Climate and anthropogenic factors determine site occupancy in Scotland's Northern-range badger population: implications of context-dependent responses under environmental change

Aim
In the light of human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC), populations are exposed to ever-greater bioclimatic stress at the edge of a species’ historic range. The distribution dynamics of European badgers (Meles meles) at their southern edge are linked tightly to climatic variability. We contribute critical data on how climatic context and local factors determine site occupancy in a northern-range population.
Location
Eleven study areas (averaging ~21.3 km2) spread over ~50,000 km2 in Northern Scotland.
Methods
While accounting for heterogeneous detectability, we applied single-season occupancy models to broad-scale camera-trapping data (168 stations) to evaluate how Autumn–Winter weather conditions interact with land-cover type (including agricultural land) and human disturbance to determine badger occupancy.
Results
Mean minimum daily winter temperature and elevation influenced inter-site occupancy. When clustering study areas into two distinct topo-climatic types, ...

研究目标
在人为诱导的快速环境变化（human-induced rapid environmental change, HIREC）背景下，种群在物种历史分布范围边缘面临日益加剧的生物气候压力。欧洲獾（Meles meles）在其分布南缘的分布动态与气候变化紧密相关。本研究提供了关键数据，用以阐明气候背景与局地因子如何决定北缘种群的样点占用情况。

研究区域
11个研究样区（平均面积约21.3 km²）分布于苏格兰北部约50000 km²的范围内。

研究方法
在考虑检测概率异质性的前提下，我们将单季占用模型（single-season occupancy models）应用于大规模红外相机诱捕数据（camera-trapping data，共168个监测站点），以评估秋冬季节的天气状况如何与土地覆被类型（包括农用地）及人类干扰相互作用，进而决定獾的种群占用情况。

研究结果
冬季日均最低温与海拔对样点间占用率存在显著影响。当将研究样区划分为两种截然不同的地形气候类型时……