The use of an unsupervised learning approach for characterizing latent behaviors in accelerometer data

Acknowledgments This project and the tags deployed on both seabird's species were fund by NERC (grant number NE/K007440/1), Marine Scotland Science and Seabird Tracking and Research (STAR) Project led by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). We would like to thank Rob Hughes, Tessa Cole and Ruth Brown for helping in the data collection, the Bird Observatory of Fair Isle for supporting the fieldwork and the Marine Collaboration Research Forum (MarCRF).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Spatially explicit models for decision-making in animal conservation and restoration

DZ, CK, AKM and GF were supported by the German Science Foundation (DFG) under grant agreement no. ZU 361/1-1. GB was supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF160614). We acknowledge the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Open Access Publishing Fund of University of Potsdam.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Introducing LandScaleR : A novel method for spatial downscaling of land use projections

Funding Information: TW was funded by an EASTBIO UKRI BBSRC grant number BB/T00875X/1 . Downscaling simulations and calculation of landscape pattern metrics were performed on the University of Aberdeen HPC, Maxwell.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A multi-species modelling approach to examine the impact of alternative climate change adaptation strategies on range shifting ability in a fragmented landscape

An individual-based model of animal dispersal and population dynamics was used to test the effects of different climate change adaptation strategies on species range shifting ability, namely the improvement of existing habitat, restoration of low quality habitat and creation of new habitat. These strategies were implemented on a landscape typical of fragmentation in the United Kingdom using spatial rules to differentiate between the allocation of strategies adjacent to or away from existing habitat patches. The total area being managed in the landscape was set at realistic levels based on recent habitat management trends. Eight species were parameterised to broadly represent different stage structure, population densities and modes of dispersal. Simulations were initialised with the species occupying 20% of the landscape and run for 100 years. As would be expected for a range of real taxa, range shifting abilities were dramatically different. This translated into large differences in their responses to the adaptation strategies. With conservative (0.5%) estimates of the area prescribed for climate change adaptation, few species display noticeable improvements in their range shifting, demonstrating the need for greater investment in future adaptation. With a larger (1%) prescribed area, greater range shifting improvements were found, although results were still species-specific. It was found that increasing the size of small existing habitat patches was the best way to promote range shifting, and that the creation of new stepping stone features, whilst beneficial to some species, did not have such broad effect across different species

Similar at-sea behaviour but different habitat use between failed and successful breeding albatrosses

Breeding failure is expected to induce behavioural changes in central place foragers. Indeed, after a failed reproductive attempt, breeding individuals are relieved from having to return to their breeding site for reproductive duties and thus are less constrained than successful breeders in their movements during the remainder of the breeding season. Accordingly, they are expected to adjust their behaviour, travelling longer in distance and/or time to reach foraging grounds. They are also expected to use different foraging areas to decrease local intra-specific competition with successful breeders. We compared the at-sea behaviour and habitat use of successful and failed Indian yellow-nosed albatrosses nesting in Amsterdam Island, Southern Indian Ocean, during 2 chick-rearing seasons. Failed breeders exhibited the same at-sea foraging behaviour, travelling as far and as long as successful breeders. They also spent the same amount of time on their nest between at-sea trips. Nevertheless, habitat models revealed partial spatial segregation of failed breeders, which used specific foraging areas characterized by deeper and colder waters in addition to the areas they shared with successful breeders. Our study shows the importance of combining a range of analytical methods (spatial analysis, behavioural inferences with advanced movement models and habitat models) to infer the at-sea behaviour and habitat use of seabirds. It also stresses the importance of considering individual breeding status when aiming to understand the spatial distribution of individuals, especially when this information may have conservation implications

Orangutan movement and population dynamics across human-modified landscapes: implications of policy and management

Context: Agricultural expansion is a leading cause of deforestation and habitat fragmentation globally. Policies that support biodiversity and facilitate species movement across farmland are therefore central to sustainability efforts and wildlife conservation in these human-modified landscapes. Objectives: We investigated the conservation impact of several potential management scenarios on animal populations and movement in a human-modified tropical landscape, focusing on the critically endangered Bornean orangutan, Pongo pygmeus. Methods: We used an individual-based modelling platform to simulate population dynamics and movements across four possible landscape management scenarios for a highly modified oil palm-dominated landscape in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Results: Scenarios that maximised the retention of natural forest remnants in agricultural areas through sustainability certification standards supported stable orangutan populations. These populations were up to 45% larger than those supported under development-focused scenarios, where forest retention was not prioritised. The forest remnants served as corridors or stepping-stones, increasing annual emigration rates across the landscape, and reducing orangutan mortality by up to 11%. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that this outcome was highly contingent on minimising mortality during dispersal. Conclusions: Management that promotes maximising natural forest cover through certification, such as that promoted by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, can maintain viable orangutan populations over the lifespan of an oil palm plantation and facilitate movement among otherwise isolated populations. However, minimising hunting and negative human-orangutan interactions, while promoting peaceful co-existence between apes and people, will be imperative to insure positive conservation outcomes

