Forest Birds Habitat Suitability Models and the Development of General HabitatModels

摘要

Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) models were developed to assess the sensitivityof wildlife to habitat perturbations. Because most models consider a single species, their generality is limited. We evaluate the feasibility of combining such models for species occupying similar habitats to create more general models of wildlife-habitat relations. We base our evaluation on an analysis of HSI models for 16 forest bird species. Several features make it difficult to consolidate existing models into general, multispecies habitat models. The minimum area requirements of species are based on different criteria in different models, and life requisites (limiting factors) include categories that are not equivalent. Standardization of both measurement and definition of minimum area and life requisites is necessary to permit model aggregation. Most the habitat types occur in only few of the models, and the models differ considerably in the number of habitat types considered (1-12). Of the 61 habitat variables used in the 16 models, 46 occur in only 1 model.