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Occupancy

About: Occupancy is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2757 publications have been published within this topic receiving 68288 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors combine natural history collection data with citizen science observations within a hierarchical Bayesian occupancy modeling framework to identify changes in the occupancy of Californian dragonflies and damselflies over the past century.
Abstract: In a world of rapid environmental change, effective biodiversity conservation and management relies on our ability to detect changes in species occurrence. While long-term, standardized monitoring is ideal for detecting change, such monitoring is costly and rare. An alternative approach is to use historical records from natural history collections as a baseline to compare with recent observations. Here, we combine natural history collection data with citizen science observations within a hierarchical Bayesian occupancy modeling framework to identify changes in the occupancy of Californian dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) over the past century. We model changes in the probability of occupancy of 34 odonate species across years and as a function of climate, after correcting for likely variation in detection probability using proxies for recorder effort and seasonal variation. We then examine whether biological traits can help explain variation in temporal trends. Models built using only opportunistic records identify significant changes in occupancy across years for 14 species, with eight of those showing significant declines and six showing significant increases in occupancy in the period 1900–2013. These changes are consistent with estimates obtained using more standardized resurvey data, regardless of whether resurvey data are used individually or in conjunction with the opportunistic dataset. We find that species increasing in occupancy over time are also those whose occupancy tends to increase with higher minimum temperatures, which suggests that these species may be benefiting from increasing temperatures across California. Furthermore, these species are also mostly habitat generalists, whilst a number of habitat specialists display some of the largest declines in occupancy across years. Our approach enables more robust estimates of temporal trends from opportunistic specimen and observation data, thus facilitating the use of these data in biodiversity conservation and management.

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
10 Sep 2015-Wetlands
TL;DR: This article conducted occupancy surveys for black rails (Laterallus jamaicensis) in managed and unmanaged areas of coastal South Carolina and found that black rails occupied 17 of 344 surveyed sites.
Abstract: Global wetland degradation and loss are occurring at a rapid rate, and in the United States over 50 % of wetlands in the lower 48 states have been altered since European settlement. In some cases, wetlands that were historically transformed for agriculture are now managed as wetland habitat. We conducted occupancy surveys for black rails (Laterallus jamaicensis) in managed and unmanaged areas of coastal South Carolina. We modeled landscape and local variables potentially influencing black rail occupancy and we assessed whether these habitat associations indicated vulnerability following expected alterations from sea level rise. Black rails occupied 17 of 344 surveyed sites. Landscape factors had the strongest influence on black rail occupancy. Occupancy was associated with impounded marshes, decreasing distance to forest, and greater proportion of marsh landscape within a 200 m buffer. We mapped parameters from our top model to predict the amount of current and future suitable habitat under various sea level rise scenarios at Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, a black rail hotspot. Suitable habitat decreases in tidal marshes but increases in impounded areas. The current use of impoundments by black rails could represent a new management strategy for mitigating the loss of black rail habitat.

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For the first time at this scale, the trend in the abundance of species a priori thought to be favoured by agricultural conversion was negatively correlated with human population density, which is in line with hypotheses explaining the decline in farmland birds in the Northern Hemisphere.
Abstract: We analysed more than 25 years of change in passerine bird distribution in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho, to show that species distributions can be influenced by processes that are at least in part independent of the local strength and direction of climate change: land use and ecological succession. We used occupancy models that separate species' detection from species' occupancy probability, fitted to citizen science data from both phases of the Southern African Bird Atlas Project (1987-1996 and 2007-2013). Temporal trends in species' occupancy probability were interpreted in terms of local extinction/colonization, and temporal trends in detection probability were interpreted in terms of change in abundance. We found for the first time at this scale that, as predicted in the context of bush encroachment, closed-savannah specialists increased where open-savannah specialists decreased. In addition, the trend in the abundance of species a priori thought to be favoured by agricultural conversion was negatively correlated with human population density, which is in line with hypotheses explaining the decline in farmland birds in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition to climate, vegetation cover and the intensity and time since agricultural conversion constitute important predictors of biodiversity changes in the region. Their inclusion will improve the reliability of predictive models of species distribution.

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used satellite imagery to derive habitat characteristics remotely in two time periods (1984-87 and 2000-03) and used the modelled relationships between habitat and occupancy and (2) occupancy and density, to infer changes in abundance in all c.30,000 wetlands within the study area.
Abstract: Aim To map changes in the abundance of African wetland birds using remotely derived habitat data. We show that abundance-occupancy relationships can be coupled with habitat association models to map changes in abundance. As conservation resources are more easily allocated when spatial and temporal patterns of abundance are known, our method provides guidance for conservation planning. Location Papyrus, Cyperus papyrus, swamps in east central Africa. Methods Presence/absence surveys of six bird species in 93 wetlands were used to construct models predicting probability of occurrence from habitat characteristics. Densities were then determined from surveys in 23 additional wetlands and modelled as functions of occurrence probability. We then used satellite imagery to derive habitat characteristics remotely in two time periods (1984-87 and 2000-03) and used the modelled relationships between (1) habitat and occupancy and (2) occupancy and density, to infer changes in abundance in all c.30,000 wetlands within the study area. Results Wetlands within the region declined by 8.6% between the two time periods, but by >75% in regions of high human population density. Bird densities were also highest in these regions, which comprised wetlands subject to high levels of disturbance. The geographical coincidence of high densities and habitat loss and the existence of positive associations between bird density and occurrence meant that birds declined by much more than the average rate of their habitat. Main conclusions Targeting conservation efforts in areas with high drainage would protect a high proportion of the bird populations. Encouraging people to derive income from disturbance to which the birds are tolerant, rather than drainage, is likely to be an effective strategy. Because habitat characteristics are a key driver of abundance-occupancy relationships, we conclude that there is wide-scale scope to couple abundance-occupancy relationships with remote habitat mapping to efficiently inform conservation planning.

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a high-temporal resolution residential building occupancy model is proposed to predict occupancy profiles of individual dwellings as part of the larger residential building stock using Time Use Survey (TUS) data.

21 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023669
20221,420
2021234
2020217
2019236
2018209