Volume 79, Issue 3, April 2014, Pages 176–182
Original Investigation
- a Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Květná 8, 603 65 Brno, Czech Republic
- b Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- c Faculty of Agriculture, Applied Ecology Laboratory, University of South Bohemia, Studentská 13, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- d Department of Ecology & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, tř. Svobody 26, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic
- e DAPHNE ČR – Institute for Applied Ecology, Senovážné nám. 1736, 370 01 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
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Abstract
Rapid
changes in agricultural landscape structure and composition affect many
different farmland biotas, including carnivores, which are a key
element of ecosystem stability, yet little is known about their
distribution and habitat use. In this study, we evaluated how habitat
characteristics on two different spatial scales (local and landscape
scale) affected the forest-edge utilization by small and medium-sized
carnivores in fragmented central European farmland. Based on an indirect
method for detecting carnivores (scent stations), we sampled 212 forest
fragments of different sizes (1–7864 ha) during April to May from 2006
to 2009. Our results indicate that carnivore utilization of forest-edge
habitats was driven by landscape rather than local characteristics even
though the overall extent of explained variation was small. The most
important factors that determined response of the carnivore community
were the area of farmland and that of urban land on a landscape scale.
The corridor connectivity between small forest fragments and other
spatial elements played a crucial role in the occurrence of red fox. Our
results suggest that comprehensive studies on multi-species carnivore
assemblage using scent station might be useful in evaluating
species-specific response to habitat characteristics, especially if
large numbers of stations visited by carnivores are available.
Keywords
- Carnivores;
- Farmland;
- Forest-edge utilization;
- Landscape characteristics;
- Local characteristics
Copyright © 2013 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Säugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH All rights reserved.