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Selected AbstractsThe importance of interspecific interactions for breeding-site selection: peregrine falcons seek proximity to raven nestsECOGRAPHY, Issue 6 2004Fabrizio Sergio The advent of GIS is initiating a rapid increase in the utilization of wildlife-habitat models as tools for species and habitat management. However, such models rarely include estimates of interspecific interactions among explanatory variables. We tested the importance of such variables by using the peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus, a medium-sized raptor frequently reported to be affected by heterospecifics, as a model species. In an Alpine population, compared to random locations, peregrines selected breeding sites farther from conspecifics, on taller cliffs, with higher availability of farmland and closer to raven Corvus corax nests. Within suitable habitat, peregrines selected sites near ravens and far from elevations associated with golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos nests. Productivity increased with cliff size, farmland availability (rich in the local main prey) and with proximity to ravens, suggesting that the observed choices were adaptive. Finally, at the regional level, peregrine density peaked at low elevation and was positively associated with raven density. The results suggested an active breeding association of peregrines with ravens, which may provide early-warning cues against predators and safe alternative nest-sites. They also confirmed the importance of including estimates of interspecific interactions among explanatory variables, which may: 1) make models more realistic; 2) increase their predictive power by lowering unexplained variance due to unmeasured factors; 3) provide unexpected results such as the cryptic, large-scale breeding association of our study; and 4) stimulate further hypothesis formulation and testing, ultimately leading to deeper ecological knowledge of the study system. [source] Can niche use in red and grey squirrels offer clues for their apparent coexistence?JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2002Jenny Bryce Summary 1Introduced species are, world-wide, one of the most serious threats to biodiversity. Grey squirrels Sciurus carolinensis are one of many introduced species to have threatened a native congener; they are thought to have replaced red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris throughout much of the UK as a result of competition. The rate of competitive replacement may be influenced by habitat composition, with some red squirrel populations persisting for prolonged periods in the presence of greys in predominantly coniferous forest. 2Here the similarity of red and grey squirrels' pattern of habitat use was investigated in Craigvinean forest in Scotland, UK, a site that has experienced apparent coexistence for up to 30 years. Overlap was examined in several dimensions: spatial overlap of home ranges, dynamic association and niche overlap. Habitat selection was examined at three levels: selection of core home range areas, selection of tree species within the home range, and the characteristics of patches used intensively by each squirrel species in comparison with random locations within their home range. 3Although there was overlap between red and grey squirrel ranges, there were clear differences in the macrohabitats utilized, with red squirrels selecting areas of Norway spruce Picea abies and grey squirrels selecting riparian corridors of mixed woodland for their home ranges. Within their home ranges, habitat selection by individual red and grey squirrels was similar, but again with reds selecting Norway spruce and greys selecting patches of mixed conifers and broad-leaved trees. As no habitat variables consistently affected the microdistribution of red and grey squirrels within blocks or ,stands' of trees, stands that were used were thought to constitute good and relatively homogeneous habitats for squirrels of either species. 4There was no evidence to suggest that red and grey squirrels avoided using the same areas at the same time, and potential niche overlap was considerable (0·77). However, partitioning of habitats may have reduced competition between red and grey squirrels and hence have contributed to red squirrel persistence at this site. 5This work (i) reinforces earlier proposals that forest management offers a promising tool to assist the conservation of red squirrels; (ii) raises the issue of determining the spatial scale at which coexistence operates; and (iii) offers an illustration of how the management of invasive species can be mediated through the manipulation of niche availability. [source] Landscape-scale detection and mapping of invasive African Olive (Olea europaea L. ssp. cuspidata Wall ex G. Don Ciferri) in SW Sydney, Australia using satellite remote sensingAPPLIED VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 2 2009P. Cuneo Abstract Question: Is satellite imagery an effective tool for mapping and examining the distribution of the invasive species Olea europaea L. ssp. cuspidata at a regional landscape scale? Location: Southwest Sydney, Australia. Methods: Remote sensing software was used to classify pixels of Olea europaea L. ssp. cuspidata (African Olive) and major vegetation types from satellite imagery, using a "supervised classification" technique across a 721 km2 study area in the Cumberland Plain region of western Sydney. A map of African Olive distribution was produced from the image analysis and checked for accuracy at 337 random locations using ground observation and comparison with existing vegetation maps. The African Olive distribution data were then used in a GIS analysis with additional spatial datasets to investigate the relationship between the distribution of African Olive and environmental factors, and to quantify the conservation threat to endangered native vegetation. Results: A total area of 1907 ha of dense African Olive infestation was identified, with an omission error of 7.5% and a commission error of 5.4%. African Olive was found to occur on the steepest slopes (mean slope 14.3°) of the vegetation classes examined, with aspect analysis identifying a high prevalence on south- and southwest-facing slopes. The analysis also quantified the level of African Olive infestation in endangered ecological communities, with Western Sydney Dry Rainforest (25% affected) and Moist Shale Woodland (28% affected) identified as most vulnerable to African Olive invasion. Conclusion: The distribution of African Olive can be efficiently mapped at a landscape scale. This technique, used in association with additional spatial datasets, identified African Olive as a significant environmental weed in SW Sydney, occupying a greater area than previously recognised and threatening several endangered native vegetation communities. [source] Bayesian Semiparametric Multiple ShrinkageBIOMETRICS, Issue 2 2010Richard F. MacLehose Summary High-dimensional and highly correlated data leading to non- or weakly identified effects are commonplace. Maximum likelihood will typically fail in such situations and a variety of shrinkage methods have been proposed. Standard techniques, such as ridge regression or the lasso, shrink estimates toward zero, with some approaches allowing coefficients to be selected out of the model by achieving a value of zero. When substantive information is available, estimates can be shrunk to nonnull values; however, such information may not be available. We propose a Bayesian semiparametric approach that allows shrinkage to multiple locations. Coefficients are given a mixture of heavy-tailed double exponential priors, with location and scale parameters assigned Dirichlet process hyperpriors to allow groups of coefficients to be shrunk toward the same, possibly nonzero, mean. Our approach favors sparse, but flexible, structure by shrinking toward a small number of random locations. The methods are illustrated using a study of genetic polymorphisms and Parkinson's disease. [source] | ||||||||||