Download or read book Modelling the Effect of Landscape Features on Woodland Caribou Movement and Population Growth in Ontario written by Boyan Liu and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The suitability of an animal's local environment is expected to influence patterns of movement and population growth rate (lambda). Landscape suitability can accordingly be estimated, based on the relative frequency and spatial distribution of good versus poor areas. This framework can be used to evaluate the landscape suitability of 14 woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) ranges in Ontario and relate it to projected inter-range differences in movement and lambda; calculated using individual-based movement trajectories. The caribou movement simulation model predicted that average rates of caribou displacement should decrease with increasing forage variability and decreasing variability in moose abundance. The caribou population viability analysis model predicted that caribou population growth should decrease with increasing density of both wolves and moose, the wolves' primary prey. These model predictions suggest that caribou movement and lambda could respond differently to spatial variation in food availability and predation risk.
Download or read book How Alternative Landscapes in the Boreal Forest Impact Woodland Caribou Using a Model of Animal Movement Perception and Memory written by Brianna Collis and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The boreal ecotype of woodland caribou, Rangifer tarandus caribou, is a threatened species in Canada. Their decline is complex, but cumulative effects of anthropogenic activity - including habitat alteration and loss from economic activities - are implicated. This study investigates how a projection of current trends impacts caribou using alternative landscapes in northern Ontario. Landscapes are compared with an empirically-parameterized individual-based movement model to identify how landscape change impacts boreal woodland caribou. Results indicate that a business- as-usual landscape will continue to negatively impact woodland caribou persistence and population growth, as well as affect how caribou use the landscape with respect to movement and landcover occupation. Neither the existing landscape nor a business- as-usual projection stopped caribou decline, and caribou searched more-disturbed landcover types in the business-as-usual landscape. Results have implications for species conservation, landscape planning, boreal land-use practices, spatial ecology, and applied landscape ecology's role in the recovery of imperilled species.
Download or read book Resource Selection Predation Risk and Population Dynamics of Woodland Caribou written by Nicholas James DeCesare and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) have experienced population declines and local extirpations across North America. Human disturbance has caused caribou declines indirectly through changes to apparent competition dynamics within the predator-prey community. Apparent competition occurs as a negative indirect interaction between prey species, mediated by their direct interactions with a shared predator. I first review apparent competition, and show that across many endangered species including woodland caribou, human disturbance often causes an asymmetric tilt to the balance among prey species. Landscape disturbance such as forest harvest and energy development have created early seral-stage forests and linear features across the landscape of west-central Alberta. I studied the effects of landscape disturbance on the predator-prey dynamics of woodland caribou, wolves (Canis lupus) and other ungulate prey species in this region. I examined spatial patterns of resource selection by caribou, wolf predation risk, adult female caribou survival and, ultimately, population trend for 9 woodland caribou populations. Caribou avoided disturbance across all scales of resource selection, though avoidance of forestry cut-blocks was strongest at broad home range scales and avoidance of linear features was strongest at fine scales along caribou movement paths. Linear disturbances also increased predation risk by being selected as travel routes for hunting wolves, but did not increase the predation efficiency in terms of kills per time, as hypothesized. Rather, spatial changes in predation efficiency were largely driven by natural landscape heterogeneity. Avoidance by caribou and increased wolf predation risk in disturbed areas indicate functional habitat loss for caribou, yet these patterns alone do not necessarily imply a demographic impact. Spatial analysis of factors influencing adult female survival indicated that caribou resource selection was broadly correlated with survival, but also that wolf predation risk was an additional mortality risk beyond that perceived by caribou. This failure of caribou to non-ideally avoid predation risk may explain my final analysis showing significant and multi-year declines for all populations in west-central Alberta. Ultimately, if caribou conservation is to succeed, management must reverse the ultimate causes shifting the balance of apparent competition at both broad and fine scales across woodland caribou range.
