Schematic diagram describing the different model settings of the study. We considered two spatial resolutions for analyzing the northern pika distribution: coarse-resolution (30 arcsecs), representing conventional, temperature data; and fine-resolution (3 arcsecs), which is more adequate for the species due to their small home range size. We used widely available temperature data for developing the coarse-resolution model, while downscaled temperature data, which we considered to reflect the ambient air temperature, was used for the fine-resolution model. We further used the fine-resolution model to evaluate the habitat suitability in areas with rocky landforms (cells surrounded by thick white lines in the microclimate layer) by incorporating the rock-interstice microclimate, which is known to be buffered from the ambient air temperature. Finally, we conducted hindcasting and future projection analyses to predict distribution changes over time.

 
 
  Part of: Sakiyama T, GarcĂ­a Molinos J (2025) Mapping fine-scale distribution of the northern pika Ochotona hyperborea considering duality in microhabitat thermal conditions. Frontiers of Biogeography 18: e131541. https://doi.org/10.21425/fob.18.131541