Effects of growth rate, size, and light availability on tree survival across life stages: a demographic analysis accounting for missing values and small sample sizes.

The data set supporting the results of this article is available in the Dryad repository, http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6f4qs. Moustakas, A. and Evans, M. R. (2015) Effects of growth rate, size, and light availability on tree survival across life stages: a demographic analysis accounting for missing values.Plant survival is a key factor in forest dynamics and survival probabilities often vary across life stages. Studies specifically aimed at assessing tree survival are unusual and so data initially designed for other purposes often need to be used; such data are more likely to contain errors than data collected for this specific purpose

Forest Fire Monitoring

Thousands of hectares around the globe destroyed by forest fires every year causing tragic loss of houses, properties, lives, fauna and flora. Forest fires are a great menace to ecologically healthy grown forests and protection of the environment. This problem has been the research interest for years, and there are a number of solutions available to resolve this problem. In this chapter, a summary is given for all the technologies that have been used for forest fire detection with explanation of what parameters these systems looking for to understand the fire behaviour

Fire, humans, and climate: modeling distribution dynamics of boreal forest waterbirds

Understanding the effects of landscape change and environmental variability on ecological processes is important for evaluating resource management policies, such as the emulation of natural forest disturbances. We analyzed time-series of detection/nondetection data using hierarchical models in a Bayesian multi-model inference framework to decompose the dynamics of species distributions into responses to environmental variability, spatial variation in habitat conditions, and population dynamics and interspecific interactions, while correcting for observation errors and variation in sampling regimes. We modeled distribution dynamics of 14 waterbird species (broadly defined, including wetland and riparian species) using data from two different breeding bird surveys collected in the Boreal Shield ecozone within Ontario, Canada. Temporal variation in species occupancy (2000 - 2006) was primarily driven by climatic variability. Only two species showed evidence of consistent temporal trends in distribution: ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris) decreased and red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) increased. The models had good predictive ability on independent data over time (1997 - 1999). Spatial variation in species occupancy was strongly related to the distribution of specific land cover types and habitat disturbance: fire and forest harvesting influenced occupancy more than did roads, settlements or mines. Bioclimatic and habitat heterogeneity indices and geographic coordinates exerted negligible influence on most species distributions. Estimated habitat suitability indices had good predictive ability on spatially independent data (Hudson Bay Lowlands ecozone). Additionally, we detected effects of interspecific interactions. Species responses to fire and forest harvesting were similar for 13 of 14 species; thus, forest harvesting practices in Ontario generally appeared to emulate the effects of fire for waterbirds over time scales of 10-20 years. Extrapolating to all 84 waterbird species breeding on the Ontario shield, however, suggested that up to 30 species may instead have altered (short-term) distribution dynamics due to forestry practices. Hence, natural disturbances are critical components of the ecology of the boreal forest and forest practices which aim to approximate them may succeed in allowing the maintenance of the associated species, but improved monitoring and modeling of large-scale boreal forest bird distribution dynamics is necessary to resolve existing uncertainties, especially on less-common species

Ecological and social consequences of collaborative bison reintroduction in the western U.S.

2018 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Collaborative conservation has been underway for centuries in diverse communities across the globe. More recently, collaborative groups of private and public land managers have coalesced around common natural resource objectives in the United States. This dissertation advances the science and practice of collaborative conservation through a literature review and two highly collaborative projects on bison reintroduction in the western United States. My specific objectives are: 1) To evaluate the status and impact of collaborative conservation groups in the United States; 2) To assess the ecological consequences of bison reintroduction for birds, mammals, and plants in Colorado's shortgrass prairie; 3) To understand how bison reintroduction affects human connections to grassland landscapes; and 4) To compare the effects of bison and cattle grazing on birds and plants in Colorado and New Mexico. To evaluate the status of U.S.-based collaborative conservation groups, I conducted a literature review to identify what factors motivate group formation, and to quantify biophysical, social, and economic goals, actions to achieve those goals and outcomes, and how outcomes were assessed. I also characterized the geographic distribution, participants and funding sources of U.S.-based collaborative conservation groups. To accomplish these objectives, I searched for peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and reports in online databases, resulting in 174 papers that described 257 collaborative conservation groups in all 50 states. Overall, information on outcomes and how groups assessed outcomes was sparse. For those groups with published outcomes, most outcomes had positive results for biophysical, social, and economic goals. To assess the ecological consequences of species reintroduction and how reintroductions may catalyze public engagement in grassland conservation, I assessed both the ecological and social effects of bison reintroduction to northern Colorado. Specifically, I explored the effect of bison reintroduction on: 1) bird density and habitat use, 2) mammal habitat use, 3) vegetation composition and structure, and 4) human connections (place attachment) to a shortgrass prairie. To measure ecological responses, I surveyed birds, mammals, and plants before and after bison reintroduction. To understand how bison shape visitor connections to grasslands, I gave structured surveys to people who visited the site before and after bison reintroduction. I found few short-term effects of bison on grassland birds, mammals, and plants. However, I measured a significant increase in place attachment to the grassland site post reintroduction. These results suggest that bison reintroduction does not have strong, short-term ecological effects, but does have immediate, positive benefits for connecting people to ecosystems. I recommend that future projects prioritize monitoring ecological and social outcomes to advance the science and practice of bison reintroduction. To understand whether non-native species can serve as proxies for extinct or rare native species, I evaluated the role of bison and cattle grazing in shaping habitat for grassland birds and plants. To compare ecological responses, I surveyed birds and plants between bison, cattle, and reference sites in Colorado and New Mexico. While I found few differences in plant height and cover among bison, cattle, and reference sites, I did find significant differences in bird densities among the sites. In both Colorado and New Mexico, some grassland obligate birds preferred bison sites, while others preferred cattle sites. Bison and cattle may serve as reciprocal ecological surrogates in cases where they have similar densities on the landscape, where cattle graze on a rotational system. Overall, my dissertation demonstrates that collaborative conservation often achieves success, but these outcomes are not always assessed or reported. I also show that a highly collaborative bison reintroduction effort in Colorado had few ecological effects in the short-term, but did help connect people to a grassland landscape. In addition, my study found that collaboratively managed bison and cattle herds in Colorado and New Mexico create viable habitat for obligate grassland birds

Influence of territorial variables on the performance of wildfire detection systems in the Iberian Peninsula

This article belongs to the Special issue: Fire use policies and practices in Europe: solving the Fire ParadoxWildfire detection systems planning is an essential component of national and regional wildfire management policies. The common resources usually used in wildfire detection are lookout towers, terrestrial mobile brigades, aerial reconnaissance and the general public. The objectives of this paper are (i) to analyse the relative importance of the different detection systems in Portugal and Spain, according to their spatial and temporal patterns, (ii) to assess the territorial variables related to the performance of fire detection systems in the Iberian Peninsula, and (iii) to develop an explanatory model aiming to inform fire detection policies. Pursuing this aim, a common wildfire and territorial database for the whole Iberian Peninsula was developed, thus enabling common cartographic and statistical analyses. Results show the importance of land cover variables and population density on the proportion of fire detections made by the different systems in both countries. Despite certain national specificities, many common features were found, allowing the identification of general patterns of fire detection distribution and performance for the Iberian Peninsula. Models developed at the regional and sub-regional levels indicate that high population density and high proportion of forestlands are associated with higher proportion of detection by population, whereas higher proportion of shrublands corresponds to higher proportions of detections by other systems, particularly lookout towers. The conclusions obtained and the approaches applied could be used with similar objectives in other countries and regions to inform policy decisions regarding the allocation of resources for wildfire detection