Volume 191, November 2015, Pages 567–576
Post-Soviet land-use change effects on large mammals' habitat in European Russia
Highlights
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- Increasing large mammals' habitat inside and outside of protected area
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- Post-Soviet land-use change entailed expanding wildlife habitat in European Russia.
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- High share of suitable habitat within Oksky State Nature Reserve throughout time
Abstract
Land-use
change can strongly affect wildlife populations, typically via habitat
loss and degradation where land use expands, and also via increasing
potentially available habitat where land use ceases. Large mammals are
particularly sensitive to land-use change, because they require large
tracts of habitat and often depend on habitat outside protected areas
unless protected areas are very large. Our research question was thus
how land-use change around protected areas affects large mammals'
habitat. Russia experienced drastic land-use change after the breakdown
of the Soviet Union and – fortunately – wildlife data has been collected
continuously throughout this time inside protected areas. We used
long-term winter track count data for wild boar (Sus scrofa), moose (Alces alces), and wolf (Canis lupus)
to assess habitat change inside and outside of Oksky State Nature
Reserve from 1987 to 2007 using a time-calibrated species distribution
model. Our results showed a constantly high share (at least 89%) of
suitable habitat within the protected area's core zone for each species,
yet also substantial habitat increases of up to 23% within the
protected buffer zone, and similarly, up to 27% outside the protected
area. Of the variables we evaluated, post-Soviet land-use change,
particularly farmland abandonment, was the main driver of this expansion
of potential habitat for the three species we assessed. Our study
highlights that strictly protected areas have been playing an important
role in preserving wildlife in European Russia since 1991, and also that
their surroundings provide much suitable habitat for large mammals.
Post-Soviet land-use change in the surroundings of protected areas may
provide opportunities to increase and connect wildlife populations.
Keywords
- Large mammals;
- Long-term data;
- Time-calibrated habitat modeling;
- Protected areas;
- Landuse change;
- European Russia
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