Vegetation productivity summarized by the Dynamic Habitat Indices explains broad-scale patterns of moose abundance across Russia

Download Razenkova_etal_SciReports_Moose_2020

Identifying the factors that determine habitat suitability and hence patterns of wildlife abundances
over broad spatial scales is important for conservation. Ecosystem productivity is a key aspect of habitat
suitability, especially for large mammals. Our goals were to a) explain patterns of moose (Alces alces)
abundance across Russia based on remotely sensed measures of vegetation productivity using Dynamic
Habitat Indices (DHIs), and b) examine if patterns of moose abundance and productivity difered before
and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. We evaluated the utility of the DHIs using multiple regression
models predicting moose abundance by administrative regions. Univariate models of the individual
DHIs had lower predictive power than all three combined. The three DHIs together with environmental
variables, explained 79% of variation in moose abundance. Interestingly, the predictive power of the
models was highest for the 1980s, and decreased for the two subsequent decades. We speculate that
the lower predictive power of our environmental variables in the later decades may be due to increasing
human infuence on moose densities. Overall, we were able to explain patterns in moose abundance in
Russia well, which can inform wildlife managers on the long-term patterns of habitat use of the species.