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1. Habitat openness and edge avoidance predict Saltmarsh Sparrow abundance better than habitat area

   https://doi.org/0.1093/condor/duaa019  

   Marshall, Hallie (January 2020, Ornithological applications)

   null (Ed.)
2. Dynamic Habitat Disturbance and Ecological Resilience (DyHDER): modeling population responses to habitat condition

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3023  

   Murphy, Brendan_P; Walsworth, Timothy_E; Belmont, Patrick; Conner, Mary_M; Budy, Phaedra (February 2020, Ecosphere)

   Abstract Understanding how populations respond to spatially heterogeneous habitat disturbance is as critical to conservation as it is challenging. Here, we present a new, free, and open‐source metapopulation model: Dynamic Habitat Disturbance and Ecological Resilience (DyHDER), which incorporates subpopulation habitat condition and connectivity into a population viability analysis framework. Modeling temporally dynamic and spatially explicit habitat disturbance of varying magnitude and duration is accomplished through the use of habitat time‐series data and a mechanistic approach to adjusting subpopulation vital rates. Additionally, DyHDERuses a probabilistic dispersal model driven by site‐specific habitat suitability, density dependence, and directionally dependent connectivity. In the first application of DyHDER, we explore how fragmentation and projected climate change are predicted to impact a well‐studied Bonneville cutthroat trout metapopulation in the Logan River (Utah,USA). The DyHDERmodel predicts which subpopulations are most susceptible to disturbance, as well as the potential interactions between stressors. Further, the model predicts how populations may be expected to redistribute following disturbance. This information is valuable to conservationists and managers faced with protecting populations of conservation concern across landscapes undergoing changing disturbance regimes. The DyHDERmodel provides a valuable and generalizable new tool to explore metapopulation resilience to spatially and temporally dynamic stressors for a diverse range of taxa and ecosystems. 

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3. Habitat quality influences pollinator pathogen prevalence through both habitat–disease and biodiversity–disease pathways

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3933  

   Fearon, Michelle_L; Wood, Chelsea_L; Tibbetts, Elizabeth_A (January 2023, Ecology)

   Abstract The dilution effect hypothesis posits that increasing biodiversity reduces infectious disease transmission. Here, we propose that habitat quality might modulate this negative biodiversity–disease relationship. Habitat may influence pathogen prevalence directly by affecting host traits like nutrition and immune response (we coined the term “habitat–disease relationship” to describe this phenomenon) or indirectly by changing host biodiversity (biodiversity–disease relationship). We used a path model to test the relative strength of links between habitat, biodiversity, and pathogen prevalence in a pollinator–virus system. High‐quality habitat metrics were directly associated with viral prevalence, providing evidence for a habitat–disease relationship. However, the strength and direction of specific habitat effects on viral prevalence varied based on the characteristics of the habitat, host, and pathogen. In general, more natural area and richness of land‐cover types were directly associated with increased viral prevalence, whereas greater floral density was associated with reduced viral prevalence. More natural habitat was also indirectly associated with reduced prevalence of two key viruses (black queen cell virus and deformed wing virus) via increased pollinator species richness, providing evidence for a habitat‐mediated dilution effect on viral prevalence. Biodiversity–disease relationships varied across viruses, with the prevalence of sacbrood virus not being associated with any habitat quality or pollinator community metrics. Across all viruses and hosts, habitat–disease and biodiversity–disease paths had effects of similar magnitude on viral prevalence. Therefore, habitat quality is a key driver of variation in pathogen prevalence among communities via both direct habitat–disease and indirect biodiversity–disease pathways, though the specific patterns varied among different viruses and host species. Critically, habitat–disease relationships could either contribute to or obscure dilution effects in natural systems depending on the relative strength and direction of the habitat–disease and biodiversity–disease pathways in that host–pathogen system. Therefore, habitat may be an important driver in the complex interactions between hosts and pathogens. 

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4. An environmental habitat gradient and within-habitat segregation enable co-existence of ecologically similar bird species

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0467  

   Ayebare, Samuel; Doser, Jeffrey W.; Plumptre, Andrew J.; Owiunji, Isaiah; Mugabe, Hamlet; Zipkin, Elise F. (August 2023, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   Niche theory predicts that ecologically similar species can coexist through multidimensional niche partitioning. However, owing to the challenges of accounting for both abiotic and biotic processes in ecological niche modelling, the underlying mechanisms that facilitate coexistence of competing species are poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated potential mechanisms underlying the coexistence of ecologically similar bird species in a biodiversity-rich transboundary montane forest in east-central Africa by computing niche overlap indices along an environmental elevation gradient, diet, forest strata, activity patterns and within-habitat segregation across horizontal space. We found strong support for abiotic environmental habitat niche partitioning, with 55% of species pairs having separate elevation niches. For the remaining species pairs that exhibited similar elevation niches, we found that within-habitat segregation across horizontal space and to a lesser extent vertical forest strata provided the most likely mechanisms of species coexistence. Coexistence of ecologically similar species within a highly diverse montane forest was determined primarily by abiotic factors (e.g. environmental elevation gradient) that characterize the Grinnellian niche and secondarily by biotic factors (e.g. vertical and horizontal segregation within habitats) that describe the Eltonian niche. Thus, partitioning across multiple levels of spatial organization is a key mechanism of coexistence in diverse communities. 

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5. Habitat thermal quality for Gopherus evgoodei in tropical deciduous forest and consequences of habitat modification by buffelgrass

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2022.103192  

   Lara-Reséndiz, Rafael A.; Rosen, Philip C.; Sinervo, Barry; Miles, Donald B.; Méndez-de La Cruz, Fausto R. (February 2022, Journal of Thermal Biology)