Exploring and interpreting spatiotemporal interactions between native and invasive carnivores across a gradient of rainforest degradation

Studies of elusive carnivores often rely on passive sampling when investigating either spatial or temporal interactions. However, inference on behavioral mechanisms are usually lacking. We present an analysis that combines previously published spatial co-occurrence estimates and temporal kernel density estimates to explore spatiotemporal interspecific interactions. We do so by deriving a spatiotemporal value (STV) that is a relative measure of potential interaction in both niche dimensions, across a gradient of degradation, for rainforest carnivore pairs in Madagascar. We also use a conceptual framework to provide insight into the potential behavioral mechanisms of habitat selection. Of the six native and three invasive carnivores, we estimate the spatiotemporal interactions for twelve pairings, which range from no spatial/temporal relationship (n = 5) to spatiotemporal aggregation or segregation (n = 7). We visualized these spatiotemporal interactions along a fragmentation gradient and demonstrate that these interactions are not static, as STV overlap increases with increasing anthropogenic disturbance. Of the three invasive carnivores (free-ranging dogs Canis familiaris, cats Felis species, and small Indian civets Viverricula indica) the latter had the highest number of spatial occurrence (n = 4) and spatiotemporal overlap (n = 4) relationships with native carnivores. Our results highlight the potential for increasing direct and indirect interactions between native and invasive species as forest degradation and invasive predators increase. Our approach allows us to better understand adaptive behaviors, plasticity in temporal activity, community assemblage, and to develop targeted conservation strategies to manage ecological communities in rapidly changing ecosystems

Rethinking Habitat Occupancy Modeling and the Role of Diel Activity in an Anthropogenic World

Current methods to model species habitat use through space and diel time are limited. Development of such models is critical when considering rapidly changing habitats where species are forced to adapt to anthropogenic change, often by shifting their diel activity across space. We use an occupancy modeling framework to specify the multistate diel occupancy model (MSDOM), which can evaluate species diel activity against continuous response variables that may impact diel activity within and across seasons or years. We used two case studies, fosas in Madagascar and coyotes in Chicago, Illinois, to conceptualize the application of this model and to quantify the impacts of human activity on species spatial use in diel time. We found support that both species varied their habitat use by diel states—in and across years and by human disturbance. Our results exemplify the importance of understanding animal diel activity patterns and how human disturbance can lead to temporal habitat loss. The MSDOM will allow more focused attention in ecology and evolution studies on the importance of the short temporal scale of diel time in animal-habitat relationships and lead to improved habitat conservation and management

Assessment of the Threatened Carnivore Community in the Recently Expanded Rainforest protected Area Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve, Madagascar

Madagascar is an island nation renowned for its biodiversity and species endemism, yet it is still largely understudied despite intense anthropogenic threats including forest loss and edge effects. Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve is a recently expanded rainforest protected area that is lacking detailed surveys and assessments of the native carnivore community of the endemic family Eupleridae. To identify which terrestrial carnivores occupy the reserve and what anthro- pogenic disturbances and factors best explain their occurrence patterns, we deployed 35 motion- activated cameras to detect native and introduced carnivores. From November 2018 to February 2019, we collected 2918 unique capture events (all species) and confirmed the presence of 5 eup- lerids: Galidia elegans, Galidictis fasciata, Eupleres goudotii, Fossa fossana, and Cryptoprocta ferox. These results extend the known range of E. goudotii and G. fasciata. In the reserve, F. fossana and G. elegans were the most common and widespread native carnivores, while E. goudotii was the rarest. We highlight the negative impact of edge effects on G. fasciata and F. fossana and the threat posed by the free-ranging non-native carnivore C. familiaris. This study represents the first detailed survey and occurrence estimates of the carnivore community of this protected area, allow- ing comparison with other protected areas in Madagascar. Our empirical findings show that anthro- pogenic disturbance negatively impacts carnivore existence within the Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve and provide important management recommendations for protecting the carnivore com- munity and the co-occurring wildlife living within this area

Accounting for Location Uncertainty in Azimuthal Telemetry Data Improves Ecological Inference

Background: Characterizing animal space use is critical for understanding ecological relationships. Animal telemetry technology has revolutionized the fields of ecology and conservation biology by providing high quality spatial data on animal movement. Radio-telemetry with very high frequency (VHF) radio signals continues to be a useful technology because of its low cost, miniaturization, and low battery requirements. Despite a number of statistical developments synthetically integrating animal location estimation and uncertainty with spatial process models using satellite telemetry data, we are unaware of similar developments for azimuthal telemetry data. As such, there are few statistical options to handle these unique data and no synthetic framework for modeling animal location uncertainty and accounting for it in ecological models. We developed a hierarchical modeling framework to provide robust animal location estimates from one or more intersecting or non-intersecting azimuths. We used our azimuthal telemetry model (ATM) to account for azimuthal uncertainty with covariates and propagate location uncertainty into spatial ecological models. We evaluate the ATM with commonly used estimators (Lenth (1981) maximum likelihood and M-Estimators) using simulation. We also provide illustrative empirical examples, demonstrating the impact of ignoring location uncertainty within home range and resource selection analyses. We further use simulation to better understand the relationship among location uncertainty, spatial covariate autocorrelation, and resource selection inference. Results: We found the ATM to have good performance in estimating locations and the only model that has appropriate measures of coverage. Ignoring animal location uncertainty when estimating resource selection or home ranges can have pernicious effects on ecological inference. Home range estimates can be overly confident and conservative when ignoring location uncertainty and resource selection coefficients can lead to incorrect inference and over confidence in the magnitude of selection. Furthermore, our simulation study clarified that incorporating location uncertainty helps reduce bias in resource selection coefficients across all levels of covariate spatial autocorrelation. Conclusion: The ATM can accommodate one or more azimuths when estimating animal locations, regardless of how they intersect; this ensures that all data collected are used for ecological inference. Our findings and model development have important implications for interpreting historical analyses using this type of data and the future design of radio-telemetry studies

