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Regional patterns of mammal abundance and their relationship to landscape variables in eucalypt woodlands near Darwin, northern Australia

Price, O, Rankmore, B, Milne, D, Brock, C, Tynan, C, Kean, L and Roeger, L (2005). Regional patterns of mammal abundance and their relationship to landscape variables in eucalypt woodlands near Darwin, northern Australia. Wildlife Research,32(5):435-446.

Document type: Journal Article
Citation counts: Scopus Citation Count Cited 7 times in Scopus Article | Citations

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Title Regional patterns of mammal abundance and their relationship to landscape variables in eucalypt woodlands near Darwin, northern Australia
Author Price, O
Rankmore, B
Milne, D
Brock, C
Tynan, C
Kean, L
Roeger, L
Journal Name Wildlife Research
Publication Date 2005
Volume Number 32
Issue Number 5
ISSN 1035-3712   (check CDU catalogue open catalogue search in new window)
Scopus ID 2-s2.0-25144511020
Start Page 435
End Page 446
Total Pages 12
Place of Publication Collingwood
Publisher CSIRO Publishing
HERDC Category C1 - Journal Article (DEST)
Abstract Habitat loss and fragmentation are usually construed as having negative consequences for wildlife, and habitat heterogeneity as having a positive effect. We conducted a mammal survey in eucalypt woodlands near Darwin, and found very few mammals in an intact region of the study area. This is consistent with an emerging pattern suggesting that many mammal species are declining across northern Australia, even though habitats remain relatively intact. However, we also found apparently healthy populations of the same species in a fragmented region of the study area. Using a combination of remote sensing, GIS and generalised linear modeling, we found some evidence of relationships between fire regime, fire heterogeneity or vegetation heterogeneity and the distributions of mammal species in this area. However, there was a strong regional component of the distribution that is not explained by these variables. The cause of the lack of mammals in the intact region of the study area has not been revealed by this analysis. One possible reason for this failure is that the landscape variables used in the analysis were too fine to detect variation in mammal abundance occuring at a much courser regional scale.
Keywords kakadu-national-park
monsoon rain-forests
habitat fragmentation
fire regimes
arnhem-land
territory
area
conservation
marsupialia
dasyuridae
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR04033   (check subscription with CDU E-Gateway service for CDU Staff and Students  check subscription with CDU E-Gateway in new window)
 
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