1,721,101 research outputs found
Large-scale animal ecology and management: integrating large GPS-telemetry datasets across multiple animal populations
Full text linkThe development of GPS-collars for large and medium sized animals over the last decades opened up many new possibilities to study these animals. One of the main advantages of this technology is the possibility to remotely collect large sets of standardized localizations, using short-time intervals without disturbing the animal, facilitating the possibility to localize animals 24/24 hours. Especially the standardized nature of GPS datasets have naturally lead to the ability to aggregate data over multiple populations to address both fundamental and applied questions in animal ecology. In particular, location datasets can be enriched by other sources of information of the ecological process, at the individual (e.g., survival), population (e.g., density) or landscape level (e.g., environmental covariates).
However the large amount of data also poses new challenges for treating and analyzing these datasets. Given the fact that many researchers all over the world are facing this same challenge opens up a unique possibility to work together and look for common solutions for these problems using and developing open-source software applications.
The collaboration on the use of GPS-data by researchers all over Europe working on roe deer (EURODEER, www.eurodeer.org) showed such fantastic opportunities in practice; ; by integrating GPS-telemetry data in one big standardized database, including many metadata, and linking them to habitat data, large scale analysis over gradients from north to south and east to west Europe became possible and previous impossible research questions are now being investigated.
During the workshop we will start our exploration of future possibilities for collaboration and research by presenting two cases of the use of multi-population, large scale datasets of GPS-telemetry and other individual based data from two different continents; EURODEER (given by Francesca Cagnacci) and two North American examples (given by Mark Hebblewhite). Inspired by these presentations we would like to discuss the following topics:
• is there the interest to broaden the Eurodeer experience to other species ?
• is this technically demanding?
• are there barriers to collaborating across projects and countries?
• what urgent management issues and ecological questions can be best addressed at larger spatial scales than traditional localized studies
Y2Y Peace-Breaks steering committee: The Challenge of Woodland Caribou Conservation in the Canadian Rockies
No full textMovement, migration and ecological plasticity in deer species: facts and consequences in a changing European landscape
Full text linkModeling relationships between fire, caribou, wolves, elk and moose to aid prescribed fire and caribou recovery in the Canadian Rocky Mountain National Parks
No full textRevisiting extinction in national parks: Mountain caribou in banff
No full textNo abstract available for this articl
Migration plasticity in ungulates: will it translate in resilience to global change?
Full text linkMigration is an important component of ungulate behavioural tactics that is
tightly linked both to population distribution and to the function ungulates exert in
ecosystems. The migration rate of several species has been observed to decrease, and
climate change and anthropic pressure have been indicated as potential driving causes.
The loss of migratory behaviour in ungulates could have paramount consequences on
the ecosystems that encompass their seasonal ranges, on the one side, and affect
population dynamics on the other.This talk has two main goals: first, to re-establish the
link between migratory behaviour and emerging movement patterns, in ungulates; then,
to assess the causes – or determinants- of migration by looking at multi-population
movement datasets of large herbivores in temperate climates, specifically the European
roe deer Capreolus capreolus and red deer Cervus elaphus. The analysis of movement
trajectories through different methods allowed us to identify inconsistencies in the
classification of migratory behaviour at individual level that we attributed to individual
plasticity. We thus acknowledged the emergence of movement patterns other than
residence and stereotyped migration, and expressed them through ‘indexes of
migratoriness’. Finally, we have linked intrinsic factors (sex) and extrinsic conditions
(e.g. topography, seasonality, canopy closure, plant productivity/NDVI) to parameters
describing migration plasticity, i.e. migration propensity, distance and timing. We have
found a strong relation between migration variability and sex-related and
species-related life history traits. Thus, climate and landscape change might affect
migratory behaviour of populations and species through complex responses. This talk
will stimulate the discussion whether new knowledge on ungulate migratory behaviour
should suggest management and conservation actions to favour and maintain migration
in ungulate populations, or if instead should be used to acknowledge the change in
movement patterns as a form of reversible adaptive behaviour, impossible to control
Modeling relationships between fire, caribou, wolves, elk and moose to aid prescribed fire and caribou recovery in the Canadian rocky mountain national parks
No full textRestoration of genetic connectivity among Northern Rockies wolf populations
No full textProbably no conservation genetics issue is currently more controversial than the question of whether grey wolves (Canis lupus) in the Northern Rockies have recovered to genetically effective levels. Following the dispersal-based recolonization of Northwestern Montana from Canada, and reintroductions to Yellowstone and Central Idaho, wolves have vastly exceeded population recovery goals of 300 wolves distributed in at least 10 breeding pairs in each of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. With >1700 wolves currently, efforts to delist wolves from endangered status have become mired in legal battles over the distinct population segment (DPS) clause of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and whether subpopulations within the DPS were genetically isolated. An earlier study by vonHoldt (2008) suggested Yellowstone National Park wolves were indeed isolated and was used against delisting in 2008. Since then, wolves were temporarily delisted, and a first controversial hunting season occurred in fall of 2009. Yet, concerns over the genetic recovery of wolves in the Northern Rockies remain, and upcoming District court rulings in the summer of 2010 will probably include consideration of gene flow between subpopulations. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, vonHoldt (2010) conduct the largest analysis of gene flow and population structure of the Northern Rockies wolves to date. Using an impressive sampling design and novel analytic methods, vonHoldt (2010) show substantial levels of gene flow between three identified subpopulations of wolves within the Northern Rockies, clarifying previous analyses and convincingly showing genetic recovery. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Generating scale-integrated predictions from multi scale resource selection functions: an example with woodland caribou in Alberta
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