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HABITAT AND SCALE: SPATIAL INFLUENCES ON NORTHERN BOBWHITE DENSITY.
Author
Edwards, John T.
Hernandez, Fidel
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2017
Body

Habitat relationships of northern bobwhite have been developed based on research that historically has been conducted at a scale of high resolution (grain) but small extent.� The relationships arising from such research trajectory therefore have been limited to study areas. �Large-scale studies assessing bobwhite-habitat relationships recently have tried to overcome this limitation by increasing the extent; however, in doing so, there often has been a corresponding decrease in resolution. To effectively evaluate wildlife-habitat relationships, a study should seek to maintain the resolution of a small-scale study while simultaneously increasing the extent to that of a large-scale study.� Although such an approach historically has been infeasible with prior field- and GIS-based methods, a high-grain/large-extent approach may be possible with recent developments in density surface modeling, which is a spatial extension of conventional distance sampling.� This method utilizes information regarding probability of detection as well as geographic information, and can provide density estimates at high grains (<1 ha) across fairly large extents (>10,000 ha).� Our objective was to investigate the spatial effects of habitat features on bobwhite density using a high-grain/large extent approach.� We determined bobwhite density across 20,560 ha of rangeland within southern Texas utilizing a helicopter-based, distance sampling approach.� We developed a binary classification of brush and open/herbaceous cover using National Agricultural Imagery Program aerial imagery. �From this initial classification we were able to determine multiple metrics of habitat quality. �We analyzed the effects of habitat features on bobwhite density using a density surface modeling framework, first fitting a detection function model to helicopter survey data, then fitting a density surface model, using individual habitat covariates as explanatory variables.� Through this method we were able to estimate both bobwhite density and its relationship to habitat features at a high-grain across a relatively large extent.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM St. George, UT
Collection
SRM Annual Meeting Abstracts