How are wetlands and biological interactions related to carnivore distributions at high altitude?

GRIET AN ERICA CUYCKENS; PABLO G. PEROVIC; LUCIANA MARÍA CRISTOBAL

JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015

0140-1963

Determining the geographic range of species is a main objective in ecology and has implications forconservation. Key determinants of carnivore distribution in dry environments are competition and theavailability of water. Here, we gathered and mapped the available information on carnivore habitatquality in the high Andes and Puna in the extreme north of Argentina. We investigated four carnivorespecies: the Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita), the Pampas cat (Leopardus colocolo), the cougar (Pumaconcolor) and the culpeo fox (Lycalopex culpaeus). We assessed the main determinants of their distribution,testing explicitly for the effects of seasonal and temporal wetlands and biological interactions. Weused species distribution models, and created biophysical models using environmental and landscapevariables. Then, by including the four species´ biophysical models into the model of the focal species, wetested for the importance of biological interactions. Wetlands were most important for the culpeo fox,most likely because it uses aquatic birds as prey. The cougar was the least restricted species in this aridenvironment, perhaps due to its large home range. In general, environmental variables, distances towetlands and the annual range of temperature defined species? distributions better than did biologicalinteractions. Only the distribution of the Andean cat, a specialized species, was influenced by biologicalinteractions with the Pampas cat.