Background: A number of conservation and societal issues require understanding how species are distributed on the landscape, yet ecologists are often faced with a lack of data to develop models at the resolution and extent desired, resulting in inefficient use of conservation resources. Such a situation presented itself in our attempt to develop waterfowl distribution models as part of a multi-...

Terrestrial long-distance migrations are declining globally: in North America, nearly 75% have been lost. Yet there has been limited research comparing habitat suitability and connectivity models to identify migration corridors across increasingly fragmented landscapes. Here we use pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) migrations in prairie habitat to compare two types of models that identify habit...

The Lake Warden wetland system (LWWS), on the south coast of Western Australia (WA), is a wetland of international importance for waterbirds. It occurs at the bottom of a heavily cleared agricultural catchment. Rising water levels associated with clearing have been identified as a threat to waterbird diversity. Different species of waterbird are typically found in specific ranges of water depth...

Understanding how predicted species responses to climate change are affected by advances in climate modeling is important for determining the frequency with which vulnerability assessments need to be updated. We used ecological niche models to compare predicted climatic habitat suitability for 132 species of reptiles and amphibians in California, USA under the previous and current generations o...

The construction of habitat models is a repeatable technique for describing and mapping species distributions, the utility of which lies in enabling management to predict where a species is likely to occur within a landscape. Typically, habitat models have been used to establish habitat requirements for threatened species; however they have equal applicability for modelling local populations of...

Tamarisk species are shrubs or small trees considered by some to be among the most aggressively invasive and potentially detrimental exotic plants in the United States. Although extensively studied in the southern and interior west, northwestern (Oregon, Washington, and Idaho) distribution and habitat information for tamarisk is either limited or lacking. We obtained distribution data for the n...

An understanding of the habitat selection patterns by wild herbivores is critical for adaptive management, particularly towards ecosystem management and wildlife conservation in semi arid savanna ecosystems. We tested the following predictions: (i) surface water availability, habitat quality and human presence have a strong influence on the spatial distribution of wild herbivores in the dry sea...

Background. Understanding species distribution, especially areas of overlapping habitat between sympatric species, is essential for informing conservation through natural habitat protection. New protection strategies should simultaneously consider conservation efforts for multiple species that exist within the same landscape, which requires studies that include habitat overlap analysis. Methods...

Citation: Rowden AA, Anderson OF, Georgian SE, Bowden DA, Clark MR, Pallentin A and Miller A (2017) High-Resolution Habitat Suitability Models for the Conservation and Management of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems on the Louisville Seamount Chain, South Pacific Ocean. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:335. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00335 High-Resolution Habitat Suitability Models for the Conservation and Managemen...

Papers published in this series record the significant findings resulting from USGS/BRD-sponsored and cospon-sored research programs. They may include extensive data or theoretical analyses. These papers are the in-house counterpart to peer-reviewed journal articles, but with less stringent restrictions on length, tables, or raw data, for example. We encourage authors to publish their findings ...