Fine-Scale Habitat Heterogeneity Influences Occupancy in Terrestrial Mammals in a Temperate Region of Australia.

ABSTRACT: Vegetation heterogeneity is an inherent feature of most ecosystems, characterises the structure of habitat, and is considered an important driver of species distribution patterns. However, quantifying fine-scale heterogeneity of vegetation cover can be time consuming, and therefore it is seldom measured. Here, we determine if heterogeneity is worthwhile measuring, in addition to the amount of cover, when examining species distribution patterns. Further, we investigated the effect of the surrounding landscape heterogeneity on species occupancy. We tested the effect of cover and heterogeneity of trees and shrubs, and the context of the surrounding landscape (number of habitats and distance to an ecotone) on site occupancy of three mammal species (the black wallaby [Wallabia bicolor], the lon

SUBMITTER: Stirnemann I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4579067 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature