Ecological Applications最新文献

{"title":"Wild herbivores and cattle have differing effects on postfire herbaceous vegetation recovery in an African savanna","authors":"Sherril P. Masudi,&nbsp;Wilfred O. Odadi,&nbsp;Duncan M. Kimuyu,&nbsp;Charles K. Gachuiri,&nbsp;Ryan L. Sensenig,&nbsp;Truman P. Young","doi":"10.1002/eap.2975","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2975","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Fire and herbivory have profound effects on vegetation in savanna ecosystems, but little is known about how different herbivore groups influence vegetation dynamics after fire. We assessed the separate and combined effects of herbivory by cattle and wild meso- and megaherbivores on postfire herbaceous vegetation cover, species richness, and species turnover in a savanna ecosystem in central Kenya. We measured these vegetation attributes for five sampling periods (from 2013 to 2017) in prescribed burns and unburned areas located within a series of replicated long-term herbivore exclosures that allow six different combinations of cattle and wild meso- and megaherbivores (elephants and giraffes). Vegetation cover (grasses, mainly) and species richness were initially reduced by burning but recovered by 15–27 months after fire, suggesting strong resilience to infrequent fire. However, the rates of recovery differed in plots accessible by different wild and domestic herbivore guilds. Wildlife (but not cattle) delayed postfire recovery of grasses, and the absence of wildlife (with or without cattle) delayed recovery of forbs. Herbivory by only cattle increased grass species richness in burned relative to unburned areas. Herbivory by cattle (with or without wildlife), however, reduced forb species richness in burned relative to unburned areas. Herbivory by wild ungulates (but not cattle) increased herbaceous species turnover in burned relative to unburned areas. Megaherbivores had negligible modifying effects on these results. This study demonstrates that savanna ecosystems are remarkably resilient to infrequent fires, but postfire grazing by cattle and wild mesoherbivores exerts different effects on recovery trajectories of herbaceous vegetation.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.2975","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140923777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-term frequent fire and cattle grazing alter dry forest understory vegetation","authors":"Becky K. Kerns,&nbsp;Michelle A. Day","doi":"10.1002/eap.2972","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2972","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding fire and large herbivore interactions in interior western forests is critical, owing to the extensive and widespread co-occurrence of these two disturbance types and multiple present and future implications for forest resilience, conservation and restoration. However, manipulative studies focused on interactions and outcomes associated with these two disturbances are rare in forested rangelands. We investigated understory vegetation response to 5-year spring and fall prescribed fire and domestic cattle grazing exclusion in ponderosa pine stands and reported long-term responses, almost two decades after the first entry fires. In fall burn areas open to cattle grazing, total understory cover prior to utilization was about 12% lower compared with fall burn areas where cattle were experimentally excluded. This response was not strongly driven by a particular palatable or unpalatable plant functional group. Fire and grazing are likely interacting in a numerically mediated process, as we found little evidence to support a functionally moderated pathway. Post-fire green-up may equalize forage to a certain extent and concentrate herbivores in the smaller burned areas within pastures, constraining a positive understory response to burning. Fall fire and grazing also increased annual forbs and resprouting shrubs. The effects of spring burning were relatively minor, and we found no interaction with grazing. The nonnative annual grass <i>Bromus tectorum</i> (cheatgrass) remains a problematic invader linked to fall burning but not grazing in stands that had higher propagule pressure when the experiment was initiated. At these sites, exotic grass was a major component of the vegetation by 2015, and invasion was also increasing in spring burn and unburned areas. Information from our study suggests that frequent fall fires and cattle grazing combined may reduce understory resilience in similar dry ponderosa pine forests. Consideration of longer fire return intervals, resting areas after fire, virtual fencing, or burning entire pastures may help to mitigate the effects noted in this study.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140946552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prairie restoration promotes the abundance and diversity of mutualistic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi","authors":"Kevin A. MacColl,&nbsp;Micaela Tosi,&nbsp;Pierre-Luc Chagnon,&nbsp;Andrew S. MacDougall,&nbsp;Kari E. Dunfield,&nbsp;Hafiz Maherali","doi":"10.1002/eap.2981","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2981","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Predicting how biological communities assemble in restored ecosystems can assist in conservation efforts, but most research has focused on plants, with relatively little attention paid to soil microbial organisms that plants interact with. