Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives.
Texas Rio Grande Valley Red-crowned Parrots (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) primarily occupy vegetated urban rather than natural areas. We investigated the utility of raw vegetation indices and their derivatives as well as elevation in modelling the Red-crowned parrot's g...
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2023-01-01
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author | Elise Varaela Voltura James L Tracy J Jill Heatley Simon Kiacz Donald J Brightsmith Anthony M Filippi Jesús G Franco Robert Coulson |
author_facet | Elise Varaela Voltura James L Tracy J Jill Heatley Simon Kiacz Donald J Brightsmith Anthony M Filippi Jesús G Franco Robert Coulson |
author_sort | Elise Varaela Voltura |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Texas Rio Grande Valley Red-crowned Parrots (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) primarily occupy vegetated urban rather than natural areas. We investigated the utility of raw vegetation indices and their derivatives as well as elevation in modelling the Red-crowned parrot's general use, nest site, and roost site habitat distributions. A feature selection algorithm was employed to create and select an ensemble of fine-scale, top-ranked MaxEnt models from optimally-sized, decorrelated subsets of four to seven of 199 potential variables. Variables were ranked post hoc by frequency of appearance and mean permutation importance in top-ranked models. Our ensemble models accurately predicted the three distributions of interest ([Formula: see text] Area Under the Curve [AUC] = 0.904-0.969). Top-ranked variables for different habitat distribution models included: (a) general use-percent cover of preferred ranges of entropy texture of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, entropy and contrast textures of NDVI, and elevation; (b) nest site-entropy textures of NDVI and Green-Blue NDVI, and percent cover of preferred range of entropy texture of NDVI values; (c) roost site-percent cover of preferred ranges of entropy texture of NDVI values, contrast texture of NDVI, and entropy texture of Green-Red Normalized Difference Index. Texas Rio Grande Valley Red-crowned Parrot presence was associated with urban areas with high heterogeneity and randomness in the distribution of vegetation and/or its characteristics (e.g., arrangement, type, structure). Maintaining existing preferred vegetation types and incorporating them into new developments should support the persistence of Red-crowned Parrots in southern Texas. |
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issn | 1932-6203 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:56:59Z |
publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
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spelling | doaj.art-39b51a39a15a4d278ea7454dffcece592023-12-24T05:33:28ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-011812e029411810.1371/journal.pone.0294118Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives.Elise Varaela VolturaJames L TracyJ Jill HeatleySimon KiaczDonald J BrightsmithAnthony M FilippiJesús G FrancoRobert CoulsonTexas Rio Grande Valley Red-crowned Parrots (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) primarily occupy vegetated urban rather than natural areas. We investigated the utility of raw vegetation indices and their derivatives as well as elevation in modelling the Red-crowned parrot's general use, nest site, and roost site habitat distributions. A feature selection algorithm was employed to create and select an ensemble of fine-scale, top-ranked MaxEnt models from optimally-sized, decorrelated subsets of four to seven of 199 potential variables. Variables were ranked post hoc by frequency of appearance and mean permutation importance in top-ranked models. Our ensemble models accurately predicted the three distributions of interest ([Formula: see text] Area Under the Curve [AUC] = 0.904-0.969). Top-ranked variables for different habitat distribution models included: (a) general use-percent cover of preferred ranges of entropy texture of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, entropy and contrast textures of NDVI, and elevation; (b) nest site-entropy textures of NDVI and Green-Blue NDVI, and percent cover of preferred range of entropy texture of NDVI values; (c) roost site-percent cover of preferred ranges of entropy texture of NDVI values, contrast texture of NDVI, and entropy texture of Green-Red Normalized Difference Index. Texas Rio Grande Valley Red-crowned Parrot presence was associated with urban areas with high heterogeneity and randomness in the distribution of vegetation and/or its characteristics (e.g., arrangement, type, structure). Maintaining existing preferred vegetation types and incorporating them into new developments should support the persistence of Red-crowned Parrots in southern Texas.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0294118&type=printable |
spellingShingle | Elise Varaela Voltura James L Tracy J Jill Heatley Simon Kiacz Donald J Brightsmith Anthony M Filippi Jesús G Franco Robert Coulson Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives. PLoS ONE |
title | Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives. |
title_full | Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives. |
title_fullStr | Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives. |
title_full_unstemmed | Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives. |
title_short | Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives. |
title_sort | modelling red crowned parrot psittaciformes amazona viridigenalis cassin 1853 distributions in the rio grande valley of texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives |
url | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0294118&type=printable |
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