Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Targeting habitat management in fragmented landscapes: a case study with forest vertebrates

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biodiversity and Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Although improving the quality of habitat patches in fragmented landscapes is a main conservation target few studies have examined patch management in relation to the surrounding landscape. Tackling such an issue needs a cross-scale approach that takes the hierarchical nature of landscapes into account. Here I show the results of a cross-scale study focusing on the distribution patterns of ten forest vertebrate species (birds and mammals). The overarching goal of this study was to understand the strength of patch scale determinants of distribution, following the appropriate control for relevant landscape properties (e.g. habitat loss vs. habitat subdivision). I show how, after controlling for uncertainty in the detection of the species and for the role of landscape properties, patch scale variables still played an important role in determining occupancy patterns of forest vertebrates. For some species variation in the values of patch structure variables increased occurrence probability with only moderate levels of habitat loss, highlighting the fact that habitat management should be targeted towards precise landscape conditions. In other cases the effect of patch variables was strong therefore variation in their values always brought substantial increase/decrease of presence probability. Overall these results strongly suggest that habitat management should never be carried out irrespective of the properties of the surrounding landscape, rather, it should be carefully targeted towards specific landscape contexts (e.g. above a certain amount of habitat) where it is more likely to be effective.

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

Access this article

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Amori G, Contoli L, Nappi A (2008) Fauna d’Italia: mammalia II. Calderini, Bologna

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy PE, Brown NJ, Enoksson B, Firbank LG, Fuller RJ, Hinsley SA, Schotman AGM (1998) The influences of habitat, landscape structure and climate on local distribution patterns of the nuthatch (Sitta europaea L.). Oecologia 115:127–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy PE, Rothery P, Hinsley SA, Newton I (2000) Variation in the relationship between numbers of breeding pairs and woodland area for passerines in fragmented habitats. Ecography 23:130–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett AF, Radford JQ, Haslem A (2006) Properties of land mosaics: implications for nature conservation in agricultural environments. Biol Conserv 133:250–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brichetti P, Fracasso G (2007) Ornitologia Italiana vol 4—Apodidae—Prunellidae. Oasi Alberto perdisa Editore, Bologna

    Google Scholar 

  • Bright PW, Morris PA (1996) Why are dormice rare? A case study in conservation biology. Mamm Rev 26:157–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Chauvenet AL, Baxter M, McDonald-Madden E, Possingham H (2010) Optimal allocation of conservation effort among subpopulations of a threatened species: how important is patch quality? Ecol Appl 20:780–787

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cramp S, Brooks DJ, Dunn E, Gillmor R, Hall-Craggs J, Hollom PAD, Nicholson EM, Ogilvie MA, Roselaar CS, Sellar PJ, Simmons KEL, Snow DW, Vincent D, Voous KH, Wallace DIM, Wilson MG (1992) The birds of the western palearctic, vol VI. Oxford University Press, Warblers

    Google Scholar 

  • Cushman SA, McGarigal K (2004) Patterns in the species–environment relationship depend on both scale and choice of response variables. Oikos 105:117–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fahrig L (2003) Effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 34:487–515

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer J, Lindenmayer DB (2007) Landscape modification and habitat fragmentation: a synthesis. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 16:265–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haslem A, Bennett AF (2008) Birds in agricultural mosaics: the influence of landscape patterns and countryside heterogeneity. Ecol Appl 18:185–196

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holland GJ, Bennett AF (2009) Differing responses to landscape change: implications for small mammal assemblages in forest fragments. Biodivers Conserv 18:2997–3016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koper N, Schmiegelow FKA, Merrill EH (2007) Residuals cannot distinguish between ecological effects of habitat amount and fragmentation: implications for the debate. Landsc Ecol 22:811–820

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee M, Fahrig L, Freemark K, Currie DJ (2002) Importance of patch scale vs landscape scale on selected forest birds. Oikos 96:110–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindenmayer DB, Fischer J (2006) Habitat fragmentation and landscape change: an ecological and conservation synthesis. Island Press, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKenzie DI, Royle JA (2005) Designing occupancy studies: general advice and allocating survey effort. J Appl Ecol 42:1105–1114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacKenzie DI, Nichols JD, Lachman GB, Droege S, Royle JA, Langtimm C (2002) Estimating site occupancy rates when detection probabilities are less than one. Ecology 83:2248–2255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthysen E, Adriaensen F (1998) Forest size and isolation have no effect on reproductive success of Eurasian Nuthatches (Sitta europaea). Auk 115:955–963

