to the coast or roads) that served as surrogates for environmental variables (maritime influence, soil variation, and degree of human disturbance). The eigenvalues for this direct ordination were much lower than for indirect ordination (0.32 vs. 0.71 for the first axis), indicating that the measured geographical attributes could explain only a modest portion of the compositional variation.     

SPECIAL PAPER: PLANT GROWTH CHAMBERS ON SPACELAB: A CALL FOR SCIENTIFIC INPUT

Various members of the scientific community have proposed that plant experiments be performed on board the space shuttle. To permit the proper execution of most tests, the craft must contain a plant-growth chamber which controls those environmental factors which can influence a plant's physiology and morphology. In this paper, the various needs of, and environmental factors affecting plants in such a space chamber, have been identified. A set of design, construction, and performance limits which are compatible with both physiological requirements and constraints imposed by the space shuttle have been proposed. These specifications are presented in the hope of stimulating input from the scientific community so that the final chamber design selected by NASA will be representative of botanists' needs.     

Soil dumping techniques and afforestation drive ground-dwelling beetle assemblages in a 25-year-old open-cast mining reclamation area

The open-cast lignite mine “Hambach” (NW-Germany) and the accompanying land reclamation replace a large ancient forest. Reclamation of an 1000 ha large overburden dump started 25 years ago and is still in progress. Reclamation methods comprise combinations of different topsoil dumping techniques and reclamation measures such as seeding or afforestation. In accordance with the spatial heterogeneity hypothesis, we hypothesize that beetle assemblages from sites where the topsoil was left structured are more diverse than those from sites with levelled topsoil, and that richly structured mid-successional sites harbour more heterogeneous assemblages than afforested sites. We tested the influence of environmental variables on assemblage characteristics of pitfall-trapped beetles from 17 sites on the overburden dump. The results are based on 35,588 individuals from 339 species. Species assemblages differed significantly between almost all sites. Habitat age did not affect assemblage characteristics, while species richness was significantly influenced by surface structure. Sites that were not levelled and that additionally included pits that slope down for several meters exhibited the highest species richness. Abundance of beetles increased in parallel to the canopy cover, whereas assemblage heterogeneity (MVDISP) decreased. Successional and grassland sites usually exhibited higher diversity (Fisher's α) than afforested sites, but diversity was not significantly predicted by a single environmental factor. Instead, diversity increased along with increasing MVDISP-values. Afforestations speed up the successional process and some euryecious forest species are already well established, but stenecious forest specialists have not yet been found.     

效率视角下的省域生态文明建设评价研究

在界定生态文明概念的基础上,从省域层面入手,选取25个具有可操作性的评价指标,构建以国土空间优化、资源节约集约利用和生态环境保护为一级指标的生态文明建设评价指标体系,综合运用网络层次分析和集对分析等研究方法,定量研究我国省域生态文明建设绩效;在此基础上,将国土空间优化绩效、资源节约集约利用绩效和生态环境保护绩效作为产出指标,将就业人数、科学技术财政支出、节能环保财政支出作为投入指标,运用数据包络分析法测度各省(市)生态文明建设效率,分析指标投入冗余和产出不足情况,并修正评价绩效。研究表明:(1)规模效率低于0.6的省份共24个,占80%,规模效率不高是制约生态文明建设水平提升的重要障碍;(2)在生态文明建设投入冗余和产出不足方面,数值较高的省(市)在地理分布上具有明显的区域聚集性;(3)领先地区资源节约集约利用绩效平均分高达3.92,落后地区平均分仅为0.84,生态文明建设绩效的差异性在资源节约集约利用方面表现的尤为明显;(4)人口规模偏大、绿色生态空间建设滞后于经济发展、水资源利用效率不高是多数生态强省(市)的薄弱环节。     

