Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, Berlin, 10099, Germany.
Bavarian Forest National Park, Freyungerstr. 2, Grafenau, 94481, Germany.
Ecol Appl. 2021 Apr;31(3):e2269. doi: 10.1002/eap.2269. Epub 2021 Jan 14.
Disturbances play a key role in driving forest ecosystem dynamics, but how disturbances shape wildlife habitat across space and time often remains unclear. A major reason for this is a lack of information about changes in habitat suitability across large areas and longer time periods. Here, we use a novel approach based on Landsat satellite image time series to map seasonal habitat suitability annually from 1986 to 2017. Our approach involves characterizing forest disturbance dynamics using Landsat-based metrics, harmonizing these metrics through a temporal segmentation algorithm, and then using them together with GPS telemetry data in habitat models. We apply this framework to assess how natural forest disturbances and post-disturbance salvage logging affect habitat suitability for two ungulates, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus), over 32 yr in a Central European forest landscape. We found that red and roe deer differed in their response to forest disturbances. Habitat suitability for red deer consistently improved after disturbances, whereas the suitability of disturbed sites was more variable for roe deer depending on season (lower during winter than summer) and disturbance agent (lower in windthrow vs. bark-beetle-affected stands). Salvage logging altered the suitability of bark beetle-affected stands for deer, having negative effects on red deer and mixed effects on roe deer, but generally did not have clear effects on habitat suitability in windthrows. Our results highlight long-lasting legacy effects of forest disturbances on deer habitat. For example, bark beetle disturbances improved red deer habitat suitability for at least 25 yr. The duration of disturbance impacts generally increased with elevation. Methodologically, our approach proved effective for improving the robustness of habitat reconstructions from Landsat time series: integrating multiyear telemetry data into single, multi-temporal habitat models improved model transferability in time. Likewise, temporally segmenting the Landsat-based metrics increased the temporal consistency of our habitat suitability maps. As the frequency of natural forest disturbances is increasing across the globe, their impacts on wildlife habitat should be considered in wildlife and forest management. Our approach offers a widely applicable method for monitoring habitat suitability changes caused by landscape dynamics such as forest disturbance.
干扰在驱动森林生态系统动态方面起着关键作用，但干扰如何在空间和时间上塑造野生动物栖息地通常仍不清楚。造成这种情况的一个主要原因是缺乏关于大面积和长时间内栖息地适宜性变化的信息。在这里，我们使用一种基于 Landsat 卫星图像时间序列的新方法，从 1986 年到 2017 年每年绘制季节性栖息地适宜性图。我们的方法涉及使用基于 Landsat 的指标来描述森林干扰动态，通过时间分割算法对这些指标进行协调，然后在栖息地模型中结合 GPS 遥测数据使用这些指标。我们应用该框架评估了在中欧森林景观中，32 年来自然森林干扰和干扰后采伐对两种有蹄类动物——狍（Capreolus capreolus）和马鹿（Cervus elaphus）——栖息地适宜性的影响。我们发现，红鹿和狍对森林干扰的反应不同。干扰后，马鹿的栖息地适宜性持续改善，而受干扰地点的适宜性对狍来说则更加多变，取决于季节（冬季比夏季低）和干扰源（风倒林比树皮甲虫影响的林分低）。采伐改变了树皮甲虫影响林分对鹿的适宜性，对马鹿有负面影响，对狍有混合影响，但通常对风倒林的栖息地适宜性没有明显影响。我们的研究结果突出了森林干扰对鹿类栖息地的长期遗留影响。例如，树皮甲虫干扰至少改善了马鹿 25 年的栖息地适宜性。干扰影响的持续时间通常随海拔升高而增加。从方法学上讲，我们的方法被证明可以有效地提高从 Landsat 时间序列中重建栖息地的稳健性：将多年遥测数据整合到单个多时间栖息地模型中，提高了模型在时间上的可转移性。同样，对基于 Landsat 的指标进行时间分割增加了我们栖息地适宜性图的时间一致性。随着全球自然森林干扰的频率增加，应该在野生动物和森林管理中考虑其对野生动物栖息地的影响。我们的方法为监测景观动态（如森林干扰）引起的栖息地适宜性变化提供了一种广泛适用的方法。