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are an ecologically significant functional group of soil microbes that form mutualistic symbioses with plants and could therefore respond positively to plant community restoration. To evaluate the effects of plant community restoration on AM fungi, we compared AM fungal abundance, species richness, and community composition of five annually cultivated, conventionally managed agricultural fields with paired adjacent retired agricultural fields that had undergone prairie restoration 5–9 years prior to sampling. We hypothesized that restoration stimulates AM fungal abundance and species richness, particularly for disturbance-sensitive taxa, and that gains of new taxa would not displace AM fungal species present prior to restoration due to legacy effects. AM fungal abundance was quantified by measuring soil spore density and root colonization. AM fungal species richness and community composition were determined in soils and plant roots using DNA high-throughput sequencing. Soil spore density was 2.3 times higher in restored prairies compared to agricultural fields, but AM fungal root colonization did not differ between land use types. AM fungal species richness was 2.7 and 1.4 times higher in restored prairies versus agricultural fields for soil and roots, respectively. The abundance of Glomeraceae, a disturbance-tolerant family, decreased by 25% from agricultural to restored prairie soils but did not differ in plant roots. The abundance of Claroideoglomeraceae and Diversisporaceae, both disturbance-sensitive families, was 4.6 and 3.2 times higher in restored prairie versus agricultural soils, respectively. Species turnover was higher than expected relative to a null model, indicating that AM fungal species were gained by replacement. Our findings demonstrate that restoration can promote a relatively rapid increase in the abundance and diversity of soil microbial communities that had been degraded by decades of intensive land use, and community compositional change can be predicted by the disturbance tolerance of soil microbial taxonomic and functional groups.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.2981","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140913415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Secondary production of the central rangeland region of the United States","authors":"Edward J. Raynor,&nbsp;Justin D. Derner,&nbsp;Melannie D. Hartman,&nbsp;Christopher D. Dorich,&nbsp;William J. Parton,&nbsp;John R. Hendrickson,&nbsp;Keith R. Harmoney,&nbsp;Jameson R. Brennan,&nbsp;Clenton E. Owensby,&nbsp;Nicole E. Kaplan,&nbsp;Susan M. Lutz,&nbsp;David L. Hoover,&nbsp;David J. Augustine","doi":"10.1002/eap.2978","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2978","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Rangelands are the dominant land use across a broad swath of central North America where they span a wide gradient, from &lt;350 to &gt;900 mm, in mean annual precipitation. Substantial efforts have examined temporal and spatial variation in aboveground net primary production (ANPP) to precipitation (PPT) across this gradient. In contrast, net secondary productivity (NSP, e.g., primary consumer production) has not been evaluated analogously. However, livestock production, which is a form of NSP or primary consumer production supported by primary production, is the dominant non-cultivated land use and an integral economic driver in these regions. Here, we used long-term (mean length = 19 years) ANPP and NSP data from six research sites across the Central Great Plains with a history of a conservative stocking to determine resource (i.e., PPT)–productivity relationships, NSP sensitivities to dry-year precipitation, and regional trophic efficiencies (e.g., NSP:ANPP ratio). PPT–ANPP relationships were linear for both temporal (site-based) and spatial (among site) gradients. The spatial PPT–NSP model revealed that PPT mediated a saturating relationship for NSP as sites became more mesic, a finding that contrasts with many plant-based PPT–ANPP relationships. A saturating response to high growing-season precipitation suggests biogeochemical rather than vegetation growth constraints may govern NSP (i.e., large herbivore production). Differential sensitivity in NSP to dry years demonstrated that the primary consumer production response heightened as sites became more xeric. Although sensitivity generally decreased with increasing precipitation as predicted from known PPT–ANPP relationships, evidence suggests that the dominant species' identity and traits influenced secondary production efficiency. Non-native northern mixed-grass prairie was outperformed by native Central Great Plains rangeland in sensitivity to dry years and efficiency in converting ANPP to NSP. A more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms leading to differences in producer and consumer responses will require multisite experiments to assess biotic and abiotic determinants of multi-trophic level efficiency and sensitivity.