Habitat structural complexity is one of the most important factors in determining the makeup of biological communities. Recent advances in structure-from-motion and photogrammetry have resulted in a proliferation of 3D digital representations of habitats from which structural complexity can be measured. Little attention has been paid to quantifying the measurement errors associated with these t...

—The use of model-predicted, local-scale habitat data as inputs in analyses intended to evaluate multiscale fish assemblage–habitat relationships in streams has become increasingly common as the scale at which such studies are conducted has increased. We used fish assemblage and habitat data from 208 wadeable streams in Wisconsin and Michigan to determine whether model-predicted habitat data wo...

We examined the relationship between songbird relative abundance and local and landscape-scale habitat variables in two predominately midto late-successional managed National Forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA. We used partialregression analysis to remove correlations between habitat variables measured at different spatial scales (local habitat and square landscape regions with ...

Article history: Received 31 December 2006 Accepted 2 January 2007 RR EC TE D PR O The goal of this study was to evaluate the contributions of forest and landscape structure derived from remote sensing instruments to habitatmapping. Our empirical data focused at the landscape scale on a test site in northern Michigan, using radar and Landsat imagery and bird-presence data by species. We tested ...

Habitat selection is an active behavioral process that may vary across spatial and temporal scales. Animals choose an area of primary utilization (i.e., home range) then make decisions focused on resource needs within patches. Dominance may affect the spatial distribution of conspecifics and concomitant habitat selection. Size-dependent social dominance hierarchies have been documented in capti...

Habitat mapping at the scale at which marine protected areas are designed and managed is essential for assessment of, and design for, representation. Most habitat mapping studies rely solely or in part on abiotic surrogates for patterns of biodiversity. The utility of abiotic variables in predicting biological distributions at the local scale (10s of km) was tested in a remote video survey of m...

Vocal responses to anthropogenic noise have been documented in several species of songbird. However, only a few studies have investigated whether these adjustments are made in "real time" or are longer-term responses to particular soundscapes. Furthermore, increased ambient noise often is accompanied by structural changes to the habitat, including the introduction of noisy roadways and the remo...

Forest fragmentation results in a loss of forest interior and an increase in edge habitat. We studied how understorey bird community composition and habitat variables changed along an edge-to-interior gradient in a 1248-ha lowland rainforest patch in peninsular Malaysia. Birds and environmental variables such as vegetation structure and litter depth were detected within a 25-m radius of each of...

The variables in habitat studies are usually transformed in such a way that they become abstractions and intuition is lost. We tested a new method for the analysis of habitat using data collected in a grid laid at the “restinga de Maricá”, in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Thirty-seven microhabitat variables were measured at each trap station. We assume that these variables characterize the micr...

Armoring shorelines to prevent erosion is a long-standing global practice that has well-documented adverse effects on coastal habitats and organisms. A relatively new form of shoreline protection, referred to as hybrid stabilization, incorporates created marsh in combination with a stabilizing structure such as a low-profile stone sill and is being implemented in many US coastal states as a mea...