Forest degradation drives widespread avian habitat and population declines

In many regions of the world, forest management has reduced old forest and simplified forest structure and composition. We hypothesized that such forest degradation has resulted in long-term habitat loss for forest-associated bird species of eastern Canada (130,017 km2) which, in turn, has caused bird-population declines. Despite little change in overall forest cover, we found substantial reductions in old forest as a result of frequent clear-cutting and a broad-scale transformation to intensified forestry. Back-cast species distribution models revealed that breeding habitat loss occurred for 66% of the 54 most common species from 1985 to 2020 and was strongly associated with reduction in old age classes. Using a long-term, independent dataset, we found that habitat amount predicted population size for 94% of species, and habitat loss was associated with population declines for old-forest species. Forest degradation may therefore be a primary cause of biodiversity decline in managed forest landscapes

Squeezed by a Habitat Split: Warm Ocean Conditions and Old‐forest Loss Interact to Reduce Long‐term Occupancy of a Threatened Seabird

Theory predicts that species requiring multiple habitat types simultaneously should have heightened sensitivity to anthropogenic pressures, yet tests of this prediction are especially rare. We tested whether breeding site occupancy of the threatened marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) was driven by the synergistic effects of nesting habitat loss in forests, and changing ocean condi- tions. We paired 70,700 murrelet surveys at 19,837 sites across 20 years from the Oregon Coast Range with annual data on the extent of old forest and biophysical ocean conditions. Dynamic occupancy models indicated that local murrelet col- onization rates were strongly reduced during warm ocean conditions with low prey availability. Landscapes that contained more old forest and were closer to the ocean showed reduced rates of local extinction. Given predictions of accel- erated ocean warming and increased global timber demand, our results suggest murrelets may continue to be imperiled by deterioration of the two habitats upon which they depend

Mammals adjust diel activity across gradients of urbanization

Time is a fundamental component of ecological processes. How animal behavior changes over time has been explored through well-known ecological theories like niche partitioning and predator–prey dynamics. Yet, changes in animal behavior within the shorter 24-hr light–dark cycle have largely gone unstudied. Understanding if an animal can adjust their temporal activity to mitigate or adapt to environmental change has become a recent topic of discussion and is important for effective wildlife management and conservation. While spatial habitat is a fundamental consideration in wildlife management and conservation, temporal habitat is often ignored. We formulated a temporal resource selection model to quantify the diel behavior of 8 mammal species across 10 US cities. We found high variability in diel activity patterns within and among species and species-specific correlations between diel activity and human population density, impervious land cover, available greenspace, vegetation cover, and mean daily temperature. We also found that some species may modulate temporal behaviors to manage both natural and anthropogenic risks. Our results highlight the complexity with which temporal activity patterns interact with local environmental characteristics, and suggest that urban mammals may use time along the 24-hr cycle to reduce risk, adapt, and therefore persist, and in some cases thrive, in human-dominated ecosystems

Self-Efficacy for Adoption and Maintenance of Exercise Among Fibromyalgia Patients: A Pilot Study

Objective. While multimodal treatment approaches for fibromyalgia (FM), incorporating exercise, have been found most effective, information about factors associated with exercise adoption and maintenance is lacking. Design, Setting, and Methods. Women veterans with FM (N = 19) completed an anonymous Internet survey measuring FM impact (FI), adoption of exercise behavior, and self-efficacy for exercise. Using classifications of behavior specified by the transtheoretical model, the self-efficacy of participants classified in the action or maintenance (AM) stages was compared with those in earlier stages (precontemplation through preparation) of exercise readiness. Multivariate analysis of variance analyses examined differences in FI domains by stage of change. Analysis of covariance examined whether exercise self-efficacy differed by stage of change while controlling for FI. Results. Higher levels of self-efficacy were detected among participants in the AM stages. Participants in the AM stages also reported higher levels of FI symptoms. After controlling for FI, self-efficacy did not differ significantly between the 2 groups; however the effect size was large (η2 = .11). Conclusions. Findings of this pilot study suggest a role for self-efficacy in exercise adoption and maintenance, even in the setting of higher FM symptoms. Replication of this study with a larger sample size is warranted