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.2978","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140900433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Land-use homogenization reduces the occurrence and diversity of frugivorous birds in a tropical biodiversity hotspot","authors":"Fernando César Gonçalves Bonfim,&nbsp;Mauro Galetti,&nbsp;Maíra Benchimol,&nbsp;José Carlos Morante-Filho,&nbsp;Marcelo Magioli,&nbsp;Eliana Cazetta","doi":"10.1002/eap.2980","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2980","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding how human-modified landscapes maintain biodiversity and provide ecosystem services is crucial for establishing conservation practices. Given that responses to land-use are species-specific, it is crucial to understand how land-use changes may shape patterns of species diversity and persistence in human-modified landscapes. Here, we used a comprehensive data set on bird distribution from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest to understand how species richness and individual occurrences of frugivorous bird species responded to land-use spatial predictors and, subsequently, assess how ecological traits and phylogeny modulated these responses. Using Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we reveal that the richness of frugivorous birds was positively associated with the amount of native forest and negatively with both agriculture and pasture amount at the landscape scale. Conversely, the effect of these predictors on species occurrence and ecological traits was highly variable and presented a weak phylogenetic signal. Furthermore, land-use homogenization (i.e., the conversion of forest to pasture or agriculture) led to pervasive consequences for forest-dependent bird species, whereas several generalist species thrived in deforested areas, replacing those sensitive to habitat disturbances.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140900432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ecological and anthropogenic drivers of waterfowl productivity are synchronous across species, space, and time","authors":"Mitch D. Weegman,&nbsp;James H. Devries,&nbsp;Robert G. Clark,&nbsp;David W. Howerter,&nbsp;Daniel Gibson,&nbsp;J. Patrick Donnelly,&nbsp;Todd W. Arnold","doi":"10.1002/eap.2979","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2979","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Knowledge of interspecific and spatiotemporal variation in demography–environment relationships is key for understanding the population dynamics of sympatric species and developing multispecies conservation strategies. We used hierarchical random-effects models to examine interspecific and spatial variation in annual productivity in six migratory ducks (i.e., American wigeon [<i>Mareca americana</i>], blue-winged teal [<i>Spatula discors</i>], gadwall [<i>Mareca strepera</i>], green-winged teal [<i>Anas crecca</i>], mallard [<i>Anas platyrhynchos</i>] and northern pintail [<i>Anas acuta</i>]) across six distinct ecostrata in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America. We tested whether breeding habitat conditions (seasonal pond counts, agricultural intensification, and grassland acreage) or cross-seasonal effects (indexed by flooded rice acreage in primary wintering areas) better explained variation in the proportion of juveniles captured during late summer banding. The proportion of juveniles (i.e., productivity) was highly variable within species and ecostrata throughout 1961–2019 and generally declined through time in blue-winged teal, gadwall, mallard, pintail, and wigeon, but there was no support for a trend in green-winged teal. Productivity in Canadian ecostrata declined with increasing agricultural intensification and increased with increasing pond counts. We also found a strong cross-seasonal effect, whereby more flooded rice hectares during winter resulted in higher subsequent productivity. Our results suggest highly consistent environmental and anthropogenic effects on waterfowl productivity across species and space. Our study advances our understanding of current year and cross-seasonal effects on duck productivity across a suite of species and at finer spatial scales, which could help managers better target working-lands conservation programs on both breeding and wintering areas. We encourage other researchers to evaluate environmental drivers of population dynamics among species in a single modeling framework for a deeper understanding of whether conservation plans should be generalized or customized given limited financial resources.