Intra-specific niche partitioning obscures the importance of fine-scale habitat data in species distribution models |
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Authors: | Reid Tingley Tom B. Herman Mark D. Pulsifer Dean G. McCurdy Jeff P. Stephens |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Biology, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, B4P 2R6, Canada 5. School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia 2. Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, 190 Beech Hill Road RR#7, Antigonish, NS, B2G 2L4, Canada 3. Biology Department, Saint Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, B2G 2W5, Canada 4. Biology Department, Albion College, 611 East Porter Street, Albion, MI, 49224, USA
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Abstract: | Geographic information systems (GIS) allow researchers to make cost-effective, spatially explicit predictions of species’ distributions across broad geographic areas. However, there has been little research on whether using fine-scale habitat data collected in the field could produce more robust models of species’ distributions. Here we used radio-telemetry data collected on a declining species, the North American wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta), to test whether fine-scale habitat variables were better predictors of occurrence than land-cover and topography variables measured in a GIS. Patterns of male and female occurrence were similar in the spring; however, females used a much wider array of land-cover types and topographic positions in the summer and early fall, making it difficult for GIS-based models to accurately predict female occurrence at this time of year. Males on the other hand consistently selected flat, low-elevation, riparian areas throughout the year, and this consistency in turn led to the development of a strong GIS-based model. These results demonstrate the importance of taking a more sex-specific and temporally dynamic view of the environmental niche. |
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