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Landscape-level influences of terrestrial snake occupancy within the southeastern United States


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dc.contributorCraig Guyer, guyercr@auburn.eduen_US
dc.creatorSteen, David A.
dc.creatorMcClure, Christopher J. W.
dc.creatorBrock, Jean C.
dc.creatorRudolph, D. Craig
dc.creatorPierce, Josh B.
dc.creatorLee, James R.
dc.creatorHumphries, W. Jeffrey
dc.creatorGregory, Beau B.
dc.creatorSutton, William B.
dc.creatorSmith, Lora L.
dc.creatorBaxley, Danna L.
dc.creatorStevenson, Dirk J.
dc.creatorGuyer, Craig
dc.date.accessioned2020-04-02T04:17:50Z
dc.date.available2020-04-02T04:17:50Z
dc.date.created2012
dc.identifier10.1890/11-1777.1en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.srs.fs.fed.us/pubs/ja/2012/ja_2012_steen_001.pdfen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1890/11-1777.1en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11200/49783
dc.description.abstractHabitat loss and degradation are thought to be the primary drivers of species extirpations, but for many species we have little information regarding specific habitats that influence occupancy. Snakes are of conservation concern throughout North America, but effective management and conservation are hindered by a lack of basic natural history information and the small number of large-scale studies designed to assess general population trends. To address this information gap, we compiled detection/nondetection data for 13 large terrestrial species from 449 traps located across the southeastern United States, and we characterized the land cover surrounding each trap at multiple spatial scales (250-, 500-, and 1000-m buffers). We used occupancy modeling, while accounting for heterogeneity in detection probability, to identify habitat variables that were influential in determining the presence of a particular species. We evaluated 12 competing models for each species, representing various hypotheses pertaining to important habitat features for terrestrial snakes. Overall, considerable interspecific variation existed in important habitat variables and relevant spatial scales. For example, kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula) were negatively associated with evergreen forests, whereas Louisiana pinesnake (Pituophis ruthveni) occupancy increased with increasing coverage of this forest type. Some species were positively associated with grassland and scrub/shrub (e.g., Slowinski’s cornsnake, Elaphe slowinskii ) whereas others, (e.g., copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix, and eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus) were positively associated with forested habitats. Although the species that we studied may persist in varied landscapes other than those we identified as important, our data were collected in relatively undeveloped areas. Thus, our findings may be relevant when generating conservation plans or restoration goals. Maintaining or restoring landscapes that are most consistent with the ancestral habitat preferences of terrestrial snake assemblages will require a diverse habitat matrix over large spatial scales.en_US
dc.formatPDFen_US
dc.relation.ispartofEcological Applicationsen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries1051-0761en_US
dc.rights© 2012. This is the version of record published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Item should be cited as: Steen, D. A., McClure, C. J., Brock, J. C., Rudolph, D. C., Pierce, J. B., Lee, J. R., ... & Baxley, D. L. (2012). Landscape‐level influences of terrestrial snake occupancy within the southeastern United States. Ecological Applications, 22(4), 1084-1097.en_US
dc.subjectAgkistrodon contortrixen_US
dc.subjectColuber spp.en_US
dc.subjectCrotalus spp.en_US
dc.subjectdetection probabilityen_US
dc.subjectElaphe spp.en_US
dc.subjectHeterodon platirhinosen_US
dc.subjectLampropeltis getulaen_US
dc.subjectlandscape ecologyen_US
dc.subjectoccupancy modelingen_US
dc.subjectPituophis spp.en_US
dc.subjectsquamate reptileen_US
dc.subjectThamnophis sirtalisen_US
dc.titleLandscape-level influences of terrestrial snake occupancy within the southeastern United Statesen_US
dc.typeTexten_US
dc.type.genreJournal Article, Academic Journalen_US
dc.citation.volume22en_US
dc.citation.issue4en_US
dc.citation.spage1084en_US
dc.citation.epage1097en_US
dc.description.statusPublisheden_US
dc.description.peerreviewyesen_US
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-3031-7557en_US
dc.creator.orcid0000-0003-4909-2690en_US

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