Landscape-level factors influencing bog turtle persistence and distribution in southeastern New York State

The bog turtle Glyptemys muhlenbergii is a highly endangered species inhabiting freshwater wetlands of the eastern United States. Habitat degradation is considered one of the chief causes of bog turtle declines. Most of the studies investigating habitat requirements of bog turtles focus on intrawetland influences on bog turtle habitat, but few have explored landscape-level drivers of bog turtle distribution. To better understand causes of bog turtle declines, we combined bog turtle occurrence records with geographic data to contrast 12 landscape variables among wetlands containing extant populations of bog turtles (n  =  65) and 500 nearby and 500 distant, randomly located wetlands in southeastern New York State. In contrast to randomly chosen wetlands, bog turtles have persisted in relatively large, open-canopy wetlands (typically >0.42 ha) within large watersheds (typically >13.54 ha), in wetlands with more numerous stream connections, and more often in wetlands positioned atop ...牟氏水龟（Glyptemys muhlenbergii）是一种极度濒危物种，栖息于美国东部的淡水湿地中。栖息地退化被认为是导致牟氏水龟种群数量下降的主要原因之一。目前绝大多数针对牟氏水龟栖息地需求的研究，均聚焦于湿地内部因素对其栖息地的影响，而鲜有探讨其分布格局的景观尺度驱动因子。为更深入解析牟氏水龟种群下降的成因，本研究将牟氏水龟的出现记录与地理数据相结合，对比了纽约州东南部地区的三类湿地：包含现存牟氏水龟种群的湿地（n=65）、500处邻近随机湿地以及500处远距随机湿地的12项景观变量。与随机选取的湿地相比，牟氏水龟多存续于大型流域（通常面积大于13.54公顷）内面积相对较大、林冠开阔的湿地（通常面积大于0.42公顷），以及溪流连通性更高的湿地，且更常分布于……