Global climate change could have profound effects on the Earth’s biota, including large redistributions of tree species and forest types. We used DISTRIB, a deterministic regression tree analysis model, to examine environmental drivers related to current forest-species distributions and then model potential suitable habitat under five climate change scenarios associated with a doubling of atmos...

Abstract Context Adjustments in habitat use by large carnivores can be a key factor facilitating their coexistence with people shared landscapes. Landscape composition might determining how adapt to occurring alongside humans, yet broad-scale analyses investigating adjustments of across gradients human pressure and landscape are lacking. Objectives Here, we investigate Eurasian lynx ( Lynx ) re...

An understanding of the habitat selection patterns by wild herbivores is critical for adaptive management, particularly towards ecosystem management and wildlife conservation in semi arid savanna ecosystems. We tested the following predictions: (i) surface water availability, habitat quality and human presence have a strong influence on the spatial distribution of wild herbivores in the dry sea...

Extraction of oil and natural gas (hydrocarbons) from shale is increasing rapidly in North America, with documented impacts to native species and ecosystems. With shale oil and gas resources on nearly every continent, this development is set to become a major driver of global land-use change. It is increasingly critical to quantify spatial habitat loss driven by this development to implement ef...

Few terms in wildlife ecology and conservation biology enjoy jargon status more than the word " habitat. " The ubiquity of the word in popular, scientific, and administrative literature suggests a universal definition, yet the diversity of contexts in which it is used clearly indicates little consensus. This conceptual imprecision has strong, but generally unacknowledged, implications for under...

All four chimpanzee sub-species populations are declining due to multiple factors including human-caused habitat loss. Effective conservation efforts are therefore needed to ensure their long-term survival. Habitat suitability models serve as useful tools for conservation planning by depicting relative environmental suitability in geographic space over time. Previous studies mapping chimpanzee ...

The world is currently experiencing exceptionally high rates of species extinctions, largely as as result of human activity (Lawton and May 1996). Currently, most conservation research on habitat destruction focuses on the species as the unit of study, looking at either the impact of habitat destruction on individual species, or collections of species from particular habitats. There is, however...

In Utah, greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sagegrouse) range has been reduced to 50% of what is considered historical availability due to habitat degradation and loss. In an effort to improve sage-grouse habitat in southern Utah, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted a tree-removal treatment in 2005. We conducted a study to determine if (a) the tree-removal...

Background Large carnivores influence ecosystem functions at various scales. Thus, their local extinction is not only a species-specific conservation concern, but also reflects on the overall habitat quality and ecosystem value. Species-habitat relationships at fine scale reflect the individuals' ability to procure resources and negotiate intraspecific competition. Such fine scale habitat choic...