Context

An understanding of species-habitat relationships is required to assess the impacts of habitat fragmentation and degradation. To date, habitat modeling in fragmented landscapes has relied on landscape composition and configuration metrics and the importance of habitat quality in determining species distributions has not been sufficiently explored.

Objectives

We evaluated how habitat use by herbivores and frugivorous mammals is shaped by a potential interaction of habitat amount and quality in the Brazilian Pantanal wetland. We also assessed if the contribution of habitat quality to species´ habitat use varies according to the species sensitivity to habitat loss.

Methods

We combined mammal detection data obtained from camera traps with thematic maps to estimate the amount of habitat and measured habitat quality using local environment variables and distance to waterbodies. Specifically, we used a single-season occupancy approach to evaluate the relative support of univariate, additive, and interactive relationships between species-specific habitat use and measures of habitat quality and quantity.

Results

Habitat quality was more important than habitat amount in determining species habitat use (occupancy) in a naturally fragmented landscape. Habitat quality alone was the best predictor of habitat use for two of the six species (white lipped peccary and collared peccary), but no species’ habitat use was explained solely by habitat amount. Habitat amount was influential only when considered in conjunction with habitat quality covariates and only for two sensitive species to habitat loss (agouti and red brocket deer). Habitat quality alone was the best predictor of habitat use for two of the less sensitive species (white lipped peccary and collared peccary). Habitat use for two species was not explained by any covariate (tapir and gray brocket deer).

Conclusions

Conservation programs should incorporate both habitat quality and amount when dealing with sensitive species and prioritize habitat quality management when focusing in less sensitive species.

中文翻译：

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栖息地质量而非栖息地数量驱动着巴西潘塔纳尔湿地的哺乳动物栖息地使用

语境

需要了解物种-栖息地关系，以评估栖息地破碎化和退化的影响。迄今为止，破碎景观中的栖息地建模依赖于景观组成和配置指标，并且尚未充分探索栖息地质量在确定物种分布方面的重要性。

目标

我们评估了食草动物和食果哺乳动物对栖息地的利用如何受到巴西潘塔纳尔湿地栖息地数量和质量的潜在相互作用的影响。我们还评估了栖息地质量对物种栖息地利用的贡献是否根据物种对栖息地丧失的敏感性而变化。

方法

我们将从相机陷阱获得的哺乳动物检测数据与专题地图相结合，以使用当地环境变量和与水体的距离来估计栖息地数量并测量栖息地质量。具体来说，我们使用单季入住率方法来评估特定物种栖息地利用与栖息地质量和数量测量之间的单变量、可加性和交互关系的相对支持。

结果

在确定自然破碎景观中的物种栖息地使用（占用）方面，栖息地质量比栖息地数量更重要。仅栖息地质量是六种物种中的两种（白唇野猪和项圈野猪）栖息地利用的最佳预测指标，但没有物种的栖息地利用仅由栖息地数量来解释。仅当与栖息地质量协变量一起考虑时，栖息地数量才有影响，并且仅对两种对栖息地丧失敏感的物种（刺豚鼠和红石鹿）有影响。栖息地质量本身是两种不太敏感的物种（白唇野猪和领野猪）栖息地利用的最佳预测指标。任何协变量（貘和灰石鹿）都无法解释两个物种的栖息地用途。

结论

保护计划在处理敏感物种时应考虑栖息地质量和数量，并在关注不太敏感的物种时优先考虑栖息地质量管理。