Article
Ecology
Christen H. Fleming, Iman Deznabi, Shauhin Alavi, Margaret C. Crofoot, Ben T. Hirsch, E. Patricia Medici, Michael J. Noonan, Roland Kays, William F. Fagan, Daniel Sheldon, Justin M. Calabrese
Summary: This paper introduces a statistically and computationally efficient method for population-level analysis of home-range areas, based on autocorrelated kernel density estimation (AKDE). The method can account for variable temporal autocorrelation and estimation uncertainty. By applying the method to empirical examples, the study quantifies differences between species, environments, and sexes. The approach allows researchers to accurately compare different populations while maintaining statistical precision and power.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Lluis Socias-Martinez, Louise R. Peckre, Michael J. Noonan
Summary: Modern home-range estimation relies on expensive radio- or GPS-tracking data, but trap-derived data can also yield accurate estimates of home-range size. In this study, we evaluated the performance of five home-range estimators using simulated data and found that the number of observations and the proportion of the home range within the trapping grid were the most important predictors of accuracy and precision. The use of asymptotic models and distance ordering improved the accuracy and consistency of estimates. These findings were supported by case studies using empirical data from white-tailed deer and jaguars. The results indicate that trapping data can lower the economic costs of home-range analysis and expand the scope of ecology and conservation research.
Article
Ecology
Brian D. Todd, A. Justin Nowakowski
Summary: In snakes, home range area scales more gradually with body size, following the trend of metabolic rates rather than the steeper scaling seen in mammals and birds. Male snakes have larger home ranges than females, with the difference increasing in warmer temperatures possibly due to mate-searching behavior and thermoregulation. Snakes that actively forage have larger home ranges compared to ambush foragers, reflecting their foraging ecology.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Kyler B. Hecke, J. Brian Alford
Summary: Understanding the movement patterns and home range of the Sickle Darter fish species is important for conservation efforts, as they exhibit strong site fidelity except in extreme high discharge conditions. The size of their home range varies, emphasizing the need to consider their low dispersal ability when implementing conservation measures.
Article
Zoology
Odd T. Jacobson, Margaret C. Crofoot, Susan Perry, Kosmas Hench, Brendan J. Barrett, Genevieve Finerty
Summary: Understanding the space requirements of animals and their behavior is crucial for conservation and resource management. Studying the space-use patterns of habituated primates using GPS devices provides detailed movement information, but these data may not accurately represent the animals' total movements. Through a 13-year dataset, we found that accurate home range estimation is possible with relatively small sample sizes and irregular sampling, as long as data is collected over extended time periods.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Zoology
A. M. Stobo-Wilson, T. Cremona, B. P. Murphy, S. M. Carthew
Summary: The study found that both body mass and resource availability play an important role in determining the home-range size of savanna gliders. High rainfall areas had smaller home ranges, higher body mass, and higher population density compared to low rainfall areas. This suggests that resource availability can significantly impact home-range size beyond just body mass and diet.
JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ornithology
Jorge Garcia-Macia, Ernesto Alvarez, Manuel Galan, Juan Jose Iglesias-Lebrija, Marc Galvez, Gerard Plana, Nuria Vallverdu, Vicente Urios
Summary: This study investigated the spatial ecology of adult Cinereous Vultures in Iberia using GPS tracking. The results showed that there were seasonal differences in home range and core area, with larger movements and home range sizes during the chick-rearing period. The study also highlighted the philopatric behavior of the species, with vultures settling their breeding areas within a range of 9-138 km from their natal nest.
Article
Fisheries
Jacob Burbank, Katelyn Gao, Michael Power
Summary: In this study, we found that fish length and water body size significantly influence the home range size of freshwater fish. We also determined that trophic guild and latitude play important roles in determining home range size. These findings provide valuable information for conservation and environmental management purposes.
