RESUMEN
It is becoming more widely recognised that free-ranging dogs, which have a nearly global distribution, threatening native wildlife. Their increasing population and spread to new areas is of growing concern for the long-term viability of wildlife species. Hence, it is imperative to understand the factors responsible for their infestation and map areas where native species are most vulnerable. Using the random forests algorithm, we modelled the free-ranging dog infestation in the Trans-Himalayan region to pinpoint the high-risk areas where free-ranging dogs are threatening the native wildlife species. We found that the likelihood of free-ranging dog occurrence is most in valley regions and up to 4000 m, often in proximity to roads. Our results also indicated that free-ranging dog prefers areas with wildlife near to protected areas. The predictor variables, such as potential evapotranspiration of the coldest quarter, distance to protected areas, elevation, distance to roads, and potential evapotranspiration of the driest quarter, significantly influence the distribution of the free-ranging dogs. We found that within the Ladakh region of the Trans-Himalayan area, the high-risk zones for free-ranging dogs are located in and around Hemis National Park, Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary, and Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary. While, in the Lahaul and Spiti region the high-risk areas encompass Pin Valley National Park, Inderkilla National Park, Khirganga National Park, Kugti Wildlife Sanctuary, and several other protected areas. We identified the potentially high-risk areas for implementing strategies to mitigate the possible impact of free-ranging dogs on native wildlife of the Himalayas. Hence, the identified high priority areas can be used for implementing actions for controlling the population growth and further preventing the infestation of the free-ranging dogs into the new areas.
Asunto(s)
Animales Salvajes , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Animales , Perros , Ambiente , Parques RecreativosRESUMEN
Identifying scale effect on spatial patterns of ecosystem services and associations among them has been recognized as critical to the sustainable management of ecosystem services. We proposed a method to conveniently integrate ecosystem services of small scale into different larger scales. Taking Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in west China as an example, we analyzed the change regularity of spatial patterns of 7 ecosystem services under 22 different scales. Further, the tradeoffs and synergies among ecosystem services across all scales were compared. The results showed that all of the 7 ecosystem services had been characterized by stable spatial cluster patterns across all of the 22 scales in our study. However, the extent of aggregation decreased with the increase of scale owing to the 'peak cutting and valley filling' process of map scale synthesis. Most of the associations among ecosystem services were robust across scales. However, there was a trend that smaller scales had more pairwise correlations than larger scales. The formation of tradeoffs and synergies among ecosystem services can be attributed to one or more of the following three factors: land use conflict or consistency, common drivers, and interactions among ecosystem services. We attribute the change of relationships among ecosystem services with scales to that the role of factors causing tradeoffs and synergies among ecosystem services may change with scales. Food supply service synergizes with all of the 3 regulating services at almost all of the scales in our study area, indicating that well managed farmlands with high net profit are beneficial to soil conservation and organic matter accumulation in semi-arid area.