Conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach
The fragmentation and loss of old-growth forest has led to the decline of many forest-dwelling species that depend on old-growth forest as habitat. Emblematic of this issue in many areas of the managed boreal forest in Canada is the threatened woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 178...
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 2023-12-17T10:49:08+01:00 Conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach Ruppert, Jonathan L.W. Fortin, Marie-Josée Gunn, Eldon A. Martell, David L. 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Forest Research volume 46, issue 7, page 914-923 ISSN 0045-5067 1208-6037 Ecology Forestry Global and Planetary Change journal-article 2016 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 2023-11-19T13:38:42Z The fragmentation and loss of old-growth forest has led to the decline of many forest-dwelling species that depend on old-growth forest as habitat. Emblematic of this issue in many areas of the managed boreal forest in Canada is the threatened woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788)). We develop a methodology to help determine when and how timber can be harvested to best satisfy both industrial timber supply and woodland caribou habitat requirements. To start, we use least-cost paths based on graph theory to determine the configuration of woodland caribou preferred habitat patches. We then developed a heuristic procedure to schedule timber harvesting based on a trade-off between merchantable wood volume and the remaining amount of habitat and its connectivity during a planning cycle. Our heuristic can attain 84% of the potential woodland caribou habitat that would be available in the absence of harvesting at the end of a 100 year planning horizon. Interestingly, this is more than that which is attained by the current plan (50%) and a harvesting plan that targets high volume stands (32%). Our results indicate that our heuristic procedure (i.e., an ecologically tuned optimization approach) may better direct industrial activities to improve old-growth habitat while maintaining specified timber production levels. Article in Journal/Newspaper Rangifer tarandus Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) Canada Canadian Journal of Forest Research 46 7 914 923 |
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Open Polar |
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Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology Forestry Global and Planetary Change |
spellingShingle |
Ecology Forestry Global and Planetary Change Ruppert, Jonathan L.W. Fortin, Marie-Josée Gunn, Eldon A. Martell, David L. Conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach |
topic_facet |
Ecology Forestry Global and Planetary Change |
description |
The fragmentation and loss of old-growth forest has led to the decline of many forest-dwelling species that depend on old-growth forest as habitat. Emblematic of this issue in many areas of the managed boreal forest in Canada is the threatened woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788)). We develop a methodology to help determine when and how timber can be harvested to best satisfy both industrial timber supply and woodland caribou habitat requirements. To start, we use least-cost paths based on graph theory to determine the configuration of woodland caribou preferred habitat patches. We then developed a heuristic procedure to schedule timber harvesting based on a trade-off between merchantable wood volume and the remaining amount of habitat and its connectivity during a planning cycle. Our heuristic can attain 84% of the potential woodland caribou habitat that would be available in the absence of harvesting at the end of a 100 year planning horizon. Interestingly, this is more than that which is attained by the current plan (50%) and a harvesting plan that targets high volume stands (32%). Our results indicate that our heuristic procedure (i.e., an ecologically tuned optimization approach) may better direct industrial activities to improve old-growth habitat while maintaining specified timber production levels. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ruppert, Jonathan L.W. Fortin, Marie-Josée Gunn, Eldon A. Martell, David L. |
author_facet |
Ruppert, Jonathan L.W. Fortin, Marie-Josée Gunn, Eldon A. Martell, David L. |
author_sort |
Ruppert, Jonathan L.W. |
title |
Conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach |
title_short |
Conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach |
title_full |
Conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach |
title_fullStr |
Conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach |
title_full_unstemmed |
Conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach |
title_sort |
conserving woodland caribou habitat while maintaining timber yield: a graph theory approach |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Rangifer tarandus |
genre_facet |
Rangifer tarandus |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Forest Research volume 46, issue 7, page 914-923 ISSN 0045-5067 1208-6037 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2015-0431 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Forest Research |
container_volume |
46 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
914 |
op_container_end_page |
923 |
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1785573510858407936 |