Roads and water availability influence the occurrence of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in secondary habitat: a multiscale approach

Riana Gardiner; Julien Terraube; Celine Frere; Romane Cristescu

doi:10.1007/s10531-022-02493-8

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Roads and water availability influence the occurrence of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in secondary habitat: a multiscale approach

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Roads and water availability influence the occurrence of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in secondary habitat: a multiscale approach

Riana Gardiner, Julien Terraube, Celine Frere and Romane Cristescu

Biodiversity and Conservation, Vol.32, pp.163-180

2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02493-8

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Abstract

Conservation planning

Endangered species

Landscape context

Australia

Given the high proportion of Earth's ecosystems already anthropogenically modified, especially through clearing, it is critical we determine whether species can persist outside of their primary habitat as a means of ensuring population persistence in the remaining landscape. The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) has been heavily impacted by habitat loss through clearing, and recently upgraded to endangered across its eastern distribution. It is timely to understand what variables may influence the occurrence of koalas in secondary habitat, which can then guide conservation efforts. We surveyed 959 sites with detection dogs to determine the occurrence of koalas through the presence of scats. Using GLMMs, we accounted for environmental and anthropogenic variables that may influence koala occurrence, meanwhile focusing on the use of secondary eucalyptus forests at multiple spatial scales (250, 500, 1500 m radii). Overall koala occurrence was negatively associated with secondary eucalyptus forests compared to primary forests, while there was no effect of total forest area present at any scale. However, we found interactive effects between secondary forest and (1) distance from the closest major road at the smallest landscape scale (250 m radii) and (2) water area at the larger landscape scales (500 m, 1500 m radii). This suggests that occurrence of koalas in secondary forests are predicted to increase when the distance to major roads, and the water area, increase. While protecting primary euca-lyptus forests should always be a prioritisation for the conservation of koalas, our results emphasize the important role that secondary eucalyptus forests can play in conservation, as long as these are carefully considered in the landscape context to maximise restoration investments.

Details

Title: Roads and water availability influence the occurrence of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in secondary habitat: a multiscale approach
Authors: Riana Gardiner (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Julien Terraube (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Celine Frere (Author) - The University of Queensland
Romane Cristescu (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Publication details: Biodiversity and Conservation, Vol.32, pp.163-180
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Date published: 2023
DOI: 10.1007/s10531-022-02493-8
ISSN: 1572-9710; 0960-3115
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99685098702621
Output Type: Journal article