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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Implications Of Spatial Autocorrelation And Dispersal For The Modeling Of Species Distributions, Volker Bahn
Implications Of Spatial Autocorrelation And Dispersal For The Modeling Of Species Distributions, Volker Bahn
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Modeling the geographical distributions of wildlife species is important for ecology and conservation biology. Spatial autocorrelation in species distributions poses a problem for distribution modeling because it invalidates the assumption of independence among sample locations. I explored the prevalence and causes of spatial autocorrelation in data from the Breeding Bird Survey, covering the conterminous United States, using Regression Trees, Conditional Autoregressive Regressions (CAR), and the partitioning of variance. I also constructed a simulation model to investigate dispersal as a process contributing to spatial autocorrelation, and attempted to verify the connection between dispersal and spatial autocorrelation in species' distributions in empirical …
Grassland And Woodland Bird Occurrence And Habitat Selection In The Prairie-Forest Transition Zone Of Minnesota, Thomas Robert Cooper
Grassland And Woodland Bird Occurrence And Habitat Selection In The Prairie-Forest Transition Zone Of Minnesota, Thomas Robert Cooper
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Numerous species of woodland and grassland nesting birds have experienced population declines in the midwestern United States. Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation are suspected to be two of the underlying causes for the population declines of woodland and grassland birds. The Minnesota Valley Wetland Management District (WMD) covers 14 counties in southeastern Minnesota in the transition zone between forested and prairie ecoregions. Little information is available relative to which birds are using grassland or woodland habitat within the WMD and how their presence or absence is related to the available habitat conditions. Therefore, my study objectives were to: 1) determine …