A geo-statistical approach to model Asiatic cheetah, onager, gazelle and wild sheep shared niche and distribution in Turan biosphere reserve-Iran
Introduction
Human pressures on ecosystems have raised the concern of the trophic niche and the question whether different species share similar habitat and how much of their niche is shared. In spite of improvements in species distribution models (SDMs), there is still a lack of technique and attention in the trophic niche of a species, and defining whether different species have common ecological requirements is rarely tested. In this regard, analyzing niche relationships between species can provide more accurate species distribution maps. Species distribution models, also known as habitat suitability models, have been widely used in different fields of ecology, such as control of invasive species (Bisrat et al., 2012, Gallien et al., 2010, Václavík and Meentemeyer, 2009), effect of climate and environmental change on species distribution (Franklin, 2010, Tang and Beckage, 2010, Taylor and Kumar, 2013), design of biodiversity protective network (Wilson et al., 2005), and conservation biology (Nazeri et al., 2012, Nazeri et al., 2014, Rood et al., 2010). These models are based on Hutchinson's (1957) fundamental niche theory, which lies at the core of ecological research, arguing that each species has a unique, n-dimensional array of ecological resources and environmental needs. By integrating species presence or absence data (biological data) with total habitat structure (environmental data), models can predict suitable areas that can provide species vital requirements for survival. However, these models have some limitations and restrictions.
Generally, these models compute the potential niche based on the occurrences of species of concerns and other eco-geographical variables. On the other hand, the idealized niche of species is driven by three main factors: abiotic variables, dispersal limitation, and biotic interactions (Soberón, 2007). Biotic interactions can involve intraspecific or interspecific interactions, and may have direct or indirect effects on populations. These effects can change the resource availability, the abundance of other species through competition, and can provide ecological facilitation (Lortie et al., 2004). However, biotic factors such as species interactions have been mostly neglected in distribution modeling as they might act at different spatial scales (Kneitel and Chase, 2004).
In order to know about species interactions in terms of competition and possible ecological facilitation in a shared habitat, we quantify four species niches including a predator in the Turan Biosphere Reserve in Iran using SDMs. First we use species presence points that are representing species abundance in the habitat, to characterize species realized niche, and next by using the relationship between species occurrence data (presence and pseudo absence) with a set of environmental variables, we predict the potential suitable habitat for each species using spatial generalized linear model (GLM) (Hengl et al., 2009, Pebesam, 2004), and test the results with (GLM) (Nelder and Wedderburn, 1972), and MaxEnt (Phillips et al., 2006). In an effort to identify the percentage of niche space shared by two or more species, we measure the overlapping potential suitable habitat by species. Finally, we compare the results of spatial GLM with GLM and MaxEnt using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and AUC values on a set of independent testing samples.
Section snippets
Study area and species
The study site encompassed the Turan Biosphere Reserve (Fig. 1) with an area of 14,400 km2, located in Northeastern Iran (55–57.02 E, 35–36.22 N [WGS 84]) in the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) boreal zone, 40. Turan consists of a Protected Area, a National Park and a Wildlife refuge, and was established in 1975, mainly as a protection for the Persian onager population and its habitat. Turan is located in cold winter deserts with a mean annual precipitation of 200 mm. The landscape is
Species abundance relative to habitat characteristics
Analysis of species abundance relative to landscape characteristics and features shows that cheetahs exist in a wide range of environments, but their presence is more associated with areas that are relatively near to water sources (Fig. 2). Average surface summer temperature of the habitat ranges from 24.3 °C to 36.2 °C. While most species' presence points are associated with temperatures between 29 °C and 35 °C, onager's presence is mostly related to temperatures between 30 °C and 31 °C. Gazelle
Discussion
Analysis of species abundance using the presence points shows that the Asiatic cheetah's habitat is not very different from the available habitat (Fig. 2), representing that the Asiatic cheetah's niche is not narrower than the environmental niche. The tendency of wild sheep and onager population to stay near the park ranger stations can demonstrate that their habitat is under pressure from illegal hunting. This coincides with frequent reports of illegal hunting of these two species. However,
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the park rangers of the Turan Biosphere Reserve for help in conducting the fieldwork. The datasets on species presence, and information regarding the Turan Biosphere Reserve were provided to Mona Nazeri by Iran's Department of Environment in 2007 as requested by the Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran for her master's degree thesis in the Environmental Planning and Management program. The data used in this study were acquired as part of the mission of NASA's
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- 1
Current address: Department of Geosciences, 32 Campus Drive, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA.
- 2
Current address: Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, 32 Campus Dr., Collage of Forestry and Conservation, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA.