Accounting for detection unveils the intricacy of wild boar and rabbit co-occurrence patterns in a Mediterranean landscape
Date
20/04/2020Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The patterns of species co-occurrence have long served as a primary approach to explore concepts of interspecific interaction. However, the interpretation of such patterns is difficult as they can result from several complex ecological processes, in a scale-dependent manner. Here, we aim to investigate the co-occurrence pattern between European rabbit and wild boar in an estate in Central Portugal, using two-species occupancy modelling. With this framework, we tested species interaction for occupancy and detection, but also the interdependencies between both parameters. According to our results, the wild boar and European rabbit occurred independently in the study area. However, model averaging of the detection parameters revealed a potential positive effect of wild boar’s presence on rabbit’s detection probability. Upon further analysis of the parameter interdependencies, our results suggested that failing to account for a positive effect on rabbit’s detection could lead to potentially biased interpretations of the co-occurrence pattern. Our study, in spite of preliminary, highlights the need to understand these different pathways of species interaction to avoid erroneous inferences.
Citation
Barros , A L , Curveira-Santos , G , Marques , T A & Santos-Reis , M 2020 , ' Accounting for detection unveils the intricacy of wild boar and rabbit co-occurrence patterns in a Mediterranean landscape ' , Scientific Reports , vol. 10 , 6651 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-63492-9
Publication
Scientific Reports
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2045-2322Type
Journal article
Description
This study was conducted at a research and monitoring station of the LTsER Montado platform (http://www.ltsermontado.pt/) through a research protocol established between Companhia das Lezírias S.A. (CL) and Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL), under the strategic plan of the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) and with the support of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, UID/BIA/00329/2019). T.A.M. thanks partial support by CEAUL (funded by FCT through the project UID/MAT/00006/2019). G.C.S. was funded by a doctoral grant from FCT (PD/BD/114037/2015).Collections
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