Effect of disturbances and habitat fragmentation on an arboreal habitat specialist mammal using GPS telemetry: a case of the red panda

Abstract Background Habitat specialists living in human-dominated landscapes are likely to be affected by habitat fragmentation and human disturbances more than generalists. But there is a paucity of information on their response to such factors. We examined the effect of these factors on movement patterns of red pandas Ailurus fulgens, a habitat and diet specialist that inhabits the eastern Himalaya. Methods We equipped 10 red pandas (six females, four males) with GPS collars and monitored them from September 2019 to March 2020 in Ilam, eastern Nepal. We collected habitat and disturbance data over four seasons. We considered geophysical covariates, anthropogenic factors and habitat fragmentation metrics, and employed linear -mixed models and logistic regression to evaluate the effect of those variables on movement patterns. Results The median daily distance travelled by red pandas was 756 m. Males travelled nearly 1.5 times further than females (605 m). Males and sub-adults travelled more in the mating season while females showed no seasonal variation for their daily distance coverage. Red pandas were relatively more active during dawn and morning than the rest of the day, and they exhibited seasonal variation in distance coverage on the diel cycle. Both males and females appeared to be more active in the cub-rearing season, yet males were more active in the dawn in the birthing season. Two sub-adult females dispersed an average of 21 km starting their dispersal with the onset of the new moon following the winter solstice. The single subadult male did not disperse. Red pandas avoided roads, small-habitat patches and large unsuitable areas between habitat patches. Where connected habitat with high forest cover was scarce the animals moved more directly than when habitat was abundant. Conclusions Our study indicates that this habitat specialist is vulnerable to human disturbances and habitat fragmentation. Habitat restoration through improving functional connectivity may be necessary to secure the long-term conservation of specialist species in a human-dominated landscape. Regulation of human activities should go in parallel to minimize disturbances during biologically crucial life phases. We recommend habitat zonation to limit human activities and avoid disturbances, especially livestock herding and road construction in core areas.

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Effects of habitat fragmentation: increased isolation and reduced habitat size reduces the incidence of dead wood fungi beetles in a fragmented forest landscape

Ecography ◽

10.1034/j.1600-0587.2000.230411.x ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 492-502 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Bjorn Arne Rukke

Keyword(s):

Habitat Fragmentation ◽

Dead Wood ◽

Forest Landscape ◽

Habitat Size ◽

Fragmented Forest

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Habitat fragmentation causes collapse of kelp recruitment

Marine Ecology Progress Series ◽

10.3354/meps13422 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 648 ◽

pp. 111-123

Author(s):

C Layton ◽

MJ Cameron ◽

M Tatsumi ◽

V Shelamoff ◽

JT Wright ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Habitat Fragmentation ◽

Patch Size ◽

Life Stage ◽

Extended Period ◽

Anthropogenic Disturbances ◽

Anthropogenic Sources ◽

Kelp Forests ◽

Natural Disturbances ◽

Short Term ◽

Turf Algae

Kelp forests in many regions are experiencing disturbance from anthropogenic sources such as ocean warming, pollution, and overgrazing. Unlike natural disturbances such as storms, anthropogenic disturbances often manifest as press perturbations that cause persistent alterations to the environment. One consequence is that some kelp forests are becoming increasingly sparse and fragmented. We manipulated patch size of the kelp Ecklonia radiata over 24 mo to simulate persistent habitat fragmentation and assessed how this influenced the demography of macro- and microscopic juvenile kelp within the patches. At the beginning of the experiment, patch formation resulted in short-term increases in E. radiata recruitment in patches <1 m2. However, recruitment collapsed in those same patches over the extended period, with no recruits observed after 15 mo. Experimental transplants of microscopic and macroscopic juvenile sporophytes into the patches failed to identify the life stage impacted by the reductions in patch size, indicating that the effects may be subtle and require extended periods to manifest, and/or that another life stage is responsible. Abiotic measurements within the patches indicated that kelp were less able to engineer the sub-canopy environment in smaller patches. In particular, reduced shading of the sub-canopy in smaller patches was associated with proliferation of sediments and turf algae, which potentially contributed to the collapse of recruitment. We demonstrate the consequences of short- and longer-term degradation of E. radiata habitats and conclude that habitat fragmentation can lead to severe disruptions to kelp demography.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Predictable allele frequency changes due to habitat fragmentation in the Glanville fritillary butterfly.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.726165782.793522983 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Ian Wang

