10.5061/DRYAD.7CC7S
Brooker, Rob W.
James Hutton Institute
Brewer, Mark J.
James Hutton Institute
Britton, Andrea J.
James Hutton Institute
Eastwood, Antonia
James Hutton Institute
Ellis, Christopher
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Gimona, Alessandro
James Hutton Institute
Poggio, Laura
James Hutton Institute
Genney, David R.
Scottish Natural Heritage
Data from: Tiny niches and translocations: the challenge of identifying
suitable recipient sites for small and immobile species
Dryad
dataset
2018
micro-climate
translocated-species
translocation
immobile species
assisted colonisation
arctic-alpine species
distribution
Flavocetraria nivalis
2018-08-25T00:00:00Z
2018-08-25T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13008
405392 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Assisted colonisation, one form of species translocation, has been
proposed as a tool for helping species to track suitable conditions in a
changing climate. There are considerable practical challenges associated
with it, including predicting where to place translocated individuals.
This problem may be particularly big for small and immobile species, where
small-scale micro-environmental conditions de-couple them from
environmental conditions as projected in large-scale climate models. To
investigate this problem we developed a survey-based model to predict the
occurrence of our target species, the fruticose terricolous arctic-alpine
lichen, Flavocetraria nivalis, within the Cairngorm Mountains. We then
undertook an experimental translocation of this species. A second model,
using variables that were significant in the survey-based model, was only
fair at predicting the initial pattern of survival at the recipient site.
However, model fit of the translocation survival model improved over time
as the distribution of surviving individuals more accurately reflected the
distribution of suitable environmental conditions. In addition, model
predictive power increased with the addition of data on micro-climatic
conditions at recipient plots. Synthesis and applications. Our results
demonstrate that, for species which respond strongly to local
environmental conditions, are immobile and, to some extent, decoupled from
larger-scale climates, it may be difficult to build a priori accurate
predictive models of habitat suitability. In these cases, a combination of
modelling and expert judgement, along with the movement of substantial
numbers of transplants, may be the appropriate options for maximising the
success of assisted colonisation.
Wider vegetation survey dataData from a survey of habitats of the lichen
Flavocetraria nivalis in the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland. These data
were used to produce the survey-based occurrence model described in our
paper.Translocation survival dataThese data were used to produce the
Translocation Survival Models 1 and 2 as described in our paper. They
include records of lichen survival in 2011 and 2015, as well as values for
the explanatory variables within the models.
Cairngorm Mountains
Scotland