The role of the urban landscape on species with contrasting dispersal ability: insights from greening plans for Barcelona

With the expansion of urban areas, promoting urban biodiversity is now a priority. Many municipalities are implementing greening strategies to improve and increase green space within city boundaries. The effectiveness of these strategies, while rarely assessed, likely depends on the landscape and on relevant species intrinsic traits such as dispersal ability. Using a spatially explicit individual-based model, we evaluated the effect of the urban landscape on the projected distribution of three butterfly species with contrasting dispersal abilities, and assessed the effectiveness of the Barcelona greening strategy as a case study. Species distribution (in terms of patch occupancy) and effectiveness (in terms of population size and number of occupied gardens) were analysed using generalised linear models. The percentage of (semi) natural source area around each urban green space (garden hereafter) was the most important variable for the distribution of all three types of species, followed by the percentage of neighbouring gardens and by the garden carrying capacity, although the effect of neighbouring gardens was negative in the early phase of colonisation. The planned Barcelona greening strategy increased the number of gardens occupied by high and medium, but not by low dispersive species. Increasing the carrying capacity of the gardens improved colonisation for all three species types. While the best strategies can be context dependent, our results indicated that increasing garden area might be more effective in the long term but it can be overridden by garden capacity in the short term, especially if there are constraints to increasing garden area

Tree loss impacts on ecological connectivity: Developing models for assessment

Trees along linear features are important landscape features, and their loss threatens ecological connectivity. Until recently, trees outside of woodlands (TOWs) were largely unmapped however; the development of innovation mapping techniques provides opportunities to understand the distribution of such trees and to apply spatially explicit models to explore the importance of trees for connectivity. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of models when investigating tree loss and impacts on connectivity. Specifically, we investigated the consequences of tree loss due to the removal of roadside trees, a common management response for diseased or damaged trees, on wider landscape functional connectivity. We simulated the loss of roadside trees within six focal areas of the south east of the UK. We used a spatially explicit individual-based modelling platform, RangeShifter, to model the movement of 81 hypothetical actively dispersing woodland breeding species across these agriculturally fragmented landscapes. We investigated the extent to which removal of trees, from roadsides within the wider landscape, affected the total number of successful dispersers in any given year and the number of breeding woodlands that became isolated through time. On average roadside trees accounted for < 2% of land cover, but removing 60% of them (~ 1.2% of land cover) nevertheless decreased the number of successful dispersers by up to 17%. The impact was greatest when roadside trees represented a greater proportion of canopy cover. The study therefore demonstrates that models such as RangeShifter can provide valuable tools for assessing the consequences of losing trees outside of woodlands

Data from: Towards an interactive, process‐based approach to understanding range shifts: developmental and environmental dependencies matter

Many species are undergoing distributional changes in response to climate change. However, wide variability in range shifting rates has been observed across taxa, and even among closely-related species. Attempts to link climate-mediated range shifts to traits has often produced weak or conflicting results. Here we investigate interactive effects of developmental processes and environmental stress on the expression of traits relevant to range shifts. We use an individual-based modelling approach to assess how different developmental strategies affect range shift rates under a range of environmental conditions. We find that under stressful conditions, such as at the margins of the species’ fundamental niche, investment in prolonged development leads to the greatest rates of range shifting, especially when longer time in development leads to of improved fecundity and dispersal-related traits. However, under benign conditions, and when traits are less developmentally plastic, shorter development times are preferred for rapid range shifts, because higher generational frequency increases the number of individual dispersal events occurring over time. Our results suggest that the ability of a species to range shift depends not only on their dispersal and colonisation characteristics but also how these characteristics interact with developmental strategies. Benefits of any trait always depended on the environmental and developmental sensitivity of life history trait combinations, and the environmental conditions under which the range shift takes place. Without considering environmental and developmental sources of variation in the expression of traits relevant to range shifts, there is little hope of developing a general understanding of intrinsic drivers of range shift potentia