Cumulative effects of widespread landscape change alter predator-prey dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Predator search efficiency can be enhanced by anthropogenic landscape change, leading to increased predator-prey encounters and subsequent prey population declines. Logging increases early successional vegetation, providing ungulate forage. This increased forage, however, is accompanied by linear feature networks that increase predator hunting efficiency by facilitating predator movement and increasing prey vulnerability. We used integrated step selection analyses to weigh support for multiple hypotheses representing the combined impact of logging features (cutblocks and linear features) on wolf (Canis lupus) movement and habitat selection in interior British Columbia. Further, we examine the relationship between logging and wolf kill-sites of moose (Alces alces) identified using spatiotem

SUBMITTER: Boucher NP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9270463 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature