{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,20]],"date-time":"2026-06-20T03:13:24Z","timestamp":1781925204878,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":61,"publisher":"PeerJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,23]],"date-time":"2024-05-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716422400000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"The Friends of Nachusa Grasslands"},{"name":"The Illinois Department of Natural Resources"},{"name":"The Illinois Department of Transportation"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>With anthropogenic changes altering the environment and the subsequent decline of natural habitats, it can be challenging to predict essential habitats for elusive and difficult to study taxa. Primary burrowing crayfish are one such group due to the complexity in sampling their semi-terrestrial, subterranean habitat. Sampling burrows usually requires a labor-intensive, time-consuming excavation or trapping process. However, limited information on burrowing crayfish suggests that fine-scale habitat variation may drive burrowing crayfish habitat choice. This project aimed to evaluate the fine-scale habitat characteristics that influence burrowing crayfish presence and abundance at a large, restored-remnant grassland preserve in north-central Illinois. We documented burrow abundance and quadrat-specific habitat variables such as root biomass, canopy cover, apparent seasonal high-water table (water table) depth and dominant vegetation at sites with and without burrowing crayfish populations. Data was recorded at every quadrat and analyzed using generalized linear mixed models. A total of 21 models were created to determine what habitat variables affected burrow presence and abundance. We found that the water table depth was a significant driver of burrow presence and abundance. Root biomass and vegetation cover were not significant drivers, although they did show up in the final models, explaining the data. These findings demonstrate empirical support for previous observations from other burrowing crayfish research and demonstrate the influence of fine-scale habitat when modeling elusive taxa requirements.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.17330","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,23]],"date-time":"2024-05-23T07:15:06Z","timestamp":1716448506000},"page":"e17330","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Variation in fine-scale water table depth drives abundance of a unique semi-terrestrial crayfish species"],"prefix":"10.7717","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Molly C.","family":"Carlson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL,  United States of America"},{"name":"Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,  Champaign, IL, United States of America"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dusty A.","family":"Swedberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,  Champaign, IL, United States of America"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elizabeth A.","family":"Miernicki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,  Champaign, IL, United States of America"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christopher A.","family":"Taylor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,  Champaign, IL, United States of America"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"4443","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,23]]},"reference":[{"issue":"3","key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"476","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1472-4642.2010.00654.x","article-title":"The geography of climate change: Implications for conservation biogeography","volume":"16","author":"Ackerly","year":"2010","journal-title":"Diversity and Distributions"},{"issue":"13","key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1854","DOI":"10.3390\/w13131854","article-title":"Burrow densities of primary burrowing crayfishes in relation to prescribed fire and mechanical vegetation treatments","volume":"13","author":"Adams","year":"2021","journal-title":"Water"},{"issue":"6","key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"716","DOI":"10.1109\/TAC.1974.1100705","article-title":"A new look at the statistical model identification","volume":"19","author":"Akaike","year":"1974","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control"},{"issue":"10","key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2303","DOI":"10.1111\/ele.14089","article-title":"Understanding the relationship between dispersal and range size","volume":"25","author":"Alzate","year":"2022","journal-title":"Ecology Letters"},{"issue":"4","key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e12101","DOI":"10.1002\/2688-8319.12101","article-title":"Twenty years of tallgrass prairie restoration in northern Illinois, USA","volume":"2","author":"Bach","year":"2021","journal-title":"Ecological Solutions and Evidence"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-6","article-title":"MuMIn: Multi-Model Inference","author":"Barto\u0144","year":"2022"},{"issue":"4","key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"695","DOI":"10.1111\/FWB.13874","article-title":"Crayfish connections: linking ecology and hydrogeology in Alabama\u2019s Black Prairie using crayfish distribution patterns","volume":"67","author":"Bearden","year":"2022","journal-title":"Freshwater Biology"},{"issue":"3","key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"357","DOI":"10.1163\/15685403-bja10098","article-title":"A global review of life history studies on burrowing crayfish","volume":"94","author":"Bloomer","year":"2021","journal-title":"Crustaceana"},{"issue":"2","key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"130","DOI":"10.1017\/S0376892922000078","article-title":"Integrating burrowing crayfish and waterfowl conservation management on moist-soil wetlands","volume":"49","author":"Bloomer","year":"2022","journal-title":"Environmental Conservation"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.17330\/ref-10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-67282-8_11","article-title":"Techniques of root washing","volume-title":"Methods of studying root systems. 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