Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Multi-scale Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) nest/roost habitat selection in Arizona and a comparison with single-scale modeling results

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Landscape Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Context

Organisms commonly respond to their environment across a range of scales, however many habitat selection studies still conduct selection analyses using a single-scale framework. The adoption of multi-scale modeling frameworks in habitat selection studies can improve the effectiveness of these studies and provide greater insights into scale-dependent relationships between species and specific habitat components.

Objectives

Our study assessed multi-scale nest/roost habitat selection of the federally “Threatened” Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) in northern Arizona, USA in an effort to provide improved conservation and management strategies for this subspecies.

Methods

We conducted multi-scale habitat modeling to assess habitat selection by Mexican spotted owls using survey data collected by the USFS. Each selected covariate was included in multi-scale models at their “characteristic scale” and we used an all-subsets approach and model selection framework to assess habitat selection.

Results

The “characteristic scale” identified for each covariate varied considerably among covariates and results from multi-scale models indicated that percent canopy cover and slope were the most important covariates with respect to habitat selection by Mexican spotted owls. Multi-scale models consistently outperformed their analogous single-scale counterparts with respect to the proportion of deviance explained and model predictive performance.

Conclusions

Efficacy of future habitat selection studies will benefit by taking a multi-scale approach. In addition to potentially providing increased explanatory power and predictive capacity, multi-scale habitat models enhance our understanding of the scales at which species respond to their environment, which is critical knowledge required to implement effective conservation and management strategies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen CD, Savage M, Falk DA, Suckling KF, Swetnam TW, Schulke TP, Stacey PB, Morgan P, Hoffman M, Klingel JT (2002) Ecological restoration of southwestern ponderosa pine ecosystems: a broad perspective. Ecol Appl 12:1418–1433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashrafi S, Rutishauser M, Ecker K, Obrist MK, Arlettaz R, Bontadina F (2013) Habitat selection of three cryptic Plecotus bat species in the European Alps reveals contrasting implications for conservation. Biodivers Conserv 22:2751–2766

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrowclough GF, Groth JG, Mertz LA, Gutiérrez RJ (2006) Genetic structure of Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) populations in a fragmented landscape. Auk 123:1090–1102

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrows C (1981) Roost selection by spotted owls: an adaptation to heat stress. Condor 83:302–309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beier P, Maschinski J (2003) Threatened, endangered, and sensitive species. In: Friederici P (ed) Ecological restoration of southwestern ponderosa pine forests. Island Press, Washington, pp 306–327

    Google Scholar 

  • Bias MA, Gutierrez RJ (1992) Habitat associations of California spotted owls in the central Sierra-Nevada. J Wildl Manag 56:584–595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blakesley JA, Noon BR, Anderson DR (2005) Sit occupancy, apparent survival, and reproduction of California spotted owls in relation to forest stand characteristics. J Wildl Manag 69:1554–1564

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boscolo D, Metzger JP (2009) Is bird incidence in Atlantic forest fragments influenced by landscape patterns at multiple scales? Landscape Ecol 24:907–918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown DE (1982) Biotic communities of the American southwest—United States and Mexico. Desert Plants 4:1–4

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brown RT, Agee JK, Franklin JF (2004) Forest restoration and fire: principles in the context of place. Conserv Biol 18:903–912

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and inference: a practical information-theoretic approach, 2nd edn. Springer-Verlag, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Carey AB (1985) A summary of the scientific basis for spotted owl management. In: Gutiérrez RJ, Carey AB (eds) Ecology and management of the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest. General Technical Report. PNW-185. USDA Forest Service, Portland, pp 100–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Covington WW, Everett RI, Steele R, Irwin LL, Daer TA, Auclair AND (1994) Historical and anticipated changes in forest ecosystems of the Inland West of the United States. J Sustain For 95:13–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeCesare NJ, Hebblewhite M, Schmiegelow F, Hervieux D, McDermid GJ, Neufeld L, Bradley M, Whittington J, Smith KG, Morgantini LE, Wheatley M, Musiani M (2012) Transcending scale dependence in identifying habitat with resource selection functions. Ecol Appl 22:1068–1083

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dickson BG, Sisk TD, Sesnie SE, Reynolds RT, Rosenstock SS, Vojta CD, Ingraldi MF, Rundall JM (2014) Integrating single-species management and landscape conservation using regional habitat occurrence models: the northern goshawk in the Southwest, USA. Landscape Ecol 29:803–815