同域分布大熊猫和水鹿生境利用分异特征

野生动物的生境利用特征研究是动物生态学核心问题之一,同域分布动物对生境的利用特征及共存机制是其重要组成部分,也是实现珍稀濒危物种保护与栖息地恢复的基础。基于空间利用和生境因子选择差异研究了卧龙自然保护区同域分布大熊猫(Ailuropoda melanoleuca)和水鹿(Rusa unicolor)的生境利用关系,探讨了同域分布野生动物在生境因子选择和空间利用的分异特征。结果表明:(1)空间利用上,大熊猫和水鹿的空间重叠系数为58.35%,其中,在原始林和次生林生境中的空间重叠系数分别为66.58%和36.64%,二者在原始林中的空间重叠较高;(2)生境因子选择上,大熊猫和水鹿对物理因子的选择有坡位、离小路距离和离水源距离3个变量有显著性差异,对生物因子的选择有乔木密度、灌木盖度、灌木密度、竹林盖度、幼竹密度、幼竹基径、幼竹高度、成竹高度和死竹密度9种变量有显著性差异;(3)大熊猫和水鹿都表现为更偏好原始林生境,但大熊猫对原始林的依赖性更强。分析同域分布动物的生境利用关系有利于深入了解不同动物对资源的空间利用特征及共存机制,可以为保护区制定珍稀野生动物保护和栖息地恢复政策提供科学依据。     

小兴安岭原始阔叶红松林和枫桦次生林土壤有机碳库比较研究

土壤有机碳含量是全球生态系统碳储量变化的重要指标之一,本研究以空间替代时间序列的方法,分别选取了小兴安岭地区原始阔叶红松林和枫桦次生林并测定土壤有机碳库、土壤全氮含量、土壤微生物量碳及土壤相关理化性质,结果表明,土壤有机碳含量(SOC)、土壤全氮含量(TN)、土壤微生物量碳(MBC)、土壤含水率等指标随着土壤层的深度增加而逐渐减少最后趋于稳定,而土壤容重随着土壤层的加深而增大。在原始林中0~10和10~20cm层的SOC、TN含量差异不显著,而次生林则差异显著。原始阔叶红松林和枫桦次生林的土壤有机碳密度(SOCD)分别为21.46和21.3 kg·m^-2,差异不显著。原始林和次生林的平均有机碳含量分别为35.79,28.6 g·kg^-1,土壤全氮含量分别为2.86,1.83 g·kg^-1,枫桦次生林MBC与SOC的线性相关性高于原始林。结果表明原始林土壤肥力高于次生林,在今后次生林的管理中应适当混栽针叶树种,原始林中应适当间伐使地下碳储量增加。     

Vertebrate dispersal syndromes along the Atlantic forest: broad-scale patterns and macroecological correlates

Aim To assess the geographical variation in the relative importance of vertebrates, and more specifically of birds and mammals, as seed dispersal agents in forest communities, and to evaluate the influence of geographical and climatic factors on the observed trends. Location One hundred and thirty‐five forest communities in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Methods We collected data on dispersal modes for 2292 woody species. By combining species × site with species × trait matrices, we obtained the percentages of endozoochory, ornithochory, mastozoochory and the mean fruit diameter for the local forest communities. We used Spearman's correlation to assess bivariate relationships between variables. Subsequently, we performed paired t‐tests to verify if variations in frequency of dispersal modes and mean fruit diameter were influenced by altitude or temperature. Then, we applied multiple linear regressions to evaluate the effect of geographical and climatic variables on variation in the relative frequency of dispersal modes and mean fruit diameter across communities. Results We found no consistent latitudinal or longitudinal trend in the percentage of vertebrate‐dispersed species, neither bird‐ nor mammal‐dispersed species along the Atlantic forest. Endozoochory was affected chiefly by annual mean rainfall, increasing towards moister sites. Forest communities located at higher altitudes had a higher percentage of bird‐dispersed species. Even when sites with identical values of annual mean temperature were compared, altitude had a positive effect on ornithochory. Conversely, we found a higher percentage of mammal‐dispersed species in warmer forests, even when locations at the same altitudinal belts were contrasted. Fruit diameter was clearly related to altitude, decreasing towards higher elevations. Main conclusions This is the first analysis of a large data set on dispersal syndromes in tropical forest communities. Our findings support the hypotheses that: (1) geographical variation in the relative number of fleshy fruit species is mainly driven by moisture conditions and is relatively independent of geographical location, and (2) broad‐scale trends in fruit size correspond to geographical variation in the relative importance of mammals and birds as seed dispersal agents at the community level.     

