Editor's choice January/February 2026

The editor’s choice for our January/February issue is the article by Stranden et al. (2025): “Differential effects of environmental predictability on ungulate movement behavior in disparate ecosystems”

Many environments are becoming less predictable. As climate change and human land-use alter the availability of food, water, and shelter in time and space, species must adjust their movement and habitat use. In their paper, Madeline Stranden and coauthors address how environmental predictability, that is, the reliability of resource availability across space and time, affects movement behaviour of large mammals (in this case, mule deer) across contrasting ecosystems. Understanding animal movement in response to environmental cues is a central challenge in ecology, especially under rapid climate change and habitat alteration. This makes the topic highly relevant to researchers, wildlife managers and conservationists.

Stranden et al. quantified environmental predictability using metrics of spatial and temporal constancy, and related those directly to patterns of daily movement behaviour within seasonal home ranges. Rather than simply correlating movement with static habitat features, they integrated multiple aspects of environment predictability.

The authors found that both spatial and temporal environmental predictability strongly influence daily movement distances of mule deer, but their effects depend on forage availability, home-range size, and season. Deer moved more in resource-limited environments when spatial predictability was high, but moved less when resources were abundant; temporal predictability reduced movement only in non-limiting environments.

Together, these interactions show that environmental predictability becomes a stronger driver of movement as habitat quality declines, highlighting its importance for predicting wildlife responses to global change.

/Ilse Storch

Editor-in-Chief