Impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on distribution and population size of many taxa are well established. In contrast, less is known about the role of within-patch habitat quality for the spatial dynamics of species, even though within-patch habitat quality may substantially influence the dynamics of population networks. We studied occurrence patterns of two Orthopteran species in relati...

AIM: Our objective was to identify the distribution of the endangered golden-cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) in fragmented oak-juniper woodlands by applying a geoadditive semiparametric occupancy model to better assist decision-makers in identifying suitable habitat across the species breeding range on which conservation or mitigation activities can be focused and thus prioritize manage...

Home ranges of animals are generally structured by the selective use of resource-bearing patches that comprise habitat. Based on this concept, home ranges of animals estimated from location data are commonly used to infer habitat relationships. Because home ranges estimated from animal locations are largely continuous in space, the resource-bearing patches selected by an animal from a fragmente...

We use a graph-theoretical landscape modeling approach to investigate how to identify central patches in the landscape as well as how these central patches influence (1) organism movement within the local neighborhood and (2) the dispersal of organisms beyond the local neighborhood. Organism movements were theoretically estimated based on the spatial configuration of the habitat patches in the ...

Gray wolf populations have been rebounding in the Great Lakes region, after being nearly extirpated from the conterminous United States. Breeding populations of wolves have established in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan but have not yet become widely established in the Lower Peninsula (LP) of Michigan, despite several sightings of wolves in the LP since 2004. The objective of this analysis was ...

As habitats become more fragmented, understanding landscape-level effects on habitat quality becomes increasingly important. These effects include factors intrinsic to the habitat fragments, such as vegetation cover and structure, and extrinsic factors, such as the modifying influences of surrounding (matrix) habitats. We develop a spatial model, the Effective Area Model (EAM), that predicts th...

Population viability analysis (PVA) and metapopulation theory are valuable tools to model the dynamics of spatially structured populations. In this article we used a spatially realistic population dynamic model to simulate the trajectory of a Proclossiana eunomia metapopulation in a network of habitat patches located in the Belgian Ardenne. Sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate the relative...

The manner in which patches are delineated in spatially realistic metapopulation models will influence the size, connectivity, and extinction and recolonization dynamics of those patches. Most commonly used patch-definition methods focus on identifying discrete, contiguous patches of habitat from a single temporal observation of species occurrence or from a model of habitat suitability. However...

Small herbivores face risks of predation while foraging and are often forced to trade off food quality for safety. Life history, behaviour, and habitat of predator and prey can influence these trade-offs. We compared how two sympatric rabbits (pygmy rabbit, Brachylagus idahoensis; mountain cottontail, Sylvilagus nuttallii) that differ in size, use of burrows, and habitat specialization in the s...

The primary focus of studies examining metapopulation processes in dynamic or disturbance-dependent landscapes has been related to spatiotemporal changes in the habitat patches themselves. However, like the habitat patches, opportunities for movement between patches can also exist intermittently in dynamic landscapes, creating transient connectivity windows - which we define as a period of time...