Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape
Citation: Raynor, E. J., Joern, A., Skibbe, A., Sowers, M., Briggs, J. M., Laws, A. N., & Goodin, D. (2017). Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape. Ecosphere, 8(1), 18. doi:10.1002/ecs2.1674 Land use, climate change, and their interaction each have great pot...
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ftkansassu:oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/38319 2023-05-15T18:49:30+02:00 Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape Raynor, E. J. Joern, Anthony Skibbe, A. Sowers, M. Briggs, John M. Laws, A. N. Goodin, Douglas G. ajoern Joern, Anthony 2017 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2097/38319 unknown https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1674 http://hdl.handle.net/2097/38319 Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-BY Behavioral Shifts Climatic Variability Drought Fire Frequency Grazing Systems Konza Prairie Biological Station Article 2017 ftkansassu https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1674 2022-03-05T18:31:28Z Citation: Raynor, E. J., Joern, A., Skibbe, A., Sowers, M., Briggs, J. M., Laws, A. N., & Goodin, D. (2017). Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape. Ecosphere, 8(1), 18. doi:10.1002/ecs2.1674 Land use, climate change, and their interaction each have great potential to affect grazing systems. With anticipated more frequent and extensive future drought, a more complete understanding of the mechanisms that determine large grazer landscape-level distribution under varying climatic conditions is integral to ecosystem management. Using an experimental setting with contrasting fire treatments, we describe the inter-annual variability of the effect of landscape topography and disturbance from prescribed spring fire on large grazer space use in years of variable resource availability. Using GPS telemetry, we investigated space use of plains bison (Bison bison bison) as they moved among watersheds managed with variable experimental burn treatments (1-, 2-, 4-, and 20-year burn intervals) during a seven-year period spanning years of average-to-above average forage production and severe drought. At the landscape scale, bison more strongly favored high-elevation and recently burned watersheds with watersheds burned for the first time in 2 or 4 yr consistently showing higher use relative to annually burned watersheds. In particular, watersheds burned for the first time in 4 yr were avoided to lesser extent than other more frequently burned watersheds during the dormant season. This management type also maintained coupling between bison space use and post-fire regrowth across post-drought growing season months, whereas watersheds with more frequent fire-return intervals attracted bison in only the first month post-fire. Hence, fire frequency played a role in maintaining the coupling of grazer and post-fire regrowth, the fire-grazer interaction, in response to drought-induced reduction in fuel loads. Moreover, bison avoided upland habitat in poor forage production years, when forage regrowth is less likely to occur in upland than in lowland habitats. Such quantified responses of bison to landscape features can aid future conservation management efforts and planning to sustain fire-grazer interactions and resulting spatial heterogeneity in grassland ecosystems. Article in Journal/Newspaper Bison bison bison Plains Bison Kansas State University: K-State Research Exchange (K-REx) Briggs ENVELOPE(-63.017,-63.017,-64.517,-64.517) Joern ENVELOPE(160.400,160.400,-72.583,-72.583) Ecosphere 8 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Kansas State University: K-State Research Exchange (K-REx) |
op_collection_id |
ftkansassu |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Behavioral Shifts Climatic Variability Drought Fire Frequency Grazing Systems Konza Prairie Biological Station |
spellingShingle |
Behavioral Shifts Climatic Variability Drought Fire Frequency Grazing Systems Konza Prairie Biological Station Raynor, E. J. Joern, Anthony Skibbe, A. Sowers, M. Briggs, John M. Laws, A. N. Goodin, Douglas G. Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape |
topic_facet |
Behavioral Shifts Climatic Variability Drought Fire Frequency Grazing Systems Konza Prairie Biological Station |
description |
Citation: Raynor, E. J., Joern, A., Skibbe, A., Sowers, M., Briggs, J. M., Laws, A. N., & Goodin, D. (2017). Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape. Ecosphere, 8(1), 18. doi:10.1002/ecs2.1674 Land use, climate change, and their interaction each have great potential to affect grazing systems. With anticipated more frequent and extensive future drought, a more complete understanding of the mechanisms that determine large grazer landscape-level distribution under varying climatic conditions is integral to ecosystem management. Using an experimental setting with contrasting fire treatments, we describe the inter-annual variability of the effect of landscape topography and disturbance from prescribed spring fire on large grazer space use in years of variable resource availability. Using GPS telemetry, we investigated space use of plains bison (Bison bison bison) as they moved among watersheds managed with variable experimental burn treatments (1-, 2-, 4-, and 20-year burn intervals) during a seven-year period spanning years of average-to-above average forage production and severe drought. At the landscape scale, bison more strongly favored high-elevation and recently burned watersheds with watersheds burned for the first time in 2 or 4 yr consistently showing higher use relative to annually burned watersheds. In particular, watersheds burned for the first time in 4 yr were avoided to lesser extent than other more frequently burned watersheds during the dormant season. This management type also maintained coupling between bison space use and post-fire regrowth across post-drought growing season months, whereas watersheds with more frequent fire-return intervals attracted bison in only the first month post-fire. Hence, fire frequency played a role in maintaining the coupling of grazer and post-fire regrowth, the fire-grazer interaction, in response to drought-induced reduction in fuel loads. Moreover, bison avoided upland habitat in poor forage production years, when forage regrowth is less likely to occur in upland than in lowland habitats. Such quantified responses of bison to landscape features can aid future conservation management efforts and planning to sustain fire-grazer interactions and resulting spatial heterogeneity in grassland ecosystems. |
author2 |
ajoern Joern, Anthony |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Raynor, E. J. Joern, Anthony Skibbe, A. Sowers, M. Briggs, John M. Laws, A. N. Goodin, Douglas G. |
author_facet |
Raynor, E. J. Joern, Anthony Skibbe, A. Sowers, M. Briggs, John M. Laws, A. N. Goodin, Douglas G. |
author_sort |
Raynor, E. J. |
title |
Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape |
title_short |
Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape |
title_full |
Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape |
title_fullStr |
Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape |
title_full_unstemmed |
Temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape |
title_sort |
temporal variability in large grazer space use in an experimental landscape |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2097/38319 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-63.017,-63.017,-64.517,-64.517) ENVELOPE(160.400,160.400,-72.583,-72.583) |
geographic |
Briggs Joern |
geographic_facet |
Briggs Joern |
genre |
Bison bison bison Plains Bison |
genre_facet |
Bison bison bison Plains Bison |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1674 http://hdl.handle.net/2097/38319 |
op_rights |
Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1674 |
container_title |
Ecosphere |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766243103144935424 |