Animal Movement in the Anthropocence
Understanding the causes and consequences of animal movements is important because any changes in movement can have both direct and indirect effects on ecosystem structure and function. There are large variations in movement patterns among animal species and this variation has been attributed to life history traits, environmental characteristics and phylogenetic relationships. Despite the abundance of movement ecology research, the effects of life history, environment and phylogeny have often been studied in isolation and the majority of movement ecology studies have focused on single species, limiting our understanding of how individual movements form global movement patterns. We will examine how animal movements, based on GPS tracking data across birds and mammals, are affected by intrinsic factors (e.g. body mass, diet and taxonomy) and extrinsic factors (e.g. resource availability and human disturbance).
Publications
Tucker, M.A., et al. (2023) Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns. Science. 380, 1059–1064. doi: 10.1126/science.abo6499
Tucker, M.A., et al. (2018) Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements. Science, 359, 466 – 469. doi: 10.1126/science.aam9712
Tucker, M.A., et al. (2019) Large birds travel farther in homogeneous environments. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 28, 576 – 587. doi: 10.1111/geb.12875
Tucker, M.A., et al. (2023) Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns. Science. 380, 1059–1064. doi: 10.1126/science.abo6499
Tucker, M.A., et al. (2018) Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements. Science, 359, 466 – 469. doi: 10.1126/science.aam9712
Tucker, M.A., et al. (2019) Large birds travel farther in homogeneous environments. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 28, 576 – 587. doi: 10.1111/geb.12875
Mammal Population Densities in Human-Modified Landscapes
Global landscapes are changing due to human activities with consequences for both biodiversity and ecosystems. For single species, terrestrial mammal population densities have shown mixed responses to human pressure, with both increasing and decreasing densities reported in the literature. How the impacts of human activities on mammal populations translates into altered global density patterns remains unclear. We investigated the effect of human impacts on large‐scale patterns of mammal population densities using a global dataset of 6729 population density estimates for 468 mammal species.
Publications
Tucker, M.A., Santini, L., Carbone, C. and Mueller, T. (2021), Mammal population densities at a global scale are higher in human‐modified areas. Ecography, 44: 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05126
Tucker, M.A., Santini, L., Carbone, C. and Mueller, T. (2021), Mammal population densities at a global scale are higher in human‐modified areas. Ecography, 44: 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05126
