Dataset for: Snow limits polecat (Mustela putorius) distribution in Sweden ...

• Main Author: Osinga, Thomas
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2022
• Subjects: FOS: Biological sciences; Mustelidae; Habitat suitability; MaxEnt; Climate change; snow cover; Fennoscandia; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j0zpc86hn; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.j0zpc86hn

Many species show range expansions or contractions due to climate-change-induced changes in habitat suitability. In cold climates, many species that are limited by snow are showing range expansions due to reduced winter severity. The European polecat (Mustela putorius) occurs over large parts of Europe with its northern range limit in southern Fennoscandia. However, it is to date unknown what factors limit polecat distribution. We thus investigated whether climate or land-use variables are more important in determining the habitat suitability for polecats in Sweden. We hypothesized that 1) climatic factors, especially the yearly number of snow days, drive habitat suitability for polecats, and that, 2) as the number of snow days is predicted to decline in the near future, habitat suitability in northern Sweden will increase. We used a combination of sightings data and a selection of national maps of environmental factors to test these hypotheses using MaxEnt models. We also used maps of future climate ... : Polecat sightings data To determine the distribution and habitat suitability of polecats in Sweden, we used sightings data of polecats gathered by volunteers and documented to the Swedish Species Information Centre between 1960 and 2020 (Figure 1; Swedish Species Information Centre 2020). We validated data at the edge of the distribution by contacting the person that reported the sighting, and removed data points if there was uncertainty about the sighting, we also removed data that was categorized as roadkill. As a result, we discarded 44 of the 425 sightings before analysis. Due to an increase of popularity of the sightings platform, the majority of sightings (78%) used in the analyses was from the period 2010–2020. Description of covariates We used nine covariates distributed over four different categories to test our hypotheses (Table 1). We included these covariates based on habitat and diet preferences of the polecat found in previous studies All parameters were rasterized and aggregated to 1-km2 grid ...