Effects of narrow linear clearings on movement and habitat use in a boreal forest mammal community during winter.

ABSTRACT: Linear clearings for human activities cause internal fragmentation of otherwise intact native forest, with many potential impacts on wildlife. Across a boreal forest region of some 4,000 km², we investigated how movements and habitat use of ecologically different mammal species are affected by narrow (about eight m) seismic line (SL) clearings associated with fossil fuel extraction, which form extensive networks many kilometers long. We conducted nine repeat snow track surveys during three winters at 14 pairs of one-kilometer transects, each comprising one transect along the SL and a second running perpendicular into adjacent forest. Data for 13 individually-analyzed mammal taxa (species or sets of closely related species) and five mammal groups, categorized based on body size-d

SUBMITTER: Pattison CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6394345 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature