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Habitat Suitability Modelling for Passage Activity: A Cautionary Tale Using Mink
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- Author(s) / Creator(s)
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While
many
studies
have
evaluated
wildlife
passage
effectiveness,
few
have
explored
how
accurately
passage
activity
can
be
modelled.
I
created
a
habitat
suitability
index
(HSI)
model
for
American
mink
(Neovison
vison)
using
Geographic
Information
Systems
with
17
wildlife
passages
located
in
Quebec
as
validation
for
the
model.
Two
questions
were
addressed:
(1)
How
well
can
HSI
modelling
for
mink
determine
passage
activity?
and
(2)
how
sensitive
are
the
models
to
different
parameterizations?
To
test
this,
I
assessed
how
well
the
HSI
scores
generated
aligned
with
passage
activity.
A
generalized
linear
model
was
used
to
test
how
well
the
model
explained
the
variability
in
passage
activity
(counts).
Uncertainty
analysis
revealed
that
the
HSI
model
was
sensitive
to
extreme
changes
in
factor
weights
and
scale.
The
predictive
power
of
all
models
greatly
improved
after
including
aspects
related
to
passage
construction,
with
the
pseudo-‐R2
increasing
between
64
–
73
%.
These
findings
suggest
that
these
HSI
models
are
a
poor
predicator
of
passage
use
for
mink,
while
wildlife
passage
characteristics
are
highly
predictive.
Transportation
agencies
would
benefit
from
the
ability
to
make
informed
planning
decisions,
however
greater
care
is
required
to
determine
passage
suitability.
The
proper
implementation
of
these
tools
requires
knowledge
of
not
only
habitat
preferences,
but
also
how
movement
is
influenced
by
the
wildlife
passages
themselves. -
- Date created
- 2017-01-31
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Type of Item
- Conference/Workshop Presentation