The parable of Green Mountain: Ascension Island, ecosystem construction and ecological fitting

Aims To use the ecosystem on Green Mountain, Ascension Island, to illustrate aspects of ecosystem construction and function as well as possible mitigation of human caused global environmental change. Location Ascension Island, tropical south Atlantic. Main conclusions The cloud forest on Green Mountain is a man-made system that has produced a tropical forest without any coevolution between its constituent species. This has implications for the way we think about ecosystems and provides a striking example of Janzen's idea of ‘ecological fitting’. This system provides ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, and illustrates the possible role of man-made ecosystems in the mitigation of global warming.     

Estimating space-use and habitat preference from wildlife telemetry data

Management and conservation of populations of animals requires information on where they are, why they are there, and where else they could be. These objectives are typically approached by collecting data on the animals' use of space, relating these positional data to prevailing environmental conditions and employing the resulting statistical models to predict usage at other geographical regions. Technical advances in wildlife telemetry have accomplished manifold increases in the amount and quality of available data, creating the need for a statistical framework that can use them to make population‐level inferences for habitat preference and space‐use. This has been slow‐in‐coming because wildlife telemetry data are spatio‐temporally autocorrelated, often unbalanced, presence‐only observations of behaviourally complex animals, responding to a multitude of cross‐correlated environmental variables. We review the evolution of regression models for the analysis of space‐use and habitat preference and outline the essential features of a framework that emerges naturally from these foundations. This allows us to derive a relationship between usage of points in geographical space and preference of habitats in environmental space. Within this framework, we discuss eight challenges, inherent in the spatial analysis of telemetry data and, for each, we propose solutions that can work in tandem. Specifically, we propose a logistic, mixed‐effects approach that uses generalized additive transformations of the environmental covariates and is fitted to a response data‐set comprising the telemetry and simulated observations, under a case‐control design. We apply this framework to a non‐trivial case‐study using satellite‐tagged grey seals Halichoerus grypus from the east coast of Scotland. We perform model selection by cross‐validation and confront our final model's predictions with telemetry data from the same, as well as different, geographical regions. We conclude that, despite the complex behaviour of the study species, flexible empirical models can capture the environmental relationships that shape population distributions.     

Assessing the Representativeness of the Oldest Permanent Inventory Plots in Northern Arizona Ponderosa Pine Forests

A network of permanent plots established between 1909 and 1913 (the Woolsey plots) contains the oldest measured data in northern Arizona ponderosa pine forests. These forest inventory data offer a unique opportunity to reconstruct pre-settlement reference conditions, as well as detect and quantify changes in southwestern forest structure and composition. However, the selection of plot locations in the early 1900s followed a subjective nonrandom approach. To assess the applicability, or inference space, of results obtained from these historical plots, we compared their environmental characteristics (terrestrial ecosystem unit [TEU, based on a U.S. Forest Service (USFS) ecological classification system], site index, elevation, insolation index, and soil parent material) as well as contemporary forest structure (trees per hectare, basal area, and quadratic mean diameter) with two large inventory samples: USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis (FSFIA) and Arizona State Land Department Continuous Forest Inventory (AZCFI). Analytical methods included multivariate permutation tests, ratios of variance, and Kolmogorov–Smirnov two-sample tests. Results indicated that the Woolsey plots (1) were neither historically nor contemporarily representative of the entire study area because of environmental and current forest structural differences with respect to the FSFIA and AZCFI and (2) may be considered historically representative of their corresponding TEUs. Our study supports the use of TEUs for defining the applicability of information obtained from the Woolsey plots.