The range and population of Burrowing Owls (BOs) are declining in the Canadian Prairies. Multiple anthropogenic sources of degradation (threat) are attributed to this trend. Yet, the cumulative degradation caused by these sources has not been quantified across this landscape. Using the InVEST Habitat Quality (HQ) module and a novel approach to parameterize the relative sensitivity scores in this framework, we quantified, mapped, and evaluated the relative HQ values for these species in the prairies. The results illustrate significant differences in the HQ values between the current range and areas within the historical range of these species that do not spatially intersect with their current spatial extent. However, the variations of HQ values are not statistically significant under the different spatial scenarios considered across the current breeding grounds. Nevertheless, the results within the specific land use/cover categories illustrate meaningful variations in the HQ values across the current range of these species. Our findings suggest that the existing declining trends could only be attributed to the synergistic impact of the considered threats and other factors undermining the essential ecological processes for these birds. The results also highlight the importance of expanding the spatial extent of the existing conservation measures to prevent further loss of these charismatic migratory birds from the prairie landscape. A good starting point is to consider the HQ change index, a measure defined to illustrate the relative habitat degradation under different sources of degradation. Further studies are still required to determine the spatiotemporal impacts of all sources of degradation on the habitat of these endangered species in Canada and across their global range.

加拿大大草原的穴居猫头鹰 (BO) 的分布范围和数量正在减少。多种人为退化源（威胁）归因于这一趋势。然而，这些来源造成的累积退化尚未在整个环境中量化。使用 InVEST Habitat Quality (HQ) 模块和一种新方法来参数化该框架中的相对敏感性分数，我们量化、绘制和评估了草原中这些物种的相对 HQ 值。结果表明，这些物种的当前范围和历史范围内的区域之间的 HQ 值存在显着差异，这些区域在空间上与其当前空间范围不相交。然而，在当前繁殖地考虑的不同空间情景下，HQ 值的变化在统计上不显着。尽管如此，特定土地利用/覆盖类别中的结果说明了这些物种当前范围内 HQ 值的有意义的变化。我们的研究结果表明，现有的下降趋势只能归因于所考虑的威胁和其他破坏这些鸟类基本生态过程的因素的协同影响。结果还强调了扩大现有保护措施的空间范围以防止这些具有魅力的候鸟进一步从草原景观中流失的重要性。一个好的起点是考虑 HQ 变化指数，为说明不同退化源下的相对栖息地退化而定义的衡量标准。仍需要进一步的研究来确定所有退化来源对加拿大及其全球范围内这些濒危物种栖息地的时空影响。