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Passive transport has likely contributed to the post-glacial dispersal of species in temperate regions. However, identifying such processes from patterns can be obscured by confounding environmenta...

By conventional standards, modern wildlife science is a success, but our ability to convey complex technical matters to the public and other decision-makers could be more effective. Hunting in North America epitomizes these successes and shortcomings. The observations and samples from hunters support science, but there is a gap in understanding and communicating with scientists. Because threats to conservation are accelerating, scientists need not only to make wildlife science accessible to non-scientists but also to engage in translating science into policy. To be effective conservationists, scientists should articulate their policy preferences, invite non-scientists to question the scientific rationales for action, become comfortable with making policy recommendations under uncertainty, patiently repeat their messages and build respectful relationships with the uncommitted and with open-minded opponents. Conservation concerns both good science and human choices.

Habitat selection is the disproportionate use of available conditions and resources, and involves responses in space and time to perceived risks and rewards. It frequently depends on the scale of measurement, often in non-linear ways that preclude simple extrapolation across scales. More critically, animals often select different habitat components at different scales, and species vary in their scales of selection. Although multi-scaled research on habitat selection has proliferated, synthesis of this work has been impeded by imprecise terminology and arbitrarily defined analytical scales. Here, we review key concepts and findings and evaluate future prospects opened up in part by new technologies that enable novel and more efficient data collection. Innovative measurement, combined with novel analytical approaches, permits habitat selection to be investigated across a broad continuum of scales. By linking habitat selection to fitness as a function of scale, use-of-habitat assessments can be more effective. The fitness costs and benefits of habitat selection change with scale; the scales of habitat selection may inform us of limiting factors. We outline how reward/risk ratios can be used to assess the fitness implications of habitat selection across scales.

Temperature is often an important determinant of species presence and activity patterns, but observations of temperature at fine resolution and broad extents—scales relevant to individual organisms—are rare. We analyzed how biotic and abiotic variables influence ground surface temperature (GST) using high-resolution thermal data for a 1900-ha area of forest and field near Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada. Temperature was recorded at 2-h intervals from May to October, 2004 and 2005, from data loggers approximately 300 m apart. At the same sites, we recorded overstory and understory vegetation, elevation, and distances to the nearest road and urban infrastructure. Correspondence Analysis (CA) indicated that thermal conditions varied most strongly seasonally and diurnally. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) pinpointed which biotic and abiotic variables were related to surface temperature. Canopy cover and leaf litter cover were positively related to cool sites during both cool and warm periods. Si...

Many ecological patterns are sensitive to spatial and temporal scale, but no general protocol has emerged for dealing with scale-dependence. We suggest that power laws, regularly used in the study ...

We analysed the behaviour of muskox herds during early winter (October–November), late winter (April–late May), and early spring (late May–early June) in relation to diet quality, snow and forage a...

We examined microscale correlations between tundra vegetation and snow cover on southeastern Victoria Island, arctic Canada. Univariate and multivariate rela