Environmental change, shifting distributions, and habitat conservation plans: A case study of the California gnatcatcher.

ABSTRACT: Many species have already experienced distributional shifts due to changing environmental conditions, and analyzing past shifts can help us to understand the influence of environmental stressors on a species as well as to analyze the effectiveness of conservation strategies. We aimed to (1) quantify regional habitat associations of the California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica); (2) describe changes in environmental variables and gnatcatcher distributions through time; (3) identify environmental drivers associated with habitat suitability changes; and (4) relate habitat suitability changes through time to habitat conservation plans. Southern California's Western Riverside County (WRC), an approximately 4,675 km² conservation planning area. We assessed environmental c

SUBMITTER: Hulton VanTassel HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5723624 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature