Abstract
Habitat loss is the leading cause of diminishing biodiversity, increasing the importance of protected areas that conserve habitat mosaics of suitable size and quality for species' conservation. When more than one species of conservation concern relies upon the same area, land managers must balance trade-offs in habitat management to accomplish multiple conservation goals. While co-occurring species share similar needs at coarser scales, they may exploit distinct resources at finer scales. Therefore, identifying ways to balance trade-offs is needed for effective management of protected areas. Two imperiled species, beach mice (Peromyscus polionotus spp.) and snowy plovers (Anarhynchus nivosus), coexist along the northern Gulf of Mexico coastline. They share the relatively narrow beach landscape but may differ more subtly in habitat requirements across the beach-dune interface. Here, we synthesize the current knowledge of beach mice and snowy plover habitat associations to assess niche overlap and potential conservation conflicts between these co-occurring species. Beach mice are primarily mid-successional species, occupying vegetated sand dunes, while snowy plovers are an early successional species, nesting on the landward edge of sparsely vegetated sandy beaches. Beyond these qualitative assessments, the existing quantitative information on these species’ habitat requirements is sparse and often incongruent, making direct comparisons difficult. Differences in habitat requirements between mice and birds described here does, however, suggest that management interventions should be balanced by maintaining a diverse mosaic of habitat features that maximize seascape heterogeneity to encompass resource availability for a range of species.