College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, 410004, China.
College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, 410004, China,
Zoolog Sci. 2020 Dec;37(6):554-562. doi: 10.2108/zs190148.
To satisfy their requirements for food and safety, animals need certain habitats to live. Marmots generally select habitats with certain elevation, land surface temperature, soil and vegetation type, and certain mountain slope and aspect; however, what habitats are needed at relatively smaller scales are poorly known. The Himalayan marmot () is distributed mainly on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a region exhibiting diversified topographic features, and the Zoige wetland in the northeast part of the plateau is also the home of the Himalayan marmot. The region is famous for its plateau peat bog, and the suitable habitats for Himalayan marmots are patchily distributed in the wetland. To investigate what kinds of patches are preferred by the marmot in this wetland ecosystem, we measured and compared the soil and vegetation characteristics of used and unused patches. We found that unlike factors governing the habitat selection at macroscales, patches characterized by flat ground and low soil moisture content, with medium vegetation standing height and low vegetation density, are selected in the Zoige wetland. Patches of this kind are selected to meet the marmots' requirements for burrow construction and predator avoidance in such a wetland ecosystem. Together with previous studies on habitat selection of the marmot species at macroscales, we showed that to explore how the animals survive in an environment, it is important to conduct the analysis at multiple scales.
为了满足其对食物和安全的需求，动物需要特定的栖息地来生活。土拨鼠通常选择具有一定海拔、地面温度、土壤和植被类型以及一定山坡和朝向的栖息地；然而，对于相对较小的尺度，它们需要什么样的栖息地则知之甚少。喜马拉雅旱獭（）主要分布在青藏高原，该地区地形特征多样，而高原东北部的若尔盖湿地也是喜马拉雅旱獭的家园。该地区以高原泥炭沼泽而闻名，喜马拉雅旱獭的适宜栖息地在湿地中呈斑块状分布。为了研究在这种湿地生态系统中旱獭喜欢什么样的斑块，我们测量和比较了使用和未使用斑块的土壤和植被特征。我们发现，与宏观尺度上的栖息地选择因素不同，在若尔盖湿地中，旱獭选择的是地面平坦、土壤水分含量低、植被立地高度适中、植被密度低的斑块。在这样的湿地生态系统中，选择这种类型的斑块是为了满足旱獭对洞穴建设和躲避捕食者的需求。结合以前对旱獭在宏观尺度上的栖息地选择的研究，我们表明，要探索动物如何在环境中生存，在多个尺度上进行分析很重要。