Download or read book Resource Selection by Animals written by B.F. Manly and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have written this book as a guide to the design and analysis of field studies of resource selection, concentrating primarily on statistical aspects of the comparison of the use and availability of resources of different types. Our intended audience is field ecologists in general and, in particular, wildlife and fisheries biologists who are attempting to measure the extent to which real animal populations are selective in their choice of food and habitat. As such, we have made no attempt to address those aspects of theoretical ecology that are concerned with how animals might choose their resources if they acted in an optimal manner. The book is based on the concept of a resource selection function (RSF), where this is a function of characteristics measured on resourceunits such that its value for a unit is proportional to the probability of that unit being used. We argue that this concept leads to a unified theory for the analysis and interpretation of data on resource selection and can replace many ad hoc statistical methods that have been used in the past.
Download or read book Advances in Ungulate Ecology written by R. Terry Bowyer and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2021-06-28 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Estimate of Relative Aesthetic Impact of Northwest Region Caribou Strategy on Remote Tourism written by Jennifer Line and published by [Thunder Bay] : Ontario, Northwest Science & Technology. This book was released on 1997 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Remote Tourism Decision Support System (RT-DSS) was used to explore how implementing the Northwest Region caribou strategy might affect remote tourism. The RT-DSS models the preference of remote fly-in outpost clients for a total of 25 variables."--Abstract.
Download or read book Linkages in the Landscape written by Andrew F. Bennett and published by IUCN. This book was released on 2003 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats is one of the major issues in wildlife management and conservation. Habitat "corridors" are sometimes proposed as an important element within a conservation strategy. Examples are given of corridors both as pathways and as habitats in their own right. Includes detailed reviews of principles relevant to the design and management of corridors, their place in regional approaches to conservation planning, and recommendations for research and management.
Download or read book Handbook of Causal Analysis for Social Research written by Stephen L. Morgan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-22 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What constitutes a causal explanation, and must an explanation be causal? What warrants a causal inference, as opposed to a descriptive regularity? What techniques are available to detect when causal effects are present, and when can these techniques be used to identify the relative importance of these effects? What complications do the interactions of individuals create for these techniques? When can mixed methods of analysis be used to deepen causal accounts? Must causal claims include generative mechanisms, and how effective are empirical methods designed to discover them? The Handbook of Causal Analysis for Social Research tackles these questions with nineteen chapters from leading scholars in sociology, statistics, public health, computer science, and human development.
Download or read book Towns Ecology and the Land written by Richard T. T. Forman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 637 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneering book highlighting the dynamic environmental dimensions of towns and villages and spatial connections with surrounding land.
Download or read book Assessing Cumulative Human Impacts on Northern Woodland Caribou with Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Resource Selection Functions written by Jean Lieppert Polfus and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are federally listed and declining across Canada because of the cumulative impacts of human infrastructure development. The Atlin northern mountain herd, in the territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN), British Columbia, is less affected by development than southern herds. However, recent low productivity in this herd suggests that the impacts of development (i.e., roads, mines, cabins and towns) may be accumulating. To predict the cumulative impact of human development on the Atlin herd, we developed seasonal resource selection functions (RSF) at 2 spatial scales with data from 10 global positioning system collared caribou. We modeled habitat selection and assessed cumulative effects by estimating the zone of influence (ZOI) around several types of human development. At the landscape and home range scale caribou avoided the ZOI and selected pine-lichen forests in winter and alpine habitats in summer. Approximately 8 and 2% of high quality habitat was lost due to avoidance of current development at the landscape scale in winter and summer, respectively. Future development of access roads to 2 mines would cause a further loss of 1% of high quality habitat. Negotiating the complex political dynamics that surround caribou conservation often requires new approaches to management and recovery planning. The incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) with Western science could improve efficiency of management decisions and enhance the validity and robustness of ecological inferences. Therefore, we evaluated how well RSF and TEK habitat models predicted current woodland caribou observations and compared the spatial predictions of both modeling approaches. Habitat suitability index models were generated from TEK interviews with TRTFN members. Though comparison of habitat ranks between the 2 models showed spatial discrepancies in some cases, overall, both approaches had high model performance and successfully predicted caribou occurrence. Our results suggest TEK can be used to identify caribou habitat and is a useful approach in northern ecosystems that frequently lack long-term ecological data that are needed to inform management decisions. Combining TEK-based habitat suitability index models with cumulative effects assessments will facilitate recovery goals for woodland caribou across northern Canada.