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthysen E, Currie D (1996) Habitat fragmentation reduces disperser success in juvenile nuthatches Sitta europaea: evidence from patterns of territory establishment. Ecography 19:67–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazerolle MJ, Villard M (1999) Patch characteristics and landscape context as predictors of species presence and abundance: a review. Ecoscience 6:117–124

    Google Scholar 

  • McGarigal K, Cushman SA (2002) Comparative evaluation of experimental approaches to the study of habitat fragmentation effects. Ecol Appl 12:335–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore JE, Swihart RK (2005) Modeling patch occupancy by forest rodents: incorporating detectability and spatial autocorrelation with hierarchically structured data. J Wildl Manag 69:933–949

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mortelliti A, Boitani L (2008) Inferring red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) absence with hair tubes surveys: a sampling protocol. Eur J Wildl Res 54:353–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mortelliti A, Santulli Sanzo G, Boitani L (2009) Species’ surrogacy for conservation planning: caveats from comparing the response of three arboreal rodents to habitat loss and fragmentation. Biodivers Conserv 18:1131–1145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mortelliti A, Amori G, Boitani L (2010a) The role of habitat quality in fragmented landscapes: a conceptual overview and prospectus for future research. Oecologia 163:535–547

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mortelliti A, Amori G, Capizzi D, Rondinini C, Boitani L (2010b) Experimental design and taxonomic scope of fragmentation studies of European mammals: current status and future priorities. Mamm Rev 40:125–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mortelliti A, Fagiani S, Battisti C, Capizzi D, Boitani L (2010c) Independent effects of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and structural connectivity on landscape occupancy of forest dependent birds. Divers Distrib 16:941–951

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mortelliti A, Amori G, Capizzi D, Cervone C, Fagiani S, Pollini B, Boitani L (2011) Independent effects of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and landscape connectivity on the distribution of two arboreal rodents. J Appl Ecol 48:153–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasinelli G (2007) Nest site selection in middle and great spotted woodpeckers Dendrocopos medius and D. major: implications for forest management and conservation. Biodivers Conserv 16:1283–1298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pennington DN, Blair RB (2011) Habitat selection of breeding riparian birds within an urban environment: untangling the relative importance of biophysical elements and spatial scale. Divers Distrib 17:506–518

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2010) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing

  • Radford JQ, Bennett AF (2007) The relative importance of landscape properties for woodland birds in agricultural environments. J Appl Ecol 44:737–747

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radford JQ, Bennett AF, Cheers GJ (2005) Landscape-level thresholds of habitat cover for woodland-dependent birds. Biol Conserv 124:317–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raudenbush SW, Bryk AS (2002) Hierarchical linear models: applications and data analysis methods, 2nd edn. Sage, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie L, Betts M, Forbes G, Vernes K (2009) Effects of landscape composition and configuration on northern flying squirrels in a forest mosaic. Forest Ecol Manag 257:1920–1929

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schooley RL, Branch LC (2007) Spatial heterogeneity in habitat quality and cross-scale interactions in meta-populations. Ecosystems 10:846–853

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spinozzi F, Battisti C, Bologna MA (2012) Habitat fragmentation sensitivity in mammals: a target selection for landscape planning comparing two different approaches (bibliographic review and expert based). Rendiconti Lincei. doi:10.1007/s12210-012-0184-2

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas JA, Bourn NA, Clarke D, Stewart RT, Simcox KE, Pearman DJ, Curtis GS, Goodger B (2001) The quality and isolation of habitat patches both determine where butterflies persist in fragmented landscapes. Proc Biol Sci 268:1791–1796

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thornton DH, Branch LC, Sunquist ME (2011) The influence of landscape, patch, and within-patch factors on species presence and abundance: a review of focal patch studies. Landsc Ecol 26:7–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dorp D, Opdam PFM (1987) Effects of patch size, isolation and regional abundance on forest bird communities. Landsc Ecol 1:59–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Villard MA, Trzcinski M, Merriam G (1999) Fragmentation effects on forest birds: relative influence of woodland cover and configuration on landscape occupancy. Conserv Biol 13:774–783

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Stefano Fagiani, Cristina Cervone, Barbara Pollini, Sergio Muratore and to the park wardens and naturalists of the Regione Lazio for help in the field surveys. Thanks to Joyce Keep for language revision.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alessio Mortelliti.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 423 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mortelliti, A. Targeting habitat management in fragmented landscapes: a case study with forest vertebrates. Biodivers Conserv 22, 187–207 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-012-0412-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-012-0412-1

Keywords

Navigation