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140861659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Combining mesocosms with models reveals effects of global warming and ocean acidification on a temperate marine ecosystem","authors":"Hadayet Ullah,&nbsp;Damien A. Fordham,&nbsp;Silvan U. Goldenberg,&nbsp;Ivan Nagelkerken","doi":"10.1002/eap.2977","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2977","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ocean warming and species exploitation have already caused large-scale reorganization of biological communities across the world. Accurate projections of future biodiversity change require a comprehensive understanding of how entire communities respond to global change. We combined a time-dynamic integrated food web modeling approach (Ecosim) with previous data from community-level mesocosm experiments to determine the independent and combined effects of ocean warming, ocean acidification and fisheries exploitation on a well-managed temperate coastal ecosystem. The mesocosm parameters enabled important physiological and behavioral responses to climate stressors to be projected for trophic levels ranging from primary producers to top predators, including sharks. Through model simulations, we show that under sustainable rates of fisheries exploitation, near-future warming or ocean acidification in isolation could benefit species biomass at higher trophic levels (e.g., mammals, birds, and demersal finfish) in their current climate ranges, with the exception of small pelagic fishes. However, under warming and acidification combined, biomass increases at higher trophic levels will be lower or absent, while in the longer term reduced productivity of prey species is unlikely to support the increased biomass at the top of the food web. We also show that increases in exploitation will suppress any positive effects of human-driven climate change, causing individual species biomass to decrease at higher trophic levels. Nevertheless, total future potential biomass of some fisheries species in temperate areas might remain high, particularly under acidification, because unharvested opportunistic species will likely benefit from decreased competition and show an increase in biomass. Ecological indicators of species composition such as the Shannon diversity index decline under all climate change scenarios, suggesting a trade-off between biomass gain and functional diversity. By coupling parameters from multilevel mesocosm food web experiments with dynamic food web models, we were able to simulate the generative mechanisms that drive complex responses of temperate marine ecosystems to global change. This approach, which blends theory with experimental data, provides new prospects for forecasting climate-driven biodiversity change and its effects on ecosystem processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.2977","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140845777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Allometric relationships and trade-offs in 11 common Mediterranean-climate grasses","authors":"Xiulin Gao,&nbsp;Charles D. Koven,&nbsp;Lara M. Kueppers","doi":"10.1002/eap.2976","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2976","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biomass allocation in plants is the foundation for understanding dynamics in ecosystem carbon balance, species competition, and plant–environment interactions. However, existing work on plant allometry has mainly focused on trees, with fewer studies having developed allometric equations for grasses. Grasses with different life histories can vary in their carbon investment by prioritizing the growth of specific organs to survive, outcompete co-occurring plants, and ensure population persistence. Further, because grasses are important fuels for wildfire, the lack of grass allocation data adds uncertainty to process-based models that relate plant physiology to wildfire dynamics. To fill this gap, we conducted a greenhouse experiment with 11 common California grasses varying in photosynthetic pathway and growth form. We measured plant sizes and harvested above- and belowground biomass throughout the life cycle of annual species, while for the establishment stage of perennial grasses to quantify allometric relationships for leaf, stem, and root biomass, as well as plant height and canopy area. We used basal diameter as a reference measure of plant size. Overall, basal diameter is the best predictor for leaf and stem biomass, height, and canopy area. Including height as another predictor can improve model accuracy in predicting leaf and stem biomass and canopy area. Fine root biomass is a function of leaf biomass alone. Species vary in their allometric relationships, with most variation occurring for plant height, canopy area, and stem biomass. We further explored potential trade-offs in biomass allocation across species between leaf and fine root, leaf and stem, and allocation to reproduction. Consistent with our expectation, we found that fast-growing plants allocated a greater fraction to reproduction. Additionally, plant height and specific leaf area negatively influenced the leaf-to-stem ratio. However, contrary to our hypothesis, there were no differences in root-to-leaf ratio between perennial and annual or C₄ and C₃ plants. Our study provides species-specific and functional-type-specific allometry equations for both above- and belowground organs of 11 common California grass species, enabling nondestructive biomass assessment in California grasslands. These allometric relationships and trade-offs in carbon allocation across species can improve ecosystem model predictions of grassland species interactions and environmental responses through differences in morphology.