{"title":"大学校园中狐松鼠的出现受精细景观特征的影响","authors":"Daniel A. Whitman, Ty J. Werdel","doi":"10.1002/ece3.70488","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Urbanization and urban sprawl generally degrade and diminish wildlife habitat, threatening to extirpate local populations. However, certain synanthropic species (e.g., coyotes, white-tailed deer, and squirrels) are able to persist in urban environments and may even occur at greater densities than they do in their natural habitats. Eastern fox squirrels (<i>Sciurus niger</i>) are large tree squirrels that are known to be present in greater densities within urban areas. To determine how landscape characteristics may affect fox squirrel presence, we conducted line-transect surveys along sidewalks on the Texas A&M University—College Station campus to record presence of fox squirrels and nearest tree species. We calculated Jacobs’ index of selectivity (<i>D</i>) for use of trees by fox squirrels along the transects. Squirrel density was calculated for all transects and modeled using linear regression with environmental (e.g., tree density) and survey (e.g., transect distance) variables. Fox squirrels preferred only a small number of the available tree species, primarily <i>Quercus</i> and <i>Ulmus</i> species. Observed fox squirrel density significantly increased with time of day, temperature, density of oaks (<i>Quercus</i> spp.), and density of all trees, and decreased with distance and area of the transect. These results suggest that even when urban areas contain suitable habitat, use of urban environments by wildlife is still highly selective and dependent on specific habitat requirements.</p>","PeriodicalId":11467,"journal":{"name":"Ecology and Evolution","volume":"14 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11512735/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Occurrence of Fox Squirrels Influenced by Fine-Scale Landscape Characteristics on a College Campus\",\"authors\":\"Daniel A. Whitman, Ty J. Werdel\",\"doi\":\"10.1002/ece3.70488\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p>Urbanization and urban sprawl generally degrade and diminish wildlife habitat, threatening to extirpate local populations. However, certain synanthropic species (e.g., coyotes, white-tailed deer, and squirrels) are able to persist in urban environments and may even occur at greater densities than they do in their natural habitats. Eastern fox squirrels (<i>Sciurus niger</i>) are large tree squirrels that are known to be present in greater densities within urban areas. To determine how landscape characteristics may affect fox squirrel presence, we conducted line-transect surveys along sidewalks on the Texas A&M University—College Station campus to record presence of fox squirrels and nearest tree species. We calculated Jacobs’ index of selectivity (<i>D</i>) for use of trees by fox squirrels along the transects. Squirrel density was calculated for all transects and modeled using linear regression with environmental (e.g., tree density) and survey (e.g., transect distance) variables. Fox squirrels preferred only a small number of the available tree species, primarily <i>Quercus</i> and <i>Ulmus</i> species. Observed fox squirrel density significantly increased with time of day, temperature, density of oaks (<i>Quercus</i> spp.), and density of all trees, and decreased with distance and area of the transect. These results suggest that even when urban areas contain suitable habitat, use of urban environments by wildlife is still highly selective and dependent on specific habitat requirements.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":11467,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Ecology and Evolution\",\"volume\":\"14 10\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-10-27\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11512735/pdf/\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Ecology and Evolution\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"99\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.70488\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"生物学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q2\",\"JCRName\":\"ECOLOGY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecology and Evolution","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.70488","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Occurrence of Fox Squirrels Influenced by Fine-Scale Landscape Characteristics on a College Campus
Urbanization and urban sprawl generally degrade and diminish wildlife habitat, threatening to extirpate local populations. However, certain synanthropic species (e.g., coyotes, white-tailed deer, and squirrels) are able to persist in urban environments and may even occur at greater densities than they do in their natural habitats. Eastern fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) are large tree squirrels that are known to be present in greater densities within urban areas. To determine how landscape characteristics may affect fox squirrel presence, we conducted line-transect surveys along sidewalks on the Texas A&M University—College Station campus to record presence of fox squirrels and nearest tree species. We calculated Jacobs’ index of selectivity (D) for use of trees by fox squirrels along the transects. Squirrel density was calculated for all transects and modeled using linear regression with environmental (e.g., tree density) and survey (e.g., transect distance) variables. Fox squirrels preferred only a small number of the available tree species, primarily Quercus and Ulmus species. Observed fox squirrel density significantly increased with time of day, temperature, density of oaks (Quercus spp.), and density of all trees, and decreased with distance and area of the transect. These results suggest that even when urban areas contain suitable habitat, use of urban environments by wildlife is still highly selective and dependent on specific habitat requirements.
期刊介绍:
Ecology and Evolution is the peer reviewed journal for rapid dissemination of research in all areas of ecology, evolution and conservation science. The journal gives priority to quality research reports, theoretical or empirical, that develop our understanding of organisms and their diversity, interactions between them, and the natural environment.
Ecology and Evolution gives prompt and equal consideration to papers reporting theoretical, experimental, applied and descriptive work in terrestrial and aquatic environments. The journal will consider submissions across taxa in areas including but not limited to micro and macro ecological and evolutionary processes, characteristics of and interactions between individuals, populations, communities and the environment, physiological responses to environmental change, population genetics and phylogenetics, relatedness and kin selection, life histories, systematics and taxonomy, conservation genetics, extinction, speciation, adaption, behaviour, biodiversity, species abundance, macroecology, population and ecosystem dynamics, and conservation policy.