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dudus L, Zalewski A, Koziol O, Jakubiec Z, Krol N (2014) Habitat selection by two predators in an urban area: the stone marten and red fox in Wroclaw (SW Poland). Mamm Biol 79:71–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Everett R, Schellhaas D, Spurbeck D, Ohlson P, Keenum D, Anderson T (1997) Structure of northern spotted owl nest stands and their historical conditions on the eastern slope of the Pacific Northwest Cascades, USA. For Ecol Manage 94:1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feist BE, Steel EA, Jensen DW, Sather DND (2010) Does the scale of our observational window affect our conclusions about correlations between endangered salmon populations and their habitat? Landscape Ecol 25:727–743

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forsman ED (1983) Methods and materials for locating and studying spotted owls. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-162, Portland

  • Forsman ED, Giese AR (1997) Nests of northern spotted owls on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington. Wilson Bull 109:28–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu P, Rich PM (2002) A geometric solar radiation model with applications in agriculture and forestry. Comput Electron Agric 37:25–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganey JL (2004) Thermal regimes of Mexican spotted owl nest stands. Southwest Nat 49:478–486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganey JL, Apprill DL, Rawlinson TA, Kyle SC, Jonnes RS, Ward JP Jr (2013) Nesting habitat of Mexican spotted owls in the Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico. J Wildl Manag 77:1426–1435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganey JL, Balda RP (1989) Distribution and habitat use of Mexican spotted owls in Arizona. Condor 91:355–361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganey JL, Block WM, Jenness J, Wilson RA (1999) Mexican spotted owl home range and habitat use in pine-oak forest: implications for forest management. For Sci 45:127–135

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganey JL, Block WM, King RM (2000) Roost sites of radio-marked Mexican spotted owls in Arizona and New Mexico: sources of variability and descriptive characteristics. J Raptor Res 34:270–278

    Google Scholar 

  • Graf RF, Bollmann K, Suter W, Bugmann H (2005) The importance of spatial scale in habitat models: capercaillie in the Swiss Alps. Landscape Ecol 20:703–717

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregr EJ, Trites AW (2008) A novel presence-only validation technique for improved Steller sea lion Eumetopias jubatus critical habitat descriptions. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 365:247–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grubb TG, Ganey JL, Masek SR (1997) Canopy closure around nest sites of Mexican spotted owls in northcentral Arizona. J Wildl Manag 61:336–342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez RJ (1985) An overview of recent research on the spotted owl. In: Gutiérrez RJ, Carey AB (eds) Ecology and management of the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest. General Technical Report. PNW-185. USDA Forest Service, Portland, pp 39–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Hathcock CD, Haarmann TK (2008) Development of a predictive model for habitat of the Mexican spotted owl in northern New Mexico. Southwest Nat 53:34–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hershey KT, Meslow EC, Ramsey FL (1998) Characteristics of forests at spotted owl nest sites in the Pacific Northwest. J Wildl Manag 62:1398–1410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenness J, Brost B, Beier P (2013) Land Facet Corridor Designer: extension for ArcGIS. Jenness Enterprises. http://www.jennessent.com/arcgis/land_facets.htm

  • Johnson DH (1980) The comparison of usage and availability measurements for evaluating resource preference. Ecology 61:65–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn A, Copeland J, Cooley J, Vogel H, Taylor K, Nacci D, August P (2011) Modeling habitat associations for the common loon (Gavia immer) at multiple scales in northeastern North America. Avian Conserv Ecol 6:4

    Google Scholar 

  • LaHaye WS, Gutiérrez RJ, Call DR (1997) Nest-site selection and reproductive success of California spotted owls. Wilson Bull 109:42–51

    Google Scholar 

  • LANDFIRE (2001) Existing vegetation type layer and digital elevation model layer. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey (Online). http://landfire.cr.usgs.gov/viewer/

  • Levin SA (1992) The problem of pattern and scale in ecology: the Robert H. MacArthur award lecture. Ecology 73:1943–1967

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loehle C, Irwin L, Manly BFJ, Merrill A (2015) Range-wide analysis of northern spotted owl nesting habitat relations. For Ecol Manage 342:8–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin AE, Fahrig L (2012) Measuring and selecting scales of effect for landscape predictors in species-habitat models. Ecol Appl 22:2277–2292

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mast JN (2003) Tree health and forest structure. In: Friederici P (ed) Ecological restoration of southwestern ponderosa pine forest. Island Press, Washington, pp 215–232

    Google Scholar 

  • May CA, Gutiérrez RJ (2002) Habitat associations of Mexican spotted owl nest and roost sites in central Arizona. Wilson Bull 114:457–466

