Mammals adjust diel activity across gradients of urbanization

Time is a fundamental component of ecological processes. How animal behavior changes over time has been explored through well-known ecological theories like niche partitioning and predator-prey dynamics. Yet, changes in animal behavior within the shorter 24-hour light-dark cycle have largely gone unstudied. Understanding if an animal can adjust their temporal activity to mitigate or adapt to environmental change has become a recent topic of discussion and is important for effective wildlife management and conservation. While spatial habitat is a fundamental consideration in wildlife management and conservation, temporal habitat is often ignored. We formulated a temporal resource selection model to quantify the diel behavior of eight mammal species across ten U.S. cities. We found high variability in diel activity patterns within and among species and species-specific correlations between diel activity and human population density, impervious land cover, available greenspace, vegetation ...时间是生态过程的核心组成部分。学界已通过诸多经典生态学理论探究动物行为随时间的变化规律，例如生态位分化（niche partitioning）与捕食者-猎物动态（predator-prey dynamics）。然而，针对时长更短的24小时明暗周期内动物行为变化的研究却长期未得到充分开展。探究动物能否调整自身时间活动节律以缓解或适应环境变化，已成为当下的研究热点，且该议题对高效开展野生动物管理与保护工作至关重要。尽管空间栖息地（spatial habitat）始终是野生动物管理与保护的核心考量维度，但时间栖息地（temporal habitat）却常被忽视。本研究构建了时间资源选择模型（temporal resource selection model），用以量化美国10座城市中8种哺乳动物的昼夜行为（diel behavior）特征。研究发现，物种内部及物种间的昼夜活动模式均存在高度变异性，且昼夜活动与人类人口密度、不透水地表覆盖、可用绿地及植被状况等因素存在物种特异性关联。