USING SPECIES–HABITAT MODELS TO TARGET CONSERVATION: A CASE STUDY WITH BREEDING MALLARDS

E-ISSN： 1939-5582|14|5|1384-1393

ISSN： 1051-0761

Source： Ecological Applications, Vol.14, Iss.5, 2004-10, pp. : 1384-1393

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Abstract

To make effective conservation decisions, managers must understand the ecology of species targeted for conservation and be able to apply that knowledge in decision‐making. Most conservation research to date has focused on the first of these requirements, but lately ecologists and others have begun to address more systematically the decision‐making component of conservation. In this paper, we develop an explicit model of species– habitat relations and incorporate it into an optimization framework for prioritizing sites for management. We then present a case study that applies these concepts to choosing sites for wetlands restoration to benefit breeding Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in the Central Valley of California, USA. First, a model of habitat selection by Mallards was estimated using count regression techniques. Our results indicate that breeding Mallard abundances depend not only on the amount of each land use type present, but also on the interspersion of particular land use types in the vicinity of each survey location. We then used the estimated parameters in an optimization model to predict the differences in the expected total Mallard abundance under three generalized strategies for wetlands restoration. Our results suggest that using the spatial habitat preferences of Mallards to target restoration can lead to a greater‐than‐proportional increase in Mallard abundances: a simulated 50% increase in the total area of wetlands resulted in a nearly 80% increase in the total abundance of breeding Mallards. In contrast, simulated strategies for choosing restoration sites that did not account for the spatial habitat preferences of Mallards resulted in 13–33% increases in total abundance. Accounting for the spatial arrangement of preferred habitats when setting restoration priorities can enhance conservation effectiveness considerably.