ECOLOGY OF FRESHWATER FISH
(2023)
Article
Ecology
E. Payne, O. Spiegel, D. L. Sinn, S. T. Leu, M. G. Gardner, S. S. Godfrey, C. Wohlfeil, A. Sih
Summary: Home ranges, the regions where animals interact with their environment, are influenced by various factors. This study used GPS tracking data of sleepy lizards to investigate home range size and fidelity, and found consistent differences among individuals. Individual traits, social conditions, and environmental characteristics all played a role in determining home range size and fidelity.
ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Juliette Seigle-Ferrand, Pascal Marchand, Nicolas Morellet, Jean-Michel Gaillard, A. J. Mark Hewison, Sonia Said, Yannick Chaval, Hugo Santacreu, Anne Loison, Glenn Yannic, Mathieu Garel
Summary: Understanding the impact of linear landscape features on animal movements is crucial, especially in fragmented habitats. Large herbivores primarily use linear features as landmarks to demarcate their home range, with different patterns observed in mountain species. In highly fragmented landscapes, the costs of memorizing key features and the need for sufficient area to meet vital needs constrain large herbivores. Linear features play a significant role in how these animals perceive and utilize the landscape, with consistent patterns observed across sexes and species.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Sara Morollon, Vicente Urios, Pascual Lopez-Lopez
Summary: High-resolution GPS/GSM dataloggers provide high-quality spatial information that improves our understanding of home-range behavior and spatial ecology. This paper examines the home-range size and the influence of sex, season, and breeding status on the space use of Bonelli's eagle using high-resolution GPS/GSM dataloggers. The study finds that home-range size is similar among individuals occupying the same territory, primarily due to cooperative hunting behavior. Females have slightly smaller home ranges, likely due to reduced activity during the breeding season. There is low neighbor overlap, indicating high intraspecific competition among Bonelli's eagles.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
M. Rodriguez-Recio, T. Burgos, M. Krofel, J. Lozano, M. Moleon, E. Virgos
Summary: Movement is essential in animal ecology, and this study focuses on the roaming requirements of leopards and the factors influencing their spatial behavior, including ecological and anthropogenic factors. The results show that human activities worldwide can impact the roaming behavior of leopards, potentially leading to consequences for their populations. This research provides crucial information for conservation efforts and policies addressing global change.
ANIMAL CONSERVATION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Frederic Dulude-de Broin, Jeanne Clermont, Andreanne Beardsell, Louis-Pierre Ouellet, Pierre Legagneux, Joel Bety, Dominique Berteaux
Summary: This study investigates the complex ecological relationships between seven prey species sharing a common predator. The results show that the abundance of clumped and spatially predictable prey leads to a reduction in predator home range size, an increase in local predator density, and a significant decrease in the nest survival rate of incidental prey. In contrast, the scattered cyclic prey has a weaker effect on predator space use and an overall positive impact on the survival rate of specific prey. The contrasting effects highlight the importance of studying predator behavioral responses in multiprey systems and explicitly integrating behavioral-numerical responses in multispecies predator-prey models.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Fisheries
Hugh Allan, Richard P. Duncan, Peter Unmack, Duanne White, Mark Lintermans
Summary: Improved tracking technologies enhance our understanding of fish movement, but caution is needed when comparing studies of different design. This study used a fine-scale tracking approach to compare results from individual-tracking designs with simulated batch-marking designs, finding that batch-marking studies often overestimate home-range size.
MARINE AND FRESHWATER RESEARCH
(2022)
Review
Ecology
Ines Silva, Christen H. Fleming, Michael J. Noonan, Jesse Alston, Cody Folta, William F. Fagan, Justin M. Calabrese
Summary: Modern tracking devices allow for high-volume animal tracking data collection, but traditional statistical methods may underestimate or overestimate home range areas. The autocorrelated kernel density estimation (AKDE) family of estimators aims to address the complexities of modern movement data, improve statistical efficiency, and reduce biases.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Carla C. Gestich, Victor Arroyo-Rodriguez, Bruno H. Saranholi, Rogerio G. T. da Cunha, Eleonore Z. F. Setz, Milton C. Ribeiro
Summary: The study evaluated the impact of forest loss and fragmentation on the populations of a forest-specialist primate, black-fronted titi monkey, and found that increasing forest patch density could lead to higher population density of the species. The results suggest that fragmentation may have positive effects on biodiversity, by increasing populations in remaining forest patches.
