Microgeographic variation in fitness-relevant traits may be more common than previously appreciated. The fitness of many vertebrates is directly related to their locomotor capacity, a whole-organism trait integrating behavior, morphology, and physiology. Because locomotion is inextricably related to context, I hypothesized that it might vary with habitat structure in a wide-ranging lizard, Poda...

Connectivity of habitat patches is thought to be important for movement of genes, individuals, populations, and species over multiple temporal and spatial scales. We used graph theory to characterize multiple aspects of landscape connectivity in a habitat network in the North Carolina Piedmont (U.S.A). We compared this landscape with simulated networks with known topology, resistance to disturb...

Streams of the Flint River Basin (FRB) remain as viable habitat for many freshwater species and harbor some of the most diverse mussel assemblages in the Southeast. However, land use changes, hydrologic alterations, and declines in native fish species have adversely affected mussel diversity and abundance throughout the region. Protection of rare and sensitive mussels requires the development o...

We dcvelopt~l a spatially explicit modeling approaclr, using a county-scaled rem01 e forest (i.e., forested area reserved frown or having no direct human interference) assessment derived from l! 184-90 forest resonrce inventory data arid a 1984 trlack bear (Urszrs americancts) range map for 12 states in the southern United States. We defined minirtiinn suitable and optimal black bear habitat cr...

Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has altered the distribution and population sizes in many organisms worldwide. For this reason, understanding the demographic and genetic consequences of this process is necessary to predict the fate of populations and establish management practices aimed to ensure their viability. In this study, we analyse whether the spatial configuration of remnant semi-na...

Although wolves (Canis lupus) and many other carnivores are habitat generalists, certain landscape features can be used to predict suitable habitat. Thiel examined the concept of road density as an important factor in the persistence of wolf populations in Wisconsin prior to the 1960s and found a relationship with the disappearance of breeding wolf populations when average road density exceeded...

Understanding what limits or facilitates species' responses to human-induced habitat change can provide insight for the control of invasive species and the conservation of small populations, as well as an arena for studying adaptation to realistic novel environments. Small effective size of ancestral populations could limit the establishment in, or response to, a novel or altered habitat becaus...

Ecotypic differentiation is well described in the mosquito Culex pipiens, separating populations breeding in subterranean and human-made sites (hypogeous habitat) from those in open-air sites (epigeous habitat). The pattern of population differentiation observed at the Aat-1 locus has been suspected to be associated with such ecotypic differentiation via habitat-dependent selection, but this su...

The Cinereous Warbling-finch Poospiza cinerea (Emberizidae) is a Neotropical grassland bird considered rare, with population declining due to habitat loss and classified as vulnerable. However, the species conspicuously remains in several degraded areas, suggesting that it may be favored by these environments. Studies which focus on this species were inexistent until 2012, making questionable a...