Keyword(s):

Habitat Fragmentation ◽

Allele Frequency ◽

Glanville Fritillary Butterfly ◽

Frequency Changes

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Effects of habitat fragmentation on the use of nest site resources by great tits in Thousand Island Lake,Zhejiang Province

Biodiversity Science ◽

10.3724/sp.j.1003.2010.383 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 383 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zhang Meng ◽

Sun Jiji ◽

Wang Yanping ◽

Jiang Pingping ◽

Ding Ping ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Habitat Fragmentation ◽

Nest Site ◽

Zhejiang Province

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Variable terrestrial GPS telemetry detection rates: Addressing the probability of successful acquisitions

Wildlife Society Bulletin ◽

10.1002/wsb.758 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 329-341

Author(s):

Kirsten E. Ironside ◽

David J. Mattson ◽

David Choate ◽

David Stoner ◽

Terence Arundel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gps Telemetry ◽

Detection Rates

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Decline of parasitic and habitat-specialist species drives taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional homogenization of sub-alpine bumblebee communities

Oecologia ◽

10.1007/s00442-021-04970-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yoan Fourcade ◽

Sandra Åström ◽

Erik Öckinger

Keyword(s):

Habitat Specialist ◽

Specialist Species ◽

Functional Homogenization ◽

Habitat Specialist Species

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Landscape heterogeneity buffers biodiversity of simulated meta-food-webs under global change through rescue and drainage effects

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-021-24877-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Remo Ryser ◽

Myriam R. Hirt ◽

Johanna Häussler ◽

Dominique Gravel ◽

Ulrich Brose

Keyword(s):

Habitat Fragmentation ◽

Food Web ◽

Food Webs ◽

Landscape Heterogeneity ◽

Landscape Connectivity ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Mechanistic Explanation ◽

Population Densities ◽

Rescue Effect ◽

Drainage Effect

AbstractHabitat fragmentation and eutrophication have strong impacts on biodiversity. Metacommunity research demonstrated that reduction in landscape connectivity may cause biodiversity loss in fragmented landscapes. Food-web research addressed how eutrophication can cause local biodiversity declines. However, there is very limited understanding of their cumulative impacts as they could amplify or cancel each other. Our simulations of meta-food-webs show that dispersal and trophic processes interact through two complementary mechanisms. First, the ‘rescue effect’ maintains local biodiversity by rapid recolonization after a local crash in population densities. Second, the ‘drainage effect’ stabilizes biodiversity by preventing overshooting of population densities on eutrophic patches. In complex food webs on large spatial networks of habitat patches, these effects yield systematically higher biodiversity in heterogeneous than in homogeneous landscapes. Our meta-food-web approach reveals a strong interaction between habitat fragmentation and eutrophication and provides a mechanistic explanation of how landscape heterogeneity promotes biodiversity.

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Red panda: a novel method for detecting variants in single-cell RNA sequencing

BMC Genomics ◽

10.1186/s12864-020-07224-3 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (S11) ◽

Author(s):

Adam Cornish ◽

Shrabasti Roychoudhury ◽

Krishna Sarma ◽

Suravi Pramanik ◽

Kishor Bhakat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Single Cell ◽

Rna Sequencing ◽

Articular Chondrocytes ◽

Genetic Diseases ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Single Nucleotide ◽

Single Cell Rna Sequencing ◽

Red Panda ◽

Novel Method ◽

Rare Cells

Abstract Background Single-cell sequencing enables us to better understand genetic diseases, such as cancer or autoimmune disorders, which are often affected by changes in rare cells. Currently, no existing software is aimed at identifying single nucleotide variations or micro (1-50 bp) insertions and deletions in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. Generating high-quality variant data is vital to the study of the aforementioned diseases, among others. Results In this study, we report the design and implementation of Red Panda, a novel method to accurately identify variants in scRNA-seq data. Variants were called on scRNA-seq data from human articular chondrocytes, mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), and simulated data stemming from the MEF alignments. Red Panda had the highest Positive Predictive Value at 45.0%, while other tools—FreeBayes, GATK HaplotypeCaller, GATK UnifiedGenotyper, Monovar, and Platypus—ranged from 5.8–41.53%. From the simulated data, Red Panda had the highest sensitivity at 72.44%. Conclusions We show that our method provides a novel and improved mechanism to identify variants in scRNA-seq as compared to currently existing software. However, methods for identification of genomic variants using scRNA-seq data can be still improved.

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