Study On Spatial Coexistence Of Eight Mammals In Warm Season And Cold Season At Microhabitat Scale

In order to explore the species coexistence mechanism of mammalian community,we deployed 124 camera traps at Shuanghe National Nature Reserve of Great Xing'an Mountains in Heilongjiang Province from 2013 to 2016 in China.Through the division of cold and warm seasons,habitat utilization and species coexistence of eight mammals including Siberian weasel(Mustela sibirica),sable(Maries zibelina),mountain hare(Lepus timidus),eurasian lynx(Lynx lynx),siberian roe deer(Capreolus pygargus),wild boar(Sus scrofa),red deer(Cervus elaphus),and eurasian moose(Alces alces)were analyzed at the microhabitat scale.Single season occupancy model was used to analyze utilization of 15 habitat factors such as human disturbance,vegetation factors and geographic factors for eight animals between warm season and cold season,and reveal the differences in utilization of habitat factors.Two-species single seasonal model was used to explore the spatial coexistence of mammalian community during cold season and warm season under different species relationships.Below are key research results.1.The results of habitat use:eight mammals avoided human disturbance factors including residential area,seasonal road and highway in warm and cold seasons,but preferred habitats with farmland(except for lynx).There were significant differences in the utilization of vegetation factors between different mammals in warm and cold seasons.Cervidae(roe deer,red deer,moose)tended to prefer habitats close to rivers in cold and warm seasons,while carnivorous animals(weasel,sable,lynx)would avoid areas near river.The use of geographic habitat factors(slope direction,gradient)for the eight mammals in the warm season and the cold season were basically same,and the large animals(red deer,moose)chose the area with smaller slopes,and animals with small body size chose areas with larger slopes.2.The results of species spatial coexistence relationship showed that:Under the predation relationship,the species interaction factor(SIF)values of sable-mountain hare and lynx-mountain hare in the cold season were significantly higher than the warm season,showing a spatial coexistence relationship;The three combinations of species(lynx-roe deer,lynx-red deer,lynx-moose),showed significant decrease in the SIF values during the cold season compared with the warm season,indicating a spatial avoidance relationship.Under the competition relationship,in the carnivores community,the SIF values of sable-weasel and lynx-sable in the cold season decreased compared to the warm season,showing a spatial avoidance relationship.In the herbivore community,except for moose-roe deer,the SIF values of the other six combinations of species(roe deer-mountain hare,roe deer-wild boar,red deer-wild boar,moose-wild boar,red deer-roe deer,moose-red deer)in the cold season all declined compared to the warm season,showing a spatial avoidance relationship.3.The results of the comprehensive analysis of the relationship between habitat use and species spatial coexistence in cold and warm seasons showed that:For herbivorous community under competitive relationship,the number of habitat factors commonly used in the cold season had decreased compared with the warm season,at the same time the SIF values in the cold season had also declined compared to the warm season,and the spatial relationship of species turned into a state dominated by space avoidance,indicating that there is a certain degree of synergy between the use of herbivore habitat factors and the spatial coexistence of species.4.The body weight ratio of herbivores in warm season had no significant correlation with SIF values.However,the SIF values gradually decreased with the increase of body weight ratios in the cold season(R2=0.6528),indicating that competitive pressure between herbivorous animals with similar size was stronger in the cold season.