Moreover, we confirmed that the vegetation horizontal coverage, particularly the horizontal shrub coverage, was essential for birds living in heavily human-disturbed areas.
Slopes with high shrub coverage were the best predictors of occurrence of Canary Islands stonechats at a landscape scale.
Although DOHP is instrumental in detecting changes in tall shrub coverage, it was found to be insufficiently sensitive to surface conditions in areas with dwarf shrubs and shrubs of biomass lower than 0.7 kg/m2 at the end of the summer.
When only vegetation variables were considered in the regression model, alpine shrub coverage proved to be negatively correlated with the contributions of new rain to river water, while alpine meadow coverage was positively correlated with the contributions of new rain.
Sage-grouse during the encamped mode showed an affinity to greater shrub coverage, including sagebrush; during traveling, sage-grouse preferred taller shrubs but at a lower percentage of shrub coverage (Table 5).
Landscape features used for encampment behaviors included shrub coverage with a prominent sagebrush component, tall shrubs, limited bare ground, and proximity to mesic areas.
Traveling habitat included limited shrub coverage, a higher proportion of herbaceous litter, and slightly diminished proximity to mesic areas.
Note the shallow mesic area (albeit dry), established by snowmelt, situated within an extensive area of limited shrub coverage in panel (b).
The use of open areas (i.e., less shrub coverage) in close proximity to mesic areas also could be an advantage to reduce predation whereby sage-grouse can visually detect potential predators (Webb et al. 2012).
A moderate vegetation coverage ratio (the recommended ration is 40%50%%) in every sub-area is also necessary.