Download or read book Structured Decision Making written by Robin Gregory and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-03-19 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book outlines the creative process of making environmental management decisions using the approach called Structured Decision Making. It is a short introductory guide to this popular form of decision making and is aimed at environmental managers and scientists. This is a distinctly pragmatic label given to ways for helping individuals and groups think through tough multidimensional choices characterized by uncertain science, diverse stakeholders, and difficult tradeoffs. This is the everyday reality of environmental management, yet many important decisions currently are made on an ad hoc basis that lacks a solid value-based foundation, ignores key information, and results in selection of an inferior alternative. Making progress – in a way that is rigorous, inclusive, defensible and transparent – requires combining analytical methods drawn from the decision sciences and applied ecology with deliberative insights from cognitive psychology, facilitation and negotiation. The authors review key methods and discuss case-study examples based in their experiences in communities, boardrooms, and stakeholder meetings. The goal of this book is to lay out a compelling guide that will change how you think about making environmental decisions. Visit www.wiley.com/go/gregory/ to access the figures and tables from the book.
Download or read book Research Techniques in Animal Ecology written by Luigi Boitani and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2000-06-01 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present biodiversity crisis is rife with opportunities to make important conservation decisions; however, the misuse or misapplication of the methods and techniques of animal ecology can have serious consequences for the survival of species. Still, there have been relatively few critical reviews of methodology in the field. This book provides an analysis of some of the most frequently used research techniques in animal ecology, identifying their limitations and misuses, as well as possible solutions to avoid such pitfalls. In the process, contributors to this volume present new perspectives on the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. Research Techniques in Animal Ecology is an overarching account of central theoretical and methodological controversies in the field, rather than a handbook on the minutiae of techniques. The editors have forged comprehensive presentations of key topics in animal ecology, such as territory and home range estimates, habitation evaluation, population viability analysis, GIS mapping, and measuring the dynamics of societies. Striking a careful balance, each chapter begins by assessing the shortcomings and misapplications of the techniques in question, followed by a thorough review of the current literature, and concluding with possible solutions and suggested guidelines for more robust investigations.
Download or read book Forest Management Guidelines for the Conservation of Woodland Caribou written by Ontario. Ministry of Natural Resources and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Effects of Disturbance and Landscape Position on Vegetation Structure and Productivity in Ontario Boreal Forests written by Erin E. Mallon and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States written by U.S. Global Change Research Program and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-24 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summarizes the science of climate change and impacts on the United States, for the public and policymakers.
Download or read book Woodland Caribou Rangifer Tarandus Caribou in the Far North of Ontario written by Kenneth F. Abraham and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Far North Caribou Project (FNCP) was initiated in 2008 to support land use and resource planning in the Far North of Ontario using caribou knowledge derived from aerial and ground surveys, remote monitoring through the use of caribou tracked by satellite collars, and aboriginal traditional knowledge. The findings described in this report include: The distribution and movement patterns of caribou in the Far North, How Ontario managers might differentiate between the two boreal woodland caribou ecotypes and use this information to refine the current ecotype boundary, Population dynamics for caribou in the Far North, general habitat use patterns including apparent behaviours exhibited during the calving season, and Insight into caribou ecology and management"--Executive summary.
Download or read book Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources written by Carl J. Walters and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this classic text first published in 1986, Walters challenges the traditional approach to dealing with the management of such renewable resources as fish and wildlife. He argues that scientific understanding will come from the experience of management as an ongoing, adaptive, and experimental process.