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.2976","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140817585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Misapplied management makes matters worse: Spatially explicit control leverages biotic interactions to slow invasion","authors":"Emily Howerton,&nbsp;Tracy Langkilde,&nbsp;Katriona Shea","doi":"10.1002/eap.2974","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2974","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A wide range of approaches has been used to manage the spread of invasive species, yet invaders continue to be a challenge to control. In some cases, management actions have no effect or may even inadvertently benefit the targeted invader. Here, we use the mid-20th century management of the Red Imported Fire Ant, <i>Solenopsis invicta</i>, in the US as a motivating case study to explore the conditions under which such wasted management effort may occur. Introduced in approximately 1940, the fire ant spread widely through the southeast US and became a problematic pest. Historically, fire ants were managed with broad-spectrum pesticides; unfortunately, these efforts were largely unsuccessful. One hypothesis suggests that, by also killing native ants, mass pesticide application reduced competitive burdens thereby enabling fire ants to invade more quickly than they would in the absence of management. We use a mechanistic competition model to demonstrate the landscape-level effects of such management. We explicitly model the extent and location of pesticide applications, showing that the same pesticide application can have a positive, neutral, or negative effect on the progress of an invasion, depending on where it is applied on the landscape with respect to the invasion front. When designing management, the target species is often considered alone; however, this work suggests that leveraging existing biotic interactions, specifically competition with native species, can increase the efficacy of management. Our model not only highlights the potential unintended consequences of ignoring biotic interactions, but also provides a framework for developing spatially explicit management strategies that take advantage of these biotic interactions to work smarter, not harder.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.2974","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140634043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effectiveness of population-based recovery actions for threatened southern mountain caribou","authors":"Clayton T. Lamb,&nbsp;Sara Williams,&nbsp;Stan Boutin,&nbsp;Michael Bridger,&nbsp;Deborah Cichowski,&nbsp;Kristina Cornhill,&nbsp;Craig DeMars,&nbsp;Melanie Dickie,&nbsp;Bevan Ernst,&nbsp;Adam Ford,&nbsp;Michael P. Gillingham,&nbsp;Laura Greene,&nbsp;Douglas C. Heard,&nbsp;Mark Hebblewhite,&nbsp;Dave Hervieux,&nbsp;Mike Klaczek,&nbsp;Bruce N. McLellan,&nbsp;R. Scott McNay,&nbsp;Lalenia Neufeld,&nbsp;Barry Nobert,&nbsp;J. Joshua Nowak,&nbsp;Agnès Pelletier,&nbsp;Aaron Reid,&nbsp;Anne-Marie Roberts,&nbsp;Mike Russell,&nbsp;Dale Seip,&nbsp;Caroline Seip,&nbsp;Carolyn Shores,&nbsp;Robin Steenweg,&nbsp;Shane White,&nbsp;Heiko U. Wittmer,&nbsp;Mark Wong,&nbsp;Kathryn L. Zimmerman,&nbsp;Robert Serrouya","doi":"10.1002/eap.2965","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.2965","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Habitat loss is affecting many species, including the southern mountain caribou (<i>Rangifer tarandus caribou</i>) population in western North America. Over the last half century, this threatened caribou population's range and abundance have dramatically contracted. An integrated population model was used to analyze 51 years (1973–2023) of demographic data from 40 southern mountain caribou subpopulations to assess the effectiveness of population-based recovery actions at increasing population growth. Reducing potential limiting factors on threatened caribou populations offered a rare opportunity to identify the causes of decline and assess methods of recovery. Southern mountain caribou abundance declined by 51% between 1991 and 2023, and 37% of subpopulations were functionally extirpated. Wolf reduction was the only recovery action that consistently increased population growth when applied in isolation, and combinations of wolf reductions with maternal penning or supplemental feeding provided rapid growth but were applied to only four subpopulations. As of 2023, recovery actions have increased the abundance of southern mountain caribou by 52%, compared to a simulation with no interventions. When predation pressure was reduced, rapid population growth was observed, even under contemporary climate change and high levels of habitat loss. Unless predation is reduced, caribou subpopulations will continue to be extirpated well before habitat conservation and restoration can become effective.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.2965","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140607610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}