0000000001317473
AUTHOR
Niels Blaum
Limitations of population models in predicting climate change effects : a simulation study of sociable weavers in southern Africa
Current approaches for predicting climate change effects on populations comprise static models based on the geographical distribution of species, and dynamic population models based on the relationship between population processes and the recent variation in climate. Population models have the inherent advantage of considering a species' response to climate as resulting from distinct mechanisms. However, they may have the disadvantage of considering only short-term processes as they occur under the current climate, disregarding slowly adapting mechanisms. It would be important, however, to know whether slowly adapting processes occur, and whether they will respond to climate change. A way o…
Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements
Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T17:44:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-01-26 Robert Bosch Foundation Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of their movements in areas with a low human footprint. We attribute this reduction to behavioral changes of individual animals and to the exclusion of species with long-…
Consequences of correlations between habitat modifications and negative impact of climate change for regional species survival
Abstract While several empirical and theoretical studies have clearly shown the negative effects of climate or landscape changes on population and species survival only few of them addressed combined and correlated consequences of these key environmental drivers. This also includes positive landscape changes such as active habitat management and restoration to buffer the negative effects of deteriorating climatic conditions. In this study, we apply a conceptual spatial modelling approach based on functional types to explore the effects of both positive and negative correlations between changes in habitat and climate conditions on the survival of spatially structured populations. We test the…
Data from: Moving in the Anthropocene: global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements
Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of their movements in areas with a low human footprint. We attribute this reduction to behavioral changes of individual animals and to the exclusion of species with long-range movements from areas with higher human impact. Global loss of vagility alters a key ecological trait of animals that affects no…