Geospatial Analysis and Comparison of Habitat Costs for Resident Sarasota Bay Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Abstract
The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP) studies a resident Florida bottlenose
dolphin population that faces many threats from human activities. These dolphins
concentrate in different areas seasonally, possibly in response to changes in the
distribution of prey or predators. Movement from one location to another involves
certain “costs” to the dolphins, which are defined in this project as the potential
for negative environmental interactions (natural and anthropogenic). Using an updated
habitat map for the SDRP study area and a geoprocessing model, a cost analysis was
performed in order to compare the cost values of eight primary habitat types. Results
indicated that Mangrove and Channel are the most costly, while Open Bay and Pass are
the least costly. I hypothesized that dolphins will use habitats with lower costs
more frequently than habitats with higher costs, but previous research and SDRP photographic
survey data show that these dolphins frequently use dredged channels to move between
areas, and at the population level they do not use any habitat type disproportionately
to its availability.
Type
Master's projectSubject
Bottlenose DolphinSarasota Dolphin Research Program
Cost Analysis
Habitat
Environmental Interactions
GIS
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8498Citation
Carnal, Boyd (2014). Geospatial Analysis and Comparison of Habitat Costs for Resident Sarasota Bay Bottlenose
Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8498.Collections
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