Article
Ecology
Erison C. S. Monteiro, Marco A. Pizo, Mauricio Humberto Vancine, Milton Cezar Ribeiro
Summary: The study found that forest cover positively influences both plant and bird PD and EDi. Landscape connectivity is an important predictor of bird PD, but not plant PD, emphasizing the importance of spatial arrangement of forest remnants for guaranteeing bird movement among forest fragments. Furthermore, interaction networks of areas with higher PD and EDi had great robustness to the simulated extinction of species, highlighting the significance of larger forest blocks in conserving evolutionary information and seed dispersal networks against environmental change.
Article
Ecology
Juliana Silveira dos Santos, Carlos M. Silva-Neto, Thiago Castro Silva, Karoline Nascimento Siqueira, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Rosane Garcia Collevatti
Summary: Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is influenced by land-use types, natural elements, and farming intensity. The Brazilian Cerrado, a biodiversity hotspot, has experienced increased native vegetation loss rates in recent years, leading to extinction risks for several plant species. Monocultures have been found to reduce plant diversity in the studied landscapes, highlighting the importance of considering local variables and the diversity of vegetation types in restoration efforts for the Cerrado.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
L. A. Pereira, V. E. W. Campos, C. C. Gestich, M. C. Ribeiro, L. Culot
Summary: This study evaluated the impacts of land-use intensification and defaunation on primate assemblages in the Atlantic Forest and investigated the ecological consequences on seed dispersal. The findings suggest that changes in patch size and inter-patch distance have effects on primate species richness and functional traits. Decreased patch size may lead to reduced diversity of seed dispersers, while less permeable landscapes retain an uneven distribution of seed disperser traits.
ANIMAL CONSERVATION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Rodrigo Matavelli, Juliano Machado Oliveira, Janne Soininen, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Jaime Bertoluci
Summary: This study tested the effects of topography and climate on anuran species richness and community composition in mountainous regions of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome. The results showed that altitude, annual mean temperature, and temperature seasonality were the main drivers of species range sizes and community composition.
Article
Ecology
Lazaro da Silva Carneiro, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Willian Moura de Aguiar, Camila de Fatima Priante, Wilson Frantine-Silva, Maria Cristina Gaglianone
Summary: Multiscale approaches are crucial for understanding ecological processes and detecting the scale of effect. This study evaluated the scale of effect of forest cover and landscape heterogeneity on Euglossini bee communities, and found that combining coupled and decoupled multiscale approaches is essential for determining the scale of effect of landscape composition on bee communities.
Article
Entomology
Marcela de Matos Barbosa, Rodolfo Jaffe, Carolina S. Carvalho, Eder C. M. Lanes, Alessandro Alves-Pereira, Maria Zucchi, Alberto S. Correa, Milton C. Ribeiro, Vera L. Imperatriz-Fonseca, Denise A. Alves
Summary: Tropical landscapes are changing rapidly due to deforestation and agricultural expansion, which leads to the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats. Understanding how these changes affect the genetic diversity and gene flow of native pollinators is crucial for their survival and pollination services. This study investigated the influence of landscape features on genetic diversity and gene flow in Tetragonisca angustula, one of the most widespread species of stingless bees in the Neotropical region. The results showed that forest cover had a negative impact on heterozygosity at a 500-m scale, while inbreeding and gene flow were not affected by landscape features. Gene flow was mainly determined by geographic distance, indicating that T. angustula can disperse across different landscapes, including human-altered ones.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Diana A. Ahuatzin, Daniel Gonzalez-Tokman, Rogerio R. Silva, Jorge E. Valenzuela Gonzalez, Federico Escobar, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Juan Carlos Lopez Acosta, Wesley Dattilo
Summary: Changes in landscape in tropical environments have long-lasting effects on biodiversity, with different responses observed in taxonomic and functional diversity. A study in highly fragmented tropical humid forest landscapes in Mexico found that larger forest cover protected the functional diversity of ants and promoted mobility in ant species.
