Carcass persistence time and detectability are two main sources of uncertainty on roadkill surveys. In this study, we evaluate the influence of these uncertainties on roadkill surveys and estimates. To estimate carcass persistence time, three observers (including the driver) surveyed 114km by car on a monthly basis for two years, searching for wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC). Each survey cons...

We define a new topological summary for data that we call the persistence landscape. In contrast to the standard topological summaries, the barcode and the persistence diagram, it is easy to combine with statistical analysis, and its associated computations are much faster. This summary obeys a Strong Law of Large Numbers and a Central Limit Theorem. Under certain finiteness conditions, this al...

Studies on riparian buffers have usually focused on the amount of land needed as habitat for the terrestrial life stages of semiaquatic species. Nevertheless, the landscape surrounding wetlands is also important for other key processes, such as dispersal and the dynamics of metapopulations. Multiple elements that influence these processes should therefore be considered in the delineation of buf...

Landscape epidemiology and landscape genetics combine advances in molecular techniques, spatial analyses and epidemiological models to generate a more real-world understanding of infectious disease dynamics and provide powerful new tools for the study of RNA viruses. Using dog rabies as a model we have identified how key questions regarding viral spread and persistence can be addressed using a ...

Many of the processes behind the decline of farmland birds can be related to modifications in landscape structure (composition and configuration), which can partly be expressed quantitatively with measurable or computable indices, i.e. landscape metrics. This paper aims to identify statistical relationships between the occurrence of birds and the landscape structure. We present a method that co...

Spatio-temporal fire regimes are likely to shift with changes in land use and climate. Such a shift in the disturbance regime has been proposed from recent reconstructions of the regional fire history in the Mediterranean-type woodlands and shrublands of Western Australia which suggest that fire was much more frequent before 1930 (local fire intervals of 3-5 years) than it is today (local fire ...

Landscape ecology, if not ecology in general, is largely founded on the notion that environmental patterns strongly influence ecological processes [1, 2]. The habitats in which organisms live, for example, are spatially structured at a number of scales, and these patterns interact with organism perception and behavior to drive the higher level processes of population dynamics and community stru...

Aim Greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus ), a shrub-steppe obligate species of western North America, currently occupies only half its historical range. Here we examine how broad-scale, long-term trends in landscape condition have affected range contraction. Location Sagebrush biome of the western USA. Methods Logistic regression was used to assess persistence and extirpation of grea...

An integrated model, combining spatial wildlife population and timber harvest and growth models, was developed to explore tradeoffs between the likelihood of persistence of a wildlife species, the northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus), and timber production on a landscape on the west side of the Oregon Cascade Range. A simplified wildlife model was developed from the fully parameterized...

Physical changes in landscapes alter the abundance and distribution of species. Higher-order effects can occur when changes in ecological processes result in altered interspecific interactions and subsequent changes in a species’ abundance or persistence. Baylisascaris procyonis, a roundworm parasite of raccoons (Procyon lotor), is pathogenic to numerous small vertebrates that serve as intermed...