Dear colleagues on behalf of all co-authors, I am very pleased to inform you on the publication of the following paper in The Journal of Wildlife Management:
Pace DS, Arcangeli A, Mussi B, Vivaldi C, Ledon C, Lagorio S, Giacomini G, Pavan G, Ardizzone G. 2018. Habitat suitability modeling in different sperm whale social groups. DOI:10.1002/jwmg.21453 Abstract The identification of significant habitats for highly mobile marine vertebrates is essential for their conservation. Evidence is often difficult to obtain for deep‐diving species such as sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), where standard visual survey methods are not sufficient to detect the species. Sperm whales rely on sound for most of their activities, so acoustics is a crucial tool to locate them in the environment and collect information about their daily life. We used a maximum entropy (MaxEnt) modeling approach to predict potential habitats for sperm whales during 2007–2015 in an area of the Mediterranean Sea (characterized by submarine canyon systems) where sperm whale singletons, social units of females and calves, and clusters with immature males, were regularly encountered in sympatry. Models to test species’ distribution and the potential differences between groups of varying composition and life stages were based on 3 independent variables (depth, slope, and Euclidean distance from the nearest coast) and a combination of presence‐only visual and acoustic data from boat‐based surveys. One variable (depth) was the strongest predictor in all encounters (pooled data) and clusters, whereas distance from coast and slope best predicted encounters with singletons and social units, respectively. The model predicted suitable locations in areas that were well‐known sperm whale habitat and in new regions of previously overlooked habitat, which possibly represent key areas for this endangered species in the Mediterranean. This study highlights that consideration should be taken regarding type of social aggregation when using modeling techniques for generating suitable habitat maps for conservation purposes. © 2018 The Wildlife Society. This is the link where you can download the paper https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jwmg.21453 Researchgate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324000022_Habitat_suitability_modeling_in_different_sperm_whale_social_groups Thank you and very best wishes, Daniela -- Daniela Silvia Pace, PhD Department of Environmental Biology Sapienza University of Rome Viale dell’Università 32 00185 Rome, Italy mobile: +39 346 1039652 office: +39 06 4991 4763 skype: lagenorinco -- ___________________________________________ *Il tuo 5 diventa 1000* Fai crescere la tua università Dona il 5 per mille alla Sapienza Codice fiscale: *80209930587* https://www.uniroma1.it/it/pagina/fai-crescere-la-tua-universita-con-il-cinque-mille
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