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Christielly Borges, Alessandra Bertassoni, Luisa F. Lievano-Latorre, Thais Andrade Ferreira Doria, Rejane Santos-Silva, Flavia Miranda, Elisa Barreto
Summary: Sloths and anteaters, belonging to the order Pilosa, have a low species richness due to the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. Conservation planning should prioritize areas favorable for Pilosa, as projections show increased habitat loss. Expanding protected areas by 6% can increase coverage of sloths and anteaters by 12% in the future.
Article
Plant Sciences
Michele Molina, Caue Paiva Vidigal Martins, Mariana Raniero, Livia Sa Fortes, Marcos Felipe Marques Terra, Flavio Nunes Ramos, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Erica Hasui
Summary: Understanding the response of seed rain and seed bank to landscape changes is crucial for maintaining forest remnants integrity and promoting natural regeneration in abandoned lands. This study used structural equation modeling to analyze the direct and indirect effects of landscape structure and biotic interaction on bird-dispersed seed rain and seed banks in the Atlantic Forest. The findings suggest that landscapes with higher percentages of pasture, isolated forest fragments, and locations far from forest edges tend to have lower seed dispersal, seed rain, and seed bank abundance, as well as higher seed predation rates. The indirect effect of landscape change was primarily driven by the negative impact of seed predation rates on seed bank abundance.
Article
Veterinary Sciences
Alessandra Bertassoni, Mariana L. Catapani, Mariana Landis
Summary: Observing behavior in wild Southern Anteaters (Tamandua tetradactyla) allows Xenarthran researchers to gain perspective on natural history of this neotropical scansorial species. We describe the use of the prehensile tail to facilitate copulation for a pair in southeastern Brazil, a novel observation for this species. This detailed account of mating behavior in lesser anteaters is one of very few in the literature and contributes to basic knowledge of this group.
Article
Ecology
Isabella M. F. Cassimiro, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Julia C. Assis
Summary: This study analyzed the potential movement distances of different animal species through the anthropogenic matrix in the Atlantic Forest, and found that the distance traveled through the matrix to reach forest fragments may be restrictive, especially for species with higher degree of forest dependence.
Article
Ecology
Priscila Silveira, Samanta Iop, Juliana Silveira dos Santos, Edgar L. Lima, Felipe Martello, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Natan M. Maciel, Rosane G. Collevatti
Summary: This study investigates the impact of landscape composition and configuration on anuran diversity in agricultural landscapes in the Brazilian Cerrado ecoregion. The results show that aquatic habitat cover and the number of aquatic patches have a positive effect on the diversity of anuran communities. However, landscape compositional heterogeneity and aquatic habitat isolation negatively influence the abundance of rare species and habitat specialist species. Therefore, maintaining waterbodies and ensuring aquatic habitat connectivity are important for conserving anuran communities in agricultural landscapes.
Review
Zoology
Alecsander Rasec-Silva, Alessandra Bertassoni, Paulo De Marco
Summary: Understanding the feeding habits of primate species, particularly capuchin monkeys, is crucial for understanding their natural history, ecological interactions, and response to anthropogenic impacts. A systematic review of published studies on the diet of free-living Sapajus spp. groups revealed geographic and taxonomic biases and identified knowledge gaps regarding basic aspects of their diet. Further studies are needed to fill these gaps and investigate the effects of dietary changes on individuals and groups.
Article
Zoology
Viviane Brito Dias, Felipe Martello, Andre Luis Regolin, Walfrido Moraes Tomas, Milton Cezar Ribeiro
Summary: In this study, the occurrence of Oecomys cleberi in the Atlantic Forest region of Sao Paulo, Brazil was investigated. The results showed that this species was only found in seasonal semideciduous forests and palm forests, and not in pastures, wetlands, and young reforestation. The amount of habitat within a 500 m radius landscape was found to be a determining factor for the occurrence of O. cleberi, with extremely low occupancy probabilities in landscapes with less than 25% forest cover. Therefore, conservation actions are needed to protect their populations in these regions.
STUDIES ON NEOTROPICAL FAUNA AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)