Context

Multispecies and multiscale habitat suitability models (HSM) are important to identify the environmental variables and scales influencing habitat selection and facilitate the comparison of closely related species with different ecological requirements.

Objectives

This study explores the multiscale relationships of habitat suitability for the pine (Martes martes) and stone marten (M. foina) in northern Spain to evaluate differences in habitat selection and scaling, and to determine if there is habitat niche displacement when both species coexist.

Methods

We combined bivariate scaling and maximum entropy modeling to compare the multiscale habitat selection of the two martens. To optimize the HSM, the performance of three sampling bias correction methods at four spatial scales was explored. HSMs were compared to explore niche differentiation between species through a niche identity test.

Results

The comparison among HSMs resulted in the detection of a significant niche divergence between species. The pine marten was positively associated with cooler mountainous areas, low levels of human disturbance, high proportion of natural forests and well-connected forestry plantations, and medium-extent agroforestry mosaics. The stone marten was positively related to the density of urban areas, the proportion and extensiveness of croplands, the existence of some scrub cover and semi-continuous grasslands.

Conclusions

This study outlines the influence of the spatial scale and the importance of the sampling bias corrections in HSM, and to our knowledge, it is the first comparing multiscale habitat selection and niche divergence of two related marten species. This study provides a useful methodological framework for multispecies and multiscale comparatives.