Body mass explains characteristic scales of habitat selection in terrestrial mammals

• Published in: Ecology and evolution Vol. 1; no. 4; pp. 517 - 528
• Main Authors: Fisher, Jason T., Anholt, Brad, Volpe, John P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2011; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Allometry; Body mass; Body size; Ecological adaptation; Ecology; Environmental factors; Forests; Habitat complexity; Habitat selection; Habitats; Heterogeneity; Mammals; Mountains; Original Research; Small mammals; Spatial scale; Species; Sympatric populations; Textural‐discontinuity; New York; United States > US; Chicago Illinois; North America, Rocky Mts; Textural-discontinuity; Habitat complexity; Spatial scale; Allometry
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.45

Niche theory in its various forms is based on those environmental factors that permit species persistence, but less work has focused on defining the extent, or size, of a species’ environment: the area that explains a species’ presence at a point in space. We proposed that this habitat extent is identifiable from a characteristic scale of habitat selection, the spatial scale at which habitat best explains species’ occurrence. We hypothesized that this scale is predicted by body size. We tested this hypothesis on 12 sympatric terrestrial mammal species in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. For each species, habitat models varied across the 20 spatial scales tested. For six species, we found a characteristic scale; this scale was explained by species’ body mass in a quadratic relationship. Habitat measured at large scales best‐predicted habitat selection in both large and small species, and small scales predict habitat extent in medium‐sized species. The relationship between body size and habitat selection scale implies evolutionary adaptation to landscape heterogeneity as the driver of scale‐dependent habitat selection. Niche theory in its various forms is based on those environmental factors that permit species persistence, but less work has focused on defining the extent, or size, of a species' environment: the area that explains a species' presence at a point in space. We proposed that this habitat extent is identifiable from a characteristic scale of habitat selection, the spatial scale at which habitat best explains species' occurrence. We hypothesized that this scale is predicted by body size. We tested this hypothesis on 12 sympatric terrestrial mammal species in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.