Detection of important areas for wildlife conservation in Mongolia incorporating environmental predictability and heterogeneity

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K06931
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Conservation of biological resources
• Research Institution: Tottori University
• Principal Investigator: ITO Takehiko 鳥取大学, 乾燥地研究センター, 助教 (50403374)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KUROSAKI Yasunori 鳥取大学, 乾燥地研究センター, 准教授 (40420202) ; SUGIMOTO Taro 鳥取大学, 乾燥地研究センター, プロジェクト研究員 (20570493)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: モンゴル / モウコガゼル / 季節移動 / 衛星追跡 / 生息適地推定 / 保全 / 乾燥地 / 草原生態系

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We analyzed the spatial distribution and factors of suitable habitats for Mongolian gazelles in Mongolia’s grasslands, where is characterized by large interannual variability of environmental conditions. Several satellite tracked gazelles linearly returned from areas apart from 200-300 km to a specific area in spring, suggesting the existence of important areas as the summer habitat. Areas with high habitat suitability in summer had intermediate values of vegetation index (NDVI) in summer and small interannual variability of NDVI values in late summer in the study area, suggesting that high temporal predictability (small interannual variability) of vegetation biomass is an important factor for suitable summer habitats.

Free Research Field

生態学