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • May CA, Petersburg ML, Gutiérrez RJ (2004) Mexican spotted owl nest- and roost-site habitat in northern Arizona. J Wildl Manag 68:1054–1064

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McComb WC, McGrath MT, Spies TA, Vesely D (2002) Models for mapping potential habitat at landscape scales: an example using northern spotted owls. For Sci 48:203–216

    Google Scholar 

  • McGarigal K, Wan HY, Zeller KA, Timm BC, Cushman SA (2016) Multi-scale habitat selection modeling: a review and outlook. Landscape Ecol. doi:10.1007/s10980-016-0374-x

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills LS, Fredrickson RJ, Moorhead BB (1993) Characteristics of old-growth forests associated with northern spotted owls in Olympic National Park. J Wildl Manag 57:315–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moen CA, Gutiérrez RJ (1997) California spotted owl habitat selection in the central Sierra Nevada. J Wildl Manag 61:1281–1287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Kindt R, Legendre P, Minchin PR, O’Hara RB, Simpson GL, Solymos P, Stevens MH, Wagner H (2013) Vegan: community ecology package. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan

  • Peery MZ, Gutiérrez RJ, Seamans ME (1999) Habitat composition and configuration around Mexican spotted owl nest and roost sites in the Tularosa Mountains, New Mexico. J Wildl Manag 63:36–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pliscoff P, Luebert F, Hilger HH, Guisan A (2014) Effects of alternative sets of climatic predictors on species distribution models and associated estimates of extinction risk: a test with plants in an arid environment. Ecol Model 288:166–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prather JW, Noss RF, Sisk TD (2008) Real versus perceived conflicts between restoration of ponderosa pine forests and conservation of the Mexican spotted owl. For Policy Econ 10:140–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PRISM Climate Group (2014) Oregon State University. http://prism.oregonstate.edu

  • R Development Core Team (2014) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. http://www.R-project.org

  • Sanchez MCM, Cushman SA, Saura S (2013) Scale dependence in habitat selection: the case of the endangered brown bear (Ursus arctos) in the Cantabrian Range (NW Spain). Int J Geogr Inf Sci. doi:10.1080/13658816.2013.776684

    Google Scholar 

  • Seamans ME, Gutiérrez RJ (1995) Breeding habitat ecology of the Mexican spotted owl in the Tularosa Mountains, New Mexico. Condor 97:944–952

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Small DM, Blank PJ, Lohr B (2015) Habitat use and movement patterns by dependent and independent juvenile grasshopper sparrows during the post-fledging period. J Field Ornithol 86:17–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thogmartin WE, Knutson MG (2007) Scaling local species-habitat relations to the larger landscape with a hierarchical spatial count model. Landscape Ecol 22:61–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Urban DL, Keitt TH (2001) Landscape connectivity: a graph-theoretic perspective. Ecology 82:1205–1218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2012) Final recovery plan for the Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida). First Revision. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque

  • Ward JP Jr, Block WM (1995) Prey ecology. In: Block WM et al (eds) Recovery plan for the Mexican spotted owl, chap 5, vol II—technical supporting information. USDI Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque, pp 1–48

  • Wheatley M, Johnson C (2009) Factors limiting our understanding of ecological scale. Ecol Complexity 6:150–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiens JA (1989) Spatial scaling in ecology. Funct Ecol 3:385–397

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams KJ, Belbin L, Austin MP, Stein JL, Ferrier S (2012) Which environmental variables should I use in my biodiversity model? Int J Geogr Inf Sci 26:2009–2047

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank S. Hedwall, J. Jenness, and S. Sesnie for valuable input throughout various stages of this manuscript preparation. This research was funded primarily by the Joint Fire Science Program (Project ID: 12-1-06-56). This is manuscript XXXXX of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Agricultural Extension.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Conservation, Holdsworth Natural Resources Center, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Brad C. Timm & Kevin McGarigal

  2. Rocky Mountain Research Station, United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 2500 South Pine Knoll Dr., Flagstaff, AZ, 86001, USA

    Samuel A. Cushman & Joseph L. Ganey

Authors
  1. Brad C. Timm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kevin McGarigal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Samuel A. Cushman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Joseph L. Ganey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brad C. Timm.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Timm, B.C., McGarigal, K., Cushman, S.A. et al. Multi-scale Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) nest/roost habitat selection in Arizona and a comparison with single-scale modeling results. Landscape Ecol 31, 1209–1225 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0371-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0371-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation