Landscape heterogeneity at multiple scales: effects on movement patterns and habitat selection of eleodid beetles
Date
1998
Authors
McIntyre, Nancy E., author
Wiens, John A., advisor
Wilson, Thomas (Tom) G., committee member
Kondratieff, Boris C., committee member
Hobbs, Nicholas Thompson (Tom), committee member
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Abstract
I combined observational studies with field experiments to investigate how landscape heterogeneity influences habitat selection in eleodid beetles of the shortgrass prairie of Colorado. I examined correlations in spatio-temporal patterns of habitat occupancy, population density, and community structure in eleodids with spatial and abiotic features of the landscape; I then explored how variations in spatial structure could affect how animals move through a landscape, accounting for the observed patterns of habitat occupancy. I combined these observations with experimental manipulations of several landscape features that affect the movement behaviors of beetles. The results from these experiments show how interactions among animal behavior, landscape composition and configuration, and the scale of spatial structure determine where animals occur in a heterogeneous environment.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
Landscape ecology
Eleodes -- Habitat
Spatial ecology