Heterogeneity of limiting environmental conditions modulate movement choices and distribution of a facultative migrant

Habitat selection and movement are key mechanisms by which animals can respond to and potentially cope with highly variable and rapidly changing environmental conditions. Optimal responses likely vary, however, depending on the severity and scope of limiting conditions. We tested this hypothesis using a facultative migrant species, the Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa), which exhibits high inter- and intra-individual variation in the timing, direction, and distance of winter movements. Specifically, we evaluated whether espisodic, spatiotemporally variable “locked-pasture” snow conditions, which restrict access to subnivean food, prompted shifts in habitat selection or long-distance movements by owls. We GPS-tracked 42 owls across the annual cycle within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, USA during 2017–2022. We used a novel ecological application of SnowModel, a snow evolution modeling system, to estimate fine-scale, physical snow properties likely to influence prey access. Variables in..., Our research objective was to evaluate snow conditions in relation to Great Gray Owl movement behavior.  We estimated snow depth and snow crust conditions across the study area (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem) and period (1 September 2017 - 31 August 2022) using SnowModel. SnowModel is a spatiotemporally distributed snow-evolution modeling system that utilizes land cover, topography, meteorology, and in-situ observations of snow characteristics to simulate snowpack evolution across space and time. The modeling system is versatile in terms of spatiotemporal domain and resolution and can create nuanced, project-specific snow data products required to understand mechanistic snow-wildlife relationships. 
We modeled the evolution of snow conditions at two spatiotemporal resolutions to address our study objectives. First, we simulated snow characteristics at a three-hour time step and 30 m × 30 m spatial resolution to assess fine-scale habitat selection in response to local snow conditions. Se..., , # Heterogeneity of limiting environmental conditions modulate movement choices and distribution of a facultative migrant

Authors = Katherine Gura, Colorado State University, [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])\
Glen E. Liston, Colorado State University, [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

\[Access this dataset on Dryad] ([https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bnzs7h4jm)](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bnzs7h4jm)

# Description of the data and file structure

The data include two datasets: 1) a dataset of used and available step locations for GPS-tagged adult owls during winter and associated snow condition data (GGOW_SSF_Snow_Data.csv), and 2) a dataset of locations by GPS-tagged owls that includes locations on home ranges (breeding and winter) until the initiation of long-distance movements away from that range, and associated snow condition data for each location (GGOW_TimetoMigration_Snow_Data.csv).

## 1) GGOW\_SSF\_Snow\_Data.csv

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