Habitat Ecology

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Habitat Ecology
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Outline

• Objectives of Habitat Management
• Why food is important to animals
• Food Constituents
• Variation and Food Supply
• Measuring Food Supply
• Habitat Selection
• Habitat Management

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Habitat

• Resources and conditions present in an area that
  produce occupancy, including survival and
  reproduction, by a given organism
• Species-specific
• Food
• Cover
• Water
• Special (e.g., migration routes)

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Objectives for managing habitat

• Conserve threatened or endanger species
• Support a population for continued harvest
• Control pest populations
• Restrict food
• To manage food we need to understand the
  nutritional requirements of animals

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Why is food important to animals

• Energy
• Fuel for metabolic processes
• Heat
• Mechanical (Activity)
• Minimum/Maintenance energy is Basal Metabolic
  Rate (BMR)
• Measured in calories or joules
• Energy of food measured through combustion
• Bomb calorimeter

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BMR and Body Size

• BMR 70 Weight 0.75
• Increase in BMR is not proportional to weight
• Largely because of the relationship between
  volume (4/3p) and surface area (4pr2)
• Volume Area 0.67
• BMR can be changed through inactivity
• Torpor, hibernation

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Activity Affects BMR

• Locomotion
• LC 31.1W0.34
• Ex Flight costs 3-12x BMR
• Stage of life-cycle
• Breeding or not breeding

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Energy Varies Among Food Types
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Food Constituents

• Protein
• Cells walls, enzymes, lipoproteins
• Meat and legumes
• Essential Amino Acids
• Carbohydrates
• Metabolized Fast if needed
• Cellulose, starches, and sugars
• Lignin which animal eats lignin

• Fats
• Highest Energy
• Not easily metabolized
• Stored or Excreted

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Nutrients

• Minerals (lt5 of body Weight)
• Macro and micronutrients
• E.g., Zinc, Iron, Flouride
• Calcium
• Bones and and egg shells
• Sodium
• Mineral Licks

• Vitamins
• Fat Soluble
• Stored
• A,D,E, and K
• Water Solubale
• Must be constantly available
• B-Complex and C
• May not be available in all diets
• Pure agricultural

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Water

• Major component of the body
• Free external
• Preformed food
• Metabolic from oxidation of organic compounds

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Variation in Food Supply

• Seasonally
• Herbivores highest food availability during
  plant growth
• Switch from grazing to browsing
• Move or migrate to find food
• Timing of reproduction
• Annually
• Seed crop mast
• Red Squirrels/White Spruce Mast
• Carnivores Hare and Lynx
• Quality and Quantity varies because of plant
  secondary compounds
• Managed

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Measuring Food Supply

• Direct
• Survey of available prey for Carnivores and
  Insectivores
• Plots for herbivores
• Can we actually measure available?
• Indirect
• Behavioral observations
• Determine composition of food consumed
• Feces

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Measuring Food Supply

• Indices of Body Condition
• Body Weight
• Depends on structural size
• Blood Indices
• Proximate Analysis
• Bump and Grind

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Habitat Selection

• Scale Dependent
• First Order Geographic Range of the Species
• Second Order Home Range
• Area needed to meet requirements
• Third Order Use of habitats within the home
  range
• Fourth Order - Mechanisms for third order
  selection
• E.g., How food is procured

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Range of 3 Species of Mergansers
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Habitat Selection

• Use vs. Availability (3rd order)
• Can be useful for targeting management
• Difficult to measure availability
• Preference or avoidance indicates that the
  habitat is not used in proportion to its
  availability
• Does not tell us condition of animals using those
  habitats

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Figure 3.1. Land-cover classes on the coastal
plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
Alaska, and eastward into the Yukon Territory,
Canada, as generalized for studies of the
Porcupine caribou herd. Classes are based on
Jorgensen et al. (1994) as depicted in Fig. 2.1
and are expanded to include Canada using a
Canadian Wildlife Service Landsat-derived
vegetation map of the Northern Yukon. Classes on
this map and their corresponding classes in
Jorgensen et al. (1994) include Wet Graminoid
(WG, WGM, some PV), Moist Sedge (MSW, MS, MSD),
Herbaceous Tussock Tundra (TT, SP), Shrub Tussock
Tundra (STT), Alpine (ST, AT, some PV), Riparian
(RS, DT, some PV), and Non-vegetated (BA, IC, WA,
SH).
Figure 3.2. For the Porcupine caribou herd
annual range (wide white solid line), calving
sites (yellow points), and aggregate extent of
calving (thin solid yellow line), 1983-2001. For
the Central Arctic caribou herd aggregate extent
of calving (thin solid white line) and calving
sites (white points), 1980-1995. (Adapted from
Wolfe 2000).
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Habitat Management

• Broad Habitat Types
• Water
• Wetlands, lakes, and rivers
• Soils
• Farmlands
• Rangelands
• Forest
• Parks and Refuges
• Urban

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Water

• Essential for life
• Providing water in arid environments
• Guzzlers and stock ponds
• Beneficial or Detrimental
• Waterfowl essential for breeding
• Conserve wetlands, not lakes
• Winter mortality in high snowfall years
• Maintain habitats used to escape winter
  conditions
• Water depth management is a method to alter
  aquatic plant communities
• Beaver ponds
• Water can easily transport pollutants
• Protect watersheds
• Manage Dams
• Reduce natural fluctuations and nutrient cycling
• Restrict passage

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Soils

• Vegetation is link between soil and wildlife, but
  soils can also directly affect wildlife
• Soil texture tunneling animals
• Soil nutrients directly affect wildlife
  populations
• Fertilization
• Wildlife also affect soils and thus vegetation
• Adding organic matter
• Mixing soils
• Enhancing erosion

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Farmlands

• Consumption of standing crop and waste grain
• Dangerous with increased harvest efficiency?
• 1985 Food Security Act
• Swampbuster and sodbuster provisions
• CRP and WRP
• Managing to reduce water and wind erosion
• Protect soils
• Reduce wetland quality
• Shelterbelts
• Positive and Negative
• Conservation Tillage
• Reduce chemical use

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Rangeland

• 47 of worlds land area
• Grassland Management
• Grasses withstand grazing because growing point
  at or below ground level
• Some levels of grazing stimulate growth
• Managing grasslands
• Mechanical
• Chemical
• Fire
• Overgrazing and Competition by Livestock
• Rotational Grazing
• Protection of Riparian Habitats
• Fences as barriers to wildlife
• Game Ranching

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Forests

• Multiple-Use Sustained Yield
• Early Successional to Old Growth
• Old Growth more important for wildlife than
  previously thought
• Fire Management
• Suppression and Fire Intensity
• Prescribed Fire

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Parks and Refuges

• Parks
• Preservation of nature for recreation and nature
• Range of recreational activities possible
• Natural
• May include active habitat/animal management
• National and State Wildlife Refuges
• NWR since 1903, 525 refuges today
• Wildlife Conservation and Management Paramount
• Includes hunting and other recreational
  activities
• Grazing, boating, and other compatible
  activities remain secondary

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Urban Wildlife