Greater Sage-Grouse and Severe Winter Conditions: Identifying Habitat for Conservation |
| |
| Authors: | Matthew R Dzialak Stephen L Webb Seth M Harju Chad V Olson Jeffrey B Winstead Larry D Hayden-Wing |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Wildlife Ecologist, Hayden-Wing Associates LLC, Natural Resource Consultants, Laramie, WY 82070, USA;2. Quantitative Ecologist, Hayden-Wing Associates LLC, Natural Resource Consultants, Laramie, WY 82070, USA;3. Wildlife Biologist/Biometrician, Hayden-Wing Associates LLC, Natural Resource Consultants, Laramie, WY 82070, USA;4. Wildlife Biologist, Hayden-Wing Associates LLC, Natural Resource Consultants, Laramie, WY 82070, USA;5. Principle Biologist, Hayden-Wing Associates LLC, Natural Resource Consultants, Laramie, WY 82070, USA;6. Retired, Hayden-Wing Associates LLC, Natural Resource Consultants, Laramie, WY 82070, USA;1. PhD, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA;2. Professor, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA;3. Executive Director, Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA;1. Habitat Coordinator, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Ephraim, UT 84627, USA;2. Professor, Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA.;1. Research Ecologist, US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Reno, NV 89509, USA;2. Sagebrush Ecosystem Specialist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Redmond, OR 97756, USA;3. Research Ecologist, US Geological Survey, Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA;5. Rangeland Ecologist, USDI Bureau of Land Management, Boise, ID 83709, USA;6. Presidential Management Fellow, US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Regional Office, Golden, CO 80401, USA;1. Authors are from Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1136, USA;2. Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Boise, ID 83712 USA;3. Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Moscow, ID 83843, USA;4. Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1133, USA;5. Department of Statistical Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844-1104 USA. |
| |
| Abstract: | Developing sustainable rangeland management strategies requires solution-driven research that addresses ecological issues within the context of regionally important socioeconomic concerns. A key sustainability issue in many regions of the world is conserving habitat that buffers animal populations from climatic variability, including seasonal deviation from long-term precipitation or temperature averages, and that can establish an ecological bottleneck by which the landscape-level availability of critical resources becomes limited. We integrated methods to collect landscape-level animal occurrence data during severe winter conditions with estimation and validation of a resource selection function, with the larger goal of developing spatially explicit guidance for rangeland habitat conservation. The investigation involved greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) that occupy a landscape that is undergoing human modification for development of energy resources. We refined spatial predictions by exploring how reductions in the availability of sagebrush (as a consequence of increasing snow depth) may affect patterns of predicted occurrence. Occurrence of sage-grouse reflected landscape-level selection for big sagebrush, taller shrubs, and favorable thermal conditions and avoidance of bare ground and anthropogenic features. Refinement of spatial predictions showed that important severe winter habitat was distributed patchily and was constrained in spatial extent (7–18% of the landscape). The mapping tools we developed offer spatially explicit guidance for planning human activity in ways that are compatible with sustaining habitat that functions disproportionately in population persistence relative to its spatial extent or frequency of use. Increasingly, place-based, quantitative investigations that aim to develop solutions to landscape sustainability issues will be needed to keep pace with human-modification of rangeland and uncertainty associated with global climate change and its effects on animal populations. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
