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Can highway tunnel constructıon change the habitat selection of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus Linnaeus, 1758)?       
Yazarlar
Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Özkan EVCİN
Kastamonu Üniversitesi, Türkiye
Özet
One of the main things wildlife does for survival is movement. Wild animals need movement to meet their needs, such as reproduction, breeding, foraging, and dispersal. Although wildlife species use roads for various purposes, they also use them when moving from one habitat to another. In recent years, especially when it comes to habitat fragmentation brought about by urbanization, wild animals frequently use highways. Highways have a wide range of effects on factors such as biodiversity, wildlife, and ecology. Roads can cause habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and habitat degradation; alter the composition of vegetation; act as barriers to the flow of genes and movement; increase human access to pristine areas; and even increase the risk of extinction for many threatened species. Species belonging to the family Cervidae also include the species most affected by road networks. Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus Linnaeus, 1758) is the smallest of the 3 Cervid species living in Turkey. Roe deer are often injured or die in road accidents, and they are one of the most important species affected by the adverse effects of roads in Turkey. For this reason, it was investigated whether the road tunnel construction affected the distribution of roe deer in the region. In the study, the general distribution of roe deer in the Ilgaz Mountain, and the factors affecting their possible distribution were determined by ecological niche modeling. Data were taken between before (2012–2015) and after the highway tunnel built (2020–2022) in Ilgaz Mountain, which connects the Western Black Sea and Central Anatolia and is located in the middle of Kastamonu and Çankırı provinces. As a result of the modeling, it was found that before the construction of the tunnel, the most influential factor in the distribution of the deer was road density. After the tunnel construction, roads ceased to be the main factor affecting the distribution of the species. This study showed that roe deer are disturbed by the density of vehicles on the road passing through the middle of their habitat. With the decrease in the number of vehicles, they are more willing to cross the road and tend to use the areas close to the road as they are less disturbed.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Ecological modeling | Habitat fragmentation | Road ecology | Turkey
Makale Türü Özgün Makale
Makale Alt Türü SSCI, AHCI, SCI, SCI-Exp dergilerinde yayımlanan tam makale
Dergi Adı Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Dergi ISSN 0167-6369
Dergi Tarandığı Indeksler SCI-Expanded
Dergi Grubu Q3
Makale Dili Türkçe
Basım Tarihi 11-2023
Cilt No 195
Doi Numarası 10.1007/s10661-023-12003-0
Makale Linki http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12003-0