Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover

Migration is a valuable life history strategy for many species because it enables individuals to exploit spatially and temporally variable resources. Globally, the prevalence of species’ migratory behavior is decreasing as individuals forgo migration to remain resident year-round, an effec...

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Main Authors:	Benjamin Robb, Qiongyu Huang, Joseph O. Sexton, David Stoner, Peter Leimgruber
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	MDPI AG 2019-08-01
Series:	Remote Sensing
Subjects:	random forest migration residence partial migration niche GPS
Online Access:	https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/17/1980

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spelling	doaj-c5c0e6f7bcb2432fa6a9ea426d2a2f352020-11-24T21:22:26ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922019-08-011117198010.3390/rs11171980rs11171980Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land CoverBenjamin Robb0Qiongyu Huang1Joseph O. Sexton2David Stoner3Peter Leimgruber4Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, VA 27109, USASmithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, VA 27109, USADepartment of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USAQuinney College of Natural Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USASmithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, VA 27109, USAMigration is a valuable life history strategy for many species because it enables individuals to exploit spatially and temporally variable resources. Globally, the prevalence of species’ migratory behavior is decreasing as individuals forgo migration to remain resident year-round, an effect hypothesized to result from anthropogenic changes to landscape dynamics. Efforts to conserve and restore migrations require an understanding of the ecological characteristics driving the behavioral tradeoff between migration and residence. We identified migratory and resident behaviors of 42 mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) based on GPS locations and correlated their locations to remotely sensed indicators of forage quality, land cover, snow cover, and human land use. The model classified mule deer seasonal migratory and resident niches with an overall accuracy of 97.8% and cross-validated accuracy of 81.2%. The distance to development was the most important variable in discriminating in which environments these behaviors occur, with resident niche space most often closer to developed areas than migratory niches. Additionally, snow cover in December was important for discriminating summer migratory niches. This approach demonstrates the utility of niche analysis based on remotely sensed environmental datasets and provides empirical evidence of human land use impacts on large-scale wildlife migrations.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/17/1980random forestmigrationresidencepartial migrationnicheGPS
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Benjamin Robb Qiongyu Huang Joseph O. Sexton David Stoner Peter Leimgruber
spellingShingle	Benjamin Robb Qiongyu Huang Joseph O. Sexton David Stoner Peter Leimgruber Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover Remote Sensing random forest migration residence partial migration niche GPS
author_facet	Benjamin Robb Qiongyu Huang Joseph O. Sexton David Stoner Peter Leimgruber
author_sort	Benjamin Robb
title	Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover
title_short	Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover
title_full	Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover
title_fullStr	Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover
title_full_unstemmed	Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover
title_sort	environmental differences between migratory and resident ungulates—predicting movement strategies in rocky mountain mule deer (<i>odocoileus hemionus</i>) with remotely sensed plant phenology, snow, and land cover
publisher	MDPI AG
series	Remote Sensing
issn	2072-4292
publishDate	2019-08-01
description	Migration is a valuable life history strategy for many species because it enables individuals to exploit spatially and temporally variable resources. Globally, the prevalence of species’ migratory behavior is decreasing as individuals forgo migration to remain resident year-round, an effect hypothesized to result from anthropogenic changes to landscape dynamics. Efforts to conserve and restore migrations require an understanding of the ecological characteristics driving the behavioral tradeoff between migration and residence. We identified migratory and resident behaviors of 42 mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) based on GPS locations and correlated their locations to remotely sensed indicators of forage quality, land cover, snow cover, and human land use. The model classified mule deer seasonal migratory and resident niches with an overall accuracy of 97.8% and cross-validated accuracy of 81.2%. The distance to development was the most important variable in discriminating in which environments these behaviors occur, with resident niche space most often closer to developed areas than migratory niches. Additionally, snow cover in December was important for discriminating summer migratory niches. This approach demonstrates the utility of niche analysis based on remotely sensed environmental datasets and provides empirical evidence of human land use impacts on large-scale wildlife migrations.
topic	random forest migration residence partial migration niche GPS
url	https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/17/1980
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Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover

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