Winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior Alaska
The role of wildland fire in the winter habitat use of caribou (Rangifer tarandus) has long been debated. Fire has been viewed as detrimental to caribou because it destroys the slow-growing climax forage lichens that caribou utilize in winter. Other researchers argued that caribou were not reliant o...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z03-109 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z03-109 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/z03-109 2024-06-23T07:56:22+00:00 Winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior Alaska Joly, Kyle Dale, Bruce W Collins, William B Adams, Layne G 2003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z03-109 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z03-109 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 81, issue 7, page 1192-1201 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 journal-article 2003 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/z03-109 2024-06-06T04:11:16Z The role of wildland fire in the winter habitat use of caribou (Rangifer tarandus) has long been debated. Fire has been viewed as detrimental to caribou because it destroys the slow-growing climax forage lichens that caribou utilize in winter. Other researchers argued that caribou were not reliant on lichens and that fire may be beneficial, even in the short term. We evaluated the distribution of caribou relative to recent fires (<50 years old) within the current winter range of the Nelchina caribou herd in east-central Alaska. To address issues concerning independence and spatial and temporal scales, we used both conventional very high frequency and global positioning system telemetry to estimate caribou use relative to recent, known-aged burns. In addition, we used two methods to estimate availability of different habitat classes. Caribou used recently burned areas much less than expected, regardless of methodologies used. Moreover, within burns, caribou were more likely to use habitat within 500 m of the burn perimeter than core areas. Methods for determining use and availability did not have large influences on our measures of habitat selectivity. Article in Journal/Newspaper Rangifer tarandus Alaska Canadian Science Publishing Canadian Journal of Zoology 81 7 1192 1201 |
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Open Polar |
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Canadian Science Publishing |
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crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
The role of wildland fire in the winter habitat use of caribou (Rangifer tarandus) has long been debated. Fire has been viewed as detrimental to caribou because it destroys the slow-growing climax forage lichens that caribou utilize in winter. Other researchers argued that caribou were not reliant on lichens and that fire may be beneficial, even in the short term. We evaluated the distribution of caribou relative to recent fires (<50 years old) within the current winter range of the Nelchina caribou herd in east-central Alaska. To address issues concerning independence and spatial and temporal scales, we used both conventional very high frequency and global positioning system telemetry to estimate caribou use relative to recent, known-aged burns. In addition, we used two methods to estimate availability of different habitat classes. Caribou used recently burned areas much less than expected, regardless of methodologies used. Moreover, within burns, caribou were more likely to use habitat within 500 m of the burn perimeter than core areas. Methods for determining use and availability did not have large influences on our measures of habitat selectivity. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Joly, Kyle Dale, Bruce W Collins, William B Adams, Layne G |
spellingShingle |
Joly, Kyle Dale, Bruce W Collins, William B Adams, Layne G Winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior Alaska |
author_facet |
Joly, Kyle Dale, Bruce W Collins, William B Adams, Layne G |
author_sort |
Joly, Kyle |
title |
Winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior Alaska |
title_short |
Winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior Alaska |
title_full |
Winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior Alaska |
title_sort |
winter habitat use by female caribou in relation to wildland fires in interior alaska |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z03-109 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z03-109 |
genre |
Rangifer tarandus Alaska |
genre_facet |
Rangifer tarandus Alaska |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 81, issue 7, page 1192-1201 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/z03-109 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
81 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
1192 |
op_container_end_page |
1201 |
_version_ |
1802649405176676352 |