Integrating animal tracking datasets at a continental scale for mapping Eurasian lynx habitat ...

• Main Authors: Oeser, Julian, Heurich, Marco, Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 2023
• Subjects: 900 Geschichte, Geografie und Hilfswissenschaften; Lynx; Lynx lynx lynx
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18452/28382; https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/29024

The article processing charge was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. All authors: Julian Oeser, Marco Heurich, Stephanie Kramer-Schadt, Jenny Mattisson, Miha Krofel, Jarmila Krojerová-Prokešová, Fridolin Zimmermann, Ole Anders, Henrik Andrén, Guna Bagrade, Elisa Belotti, Christine Breitenmoser-Würsten, Luděk Bufka, Rok Černe, Nolwenn Drouet-Hoguet, Martin Duľa, Christian Fuxjäger, Tomislav Gomerčić, Włodzimierz Jędrzejewski, Raido Kont, Petr Koubek, Rafał Kowalczyk, Josip Kusak, Jakub Kubala, Miroslav Kutal, John D. C. Linnell, Anja Molinari-Jobin, Peep Männil, Tomma Lilli Middelhoff, John Odden, Henryk Okarma, Teresa Oliveira, Nives Pagon, Jens Persson, Jaanus Remm, Krzysztof Schmidt, Sven Signer, Branislav Tám, Kristina Vogt, Tobias Kuemmerle ... : Aim: The increasing availability of animal tracking datasets collected across many sites provides new opportunities to move beyond local assessments to enable detailed and consistent habitat mapping at biogeographical scales. However, integrating wildlife datasets across large areas and study sites is challenging, as species' varying responses to different environmental contexts must be reconciled. Here, we compare approaches for large-area habitat mapping and assess available habitat for a recolonizing large carnivore, the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). Location: Europe. Methods: We use a continental-scale animal tracking database (450 individuals from 14 study sites) to systematically assess modelling approaches, comparing (1) global strategies that pool all data for training versus building local, site-specific models and combining them, (2) different approaches for incorporating regional variation in habitat selection and (3) different modelling algorithms, testing nonlinear mixed effects models as well as ...