TY - JOUR A1 - Ullmann, Wiebke A1 - Fischer, Christina A1 - Pirhofer-Walzl, Karin A1 - Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie A1 - Blaum, Niels T1 - Spatiotemporal variability in resources affects herbivore home range formation in structurally contrasting and unpredictable agricultural landscapes JF - Landscape ecology N2 - We investigated whether a given landscape structure affects the level of home range size adaptation in response to resource variability. We tested whether increasing resource variability forces herbivorous mammals to increase their home ranges. In 2014 and 2015 we collared 40 European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) with GPS-tags to record hare movements in two regions in Germany with differing landscape structures. We examined hare home range sizes in relation to resource availability and variability by using the normalized difference vegetation index as a proxy. Hares in simple landscapes showed increasing home range sizes with increasing resource variability, whereas hares in complex landscapes did not enlarge their home range. Animals in complex landscapes have the possibility to include various landscape elements within their home ranges and are more resilient against resource variability. But animals in simple landscapes with few elements experience shortcomings when resource variability becomes high. The increase in home range size, the movement related increase in energy expenditure, and a decrease in hare abundances can have severe implications for conservation of mammals in anthropogenic landscapes. Hence, conservation management could benefit from a better knowledge about fine-scaled effects of resource variability on movement behaviour. KW - Resource variability KW - Resource availability KW - Home range size KW - European brown hare KW - GPS tracking KW - Telemetry KW - Lepus europaeus Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-018-0676-2 SN - 0921-2973 SN - 1572-9761 VL - 33 IS - 9 SP - 1505 EP - 1517 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mayer, Martin A1 - Ullmann, Wiebke A1 - Sunde, Peter A1 - Fischer, Christina A1 - Blaum, Niels T1 - Habitat selection by the European hare in arable landscapes BT - The importance of small-scale habitat structure for conservation JF - Ecology and Evolution N2 - Agricultural land-use practices have intensified over the last decades, leading to population declines of various farmland species, including the European hare (Lepus europaeus). In many European countries, arable fields dominate agricultural landscapes. Compared to pastures, arable land is highly variable, resulting in a large spatial variation of food and cover for wildlife over the course of the year, which potentially affects habitat selection by hares. Here, we investigated within-home-range habitat selection by hares in arable areas in Denmark and Germany to identify habitat requirements for their conservation. We hypothesized that hare habitat selection would depend on local habitat structure, that is, vegetation height, but also on agricultural field size, vegetation type, and proximity to field edges. Active hares generally selected for short vegetation (1-25 cm) and avoided higher vegetation and bare ground, especially when fields were comparatively larger. Vegetation >50 cm potentially restricts hares from entering parts of their home range and does not provide good forage, the latter also being the case on bare ground. The vegetation type was important for habitat selection by inactive hares, with fabaceae, fallow, and maize being selected for, potentially providing both cover and forage. Our results indicate that patches of shorter vegetation could improve the forage quality and habitat accessibility for hares, especially in areas with large monocultures. Thus, policymakers should aim to increase areas with short vegetation throughout the year. Further, permanent set-asides, like fallow and wildflower areas, would provide year-round cover for inactive hares. Finally, the reduction in field sizes would increase the density of field margins, and farming different crop types within small areas could improve the habitat for hares and other farmland species. KW - agriculture KW - arable land KW - conservation KW - GPS KW - habitat selection KW - Lepus europaeus KW - vegetation height Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4613 SN - 2045-7758 VL - 8 IS - 23 SP - 11619 EP - 11633 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER -