Do dry ledges reduce the barrier effect of roads?

Wildlife crossing structures combined with fencing seek to improve permeability and habitat connectivity across roads and reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. However, the presence of water inside culverts can seriously limit their effectiveness. The implementation of dry ledges can be a good measure to allow crossing when flooded. So far, there is a lack of knowledge on the effectiveness of dry ledges combined with fencing for a wide diversity of vertebrates. The main goal of this study is to evaluate how the presence of dry ledge affect culvert use for Mediterranean mesocarnivores (red fox Vulpes vulpes, stone marten Martes foina, European badger Meles meles, European otter Lutra lutra and common genet Genetta genetta). Between January and March 2008, wooden dry ledges were placed in 15 of 32 surveyed culverts. Additionally 100 meters of small mesh size and buried fences were installed along each side of all culverts. During one year we used video surveillance and track-plates to detect crossing events over seven consecutive nights per season in each monitored culvert. We evaluate the relative importance of dry ledges on culvert use and compare the number of road-kills within a 100 m buffer radius around the culverts before and after fence installation and culverts that were never fenced (control culverts). Although different species responded to culvert features differently, the presence of dry ledges was the most relevant feature explaining crossing events, in particular, for stone martens and genets. The fencing used did not reduce mammals road-kill prevalence. Our results imply that in order to improve culvert use, road managers should take into account the placement of ledges on culverts that remain flooded most of the year (more than 3 cm of water-depth). We also suggest exploring the role of ledge size and construction materials to increase the likelihood of being used by foxes and badgers. Palabras clave: Barrier

Datos y Recursos

Cite como

Villalva P. Reto D. Santos-Reis M. Revilla E. y Grilo C. Do dry ledges reduce the barrier effect of roads?. Elsevier, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.04.005

Clipboard Icon
Recuperado: 19 Jan 2025 19:13:31
RIS BibTeX

Metadatos
Descargar
DCAT-AP/NTI-RISP

Información básica
Tipo de recurso Texto
Fecha de creación 02-12-2024
Fecha de última modificación 19-01-2025
Mostrar histórico de cambios
Identificador de los metadatos 21583602-05d7-5ff6-9ab9-a6da8272f252
Idioma de los metadatos Español
Temáticas (NTI-RISP)
Categoría del conjunto de alto valor (HVD)
Categoría temática ISO 19115 biota
URI de palabras clave
Información bibliográfica
Nombre del autor Villalva, P., Reto, D., Santos-Reis, M., Revilla, E. y Grilo, C.
Nombre del editor Elsevier
Identificador alternativo DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.04.005
Identificador del autor
Email del autor
Web del autor
Procedencia
Declaración de linaje
Perfil de Metadatos
Notas sobre la versión
Versión