Posts tagged ‘Biology’

Oct 30

Novel method to predict habitat preference of a mammal species community on and along roads - Illustration with a Western Canadian highway

Identifying optimal road crossing locations for mammal species

Schuster R, Römer H, Germain RR. (2013) PeerJ 1:e189 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.189

In this paper we used a multi-scale approach to independently identify preferred road approach (up to 1km) and highway crossing areas, for a multi-species mammal community. This combined strategy could help improve road mitigation efforts, by prioritizing traditionally used areas of high potential for crossing and combine these with areas of preference for approaching the road. Read more

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The Conservation Decisions team (CSIRO Land and Water) is a multi-disciplinary group with expertise in ecological modelling, systematic conservation planning, ecosystem services, applied mathematics, artificial intelligence, and decision theory. We’re pioneering techniques in optimal resource allocation, cost-effectiveness analysis, expert elicitation, value of information, multi-objective optimisation and adaptive management. We apply our expertise to diverse problems to inform the recovery of endangered species, management of pests, invasive species and diseases, design of conservation reserves, medical decision making, freshwater resource management and the prioritization of threat management to conserve biodiversity in a rapidly changing world. We solve pressing global decision problems. We do this by connecting big and small data with decision science to determine what actions to take, when and where to get the best outcomes for our bucks, while taking into account the many other competing needs of society.