1,721,060 research outputs found
Suitable, reachable but not colonised: seasonal niche duality in an endemic mountainous songbird
No full textThe realized distribution of animals is often delimited by climatic factors which define, next to the specific habitat and food availability, their species-specific potential distribution. We studied the environmental limitations affecting the realized breeding and wintering distributions of the Citril Finch (Carduelis citrinella), one of the few endemic bird species of European mountain ranges. To assess the environmental limits that shape the seasonal distribution, we used species distribution models (SDMs) derived from macroclimate in combination with land cover information. Our data suggest a high congruence between the potential modelled breeding distribution of the Citril Finch and the currently known breeding sites, indicating a high level of niche filling. The unusual absence in several suitable breeding habitats at the eastern and northern range limit (Eastern Alps, Carpathians, Bavarian Forest, Harz Mountains, Fichtelgebirge, Krkonoe Mountains) is likely linked to a combination of both missing resources and restricted physiological migration capacities from the available wintering grounds. Since the accomplished migratory distances hardly exceed more than 500 km, it seems likely that the distance to the main wintering areas is too large for exceeding eastern and northern range limits. We discuss the differences in SDM outcomes when including distal predictor variables instead of using proximal predictors alone, and highlight the importance of considering a seasonal niche duality to gain more insights into complex range effects in species with seasonal ranges
Coupling Satellite Data with Species Distribution and Connectivity Models as a Tool for Environmental Management and Planning in Matrix-Sensitive Species
No full textClimate change and anthropogenic habitat fragmentation are considered major threats for global biodiversity. As a direct consequence, connectivity is increasingly disrupted in many species, which might have serious consequences that could ultimately lead to the extinction of populations. Although a large number of reserves and conservation sites are designated and protected by law, potential habitats acting as inter-population connectivity corridors are, however, mostly ignored in the common practice of environmental planning. In most cases, this is mainly caused by a lack of quantitative measures of functional connectivity available for the planning process. In this study, we highlight the use of fine-scale potential connectivity models (PCMs) derived from multispectral satellite data for the quantification of spatially explicit habitat corridors for matrix-sensitive species of conservation concern. This framework couples a species distribution model with a connectivity model in a two-step framework, where suitability maps from step 1 are transformed into maps of landscape resistance in step 2 filtered by fragmentation thresholds. We illustrate the approach using the sand lizard (Lacerta agilis L.) in the metropolitan area of Cologne, Germany, as a case study. Our model proved to be well suited to identify connected as well as completely isolated populations within the study area. Furthermore, due to its fine resolution, the PCM was also able to detect small linear structures known to be important for sand lizards' inter-population connectivity such as railroad embankments. We discuss the applicability and possible implementation of PCMs to overcome shortcomings in the common practice of environmental impact assessments
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Confronting expert-based and modelled distributions for species with uncertain conservation status: A case study from the corncrake (Crex crex)
No full textThe Red List classification of IUCN has become one of the most important evaluations of threats that affect biodiversity at the species level. However, many estimations of species range, one essential factor in the Red List classification, are derived from expert-based assessments that sometimes lack empirical evidence. Our study focused on the corncrake (Crex crex), a grassland Palaearctic bird whose conservation status has been revised recently following some new assessments of range and population size. However, the amount of data that form the basis of this reclassification appears weak compared to the large area involved. We used a method of species distribution modelling (MAXENT) to predict the corncrake range and confronted it to the expert-based map. We resolved the huge geographic bias in the distribution of presence points by using a relevant method of sampling bias correction. We found a rather similar distribution with the IUCN estimated range, although less widespread. We also highlighted a relationship between habitat suitability computed by the model and population estimates per country when the effect of agriculture intensity is taken into account. This result supports the current expert-based estimates of corncrake distribution and emphasizes that a relevant modelling strategy should be able to predict the distribution of a species even from a biased dataset. IUCN estimates of species' ranges would certainly benefit from a model-based approach in addition to expert and field controls. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
- …
