Stopover ecology of a migratory ungulate - Sawyer - 2011 - Journal of Animal Ecology - Wiley Online Library

Stopover ecology of a migratory ungulate - Sawyer - 2011 - Journal of Animal Ecology - Wiley Online Library

The role of agent-based models in wildlife ecology and management

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : The role of agent-based models in wildlife ecology and management

Conservation planning of critical habitats for wildlife species at risk is a priority topic that requires the knowledge of how animals select and use their habitat, and how they respond to future developmental changes in their environment. This paper explores the role of a habitat-modeling methodological approach, agent-based modeling, which we advocate as a promising approach for ecological research. Agent-based models (ABMs) are capable of simultaneously distinguishing animal densities from habitat quality, can explicitly represent the environment and its dynamism, can accommodate spatial patterns of inter- and intra-species mechanisms, and can explore feedbacks and adaptations inherent in these systems.

The role of agent-based models in wildlife ecology and management

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : The role of agent-based models in wildlife ecology and management

Agent-based models (ABMs) are capable of simultaneously distinguishing animal densities from habitat quality, can explicitly represent the environment and its dynamism, can accommodate spatial patterns of inter- and intra-species mechanisms, and can explore feedbacks and adaptations inherent in these systems. ABMs comprise autonomous, individual entities; each with dynamic, adaptive behaviors and heterogeneous characteristics that interact with each other and with their environment

The role of agent-based models in wildlife ecology and management

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : The role of agent-based models in wildlife ecology and management

Agent-based models (ABMs) are capable of simultaneously distinguishing animal densities from habitat quality, can explicitly represent the environment and its dynamism, can accommodate spatial patterns of inter- and intra-species mechanisms, and can explore feedbacks and adaptations inherent in these systems. ABMs comprise autonomous, individual entities; each with dynamic, adaptive behaviors and heterogeneous characteristics that interact with each other and with their environment.

Timescales, dynamics, and ecological understanding

ESA Online Journals - Timescales, dynamics, and ecological understanding: "Explicit consideration of timescales and dynamics is required for an understanding of fundamental issues in ecology. Endogenous dynamics can lead to transient states where asymptotic behavior is very different from dynamics on short timescales. The causes of these kinds of transients can be placed in one of three classes: linear systems with different timescales embedded or exhibiting reactive behavior, the potentially long times to reach synchrony across space for oscillating systems, and the complex dynamics of systems with strong density-dependent (nonlinear) interaction"

Wildlife diseases: from individuals to ecosystems - Tompkins - 2010 - Journal of Animal Ecology - Wiley Online Library

Wildlife diseases: from individuals to ecosystems - Tompkins - 2010 - Journal of Animal Ecology - Wiley Online Library: "We review our ecological understanding of wildlife infectious diseases from the individual host to the ecosystem scale, highlighting where conceptual thinking lacks verification, discussing difficulties and challenges, and offering potential future research directions.

2. New molecular approaches hold potential to increase our understanding of parasite interactions within hosts. Also, advances in our knowledge of immune systems makes immunological parameters viable measures of parasite exposure, and useful tools for improving our understanding of causal mechanisms.

3. Studies of transmission dynamics have revealed the importance of heterogeneity in host behaviour and physiology, and of contact processes operating at different spatial and temporal scales. An important future challenge is to determine the key transmission mechanisms maintaining the persistence of different types of diseases in the wild.

4. Regulation of host populations is too complex to consider parasite effects in isolation from other factors. One solution is to seek a unified understanding of the conditions under which (and the ecological rules determining when) population scale impacts of parasites can occur."

The spatial scaling of habitat selection by African elephants - De Knegt - 2010 - Journal of Animal Ecology - Wiley Online Library

The spatial scaling of habitat selection by African elephants - De Knegt - 2010 - Journal of Animal Ecology - Wiley Online Library: "We focused on the spatial scaling of the elephants’ response to their main resources, forage and water, and found that the quantification of habitat selection strongly depended on the scales at which environmental context was considered. Moreover, the inclusion of environmental context at characteristic scales (i.e. those at which habitat selectivity was maximized) increased the predictive capacity of habitat suitability models.

4. The elephants responded to their environment in a scale-dependent and perhaps hierarchical manner, with forage characteristics driving habitat selection at coarse spatial scales, and surface water at fine spatial scales."