Can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears?
Forest managers are increasingly considering historic patterns of natural forest disturbance as a model for forest harvesting and as a coarse-filter ecosystem management tool. We evaluated the long-term (100-year) persistence of a grizzly bear population in Alberta, Canada using forest simulations a...
Published in: | Biological Conservation |
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Language: | English |
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2008
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Online Access: | https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:331490 |
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ftunivqespace:oai:espace.library.uq.edu.au:UQ:331490 2023-05-15T18:42:12+02:00 Can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears? Nielsen, Scott E. Stenhouse, Gordon B. Beyer, Hawthorne L. Huettmann, Falk Boyce, Mark S. 2008-09-01 https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:331490 eng eng Elsevier doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.06.020 issn:0006-3207 issn:1873-2917 orcid:0000-0002-5430-0784 Habitat Persistence Population viability Ursus arctos 1105 Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 2309 Nature and Landscape Conservation Journal Article 2008 ftunivqespace https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.06.020 2020-08-18T01:33:40Z Forest managers are increasingly considering historic patterns of natural forest disturbance as a model for forest harvesting and as a coarse-filter ecosystem management tool. We evaluated the long-term (100-year) persistence of a grizzly bear population in Alberta, Canada using forest simulations and habitat modelling. Even with harvesting the same volume of timber, natural disturbance-based forestry resulted in a larger human footprint than traditional two-pass forestry with road densities reaching 1.39 km/km or more than three times baseline conditions and suggested maximum levels of security for grizzly bears. Because bears favour young forests and edges where food resources are plentiful, a future shift to young forests and more edge habitat resulted in a 20% projected increase in habitat quality and a 10% projected increase in potential carrying capacity. Human-caused mortality risk, however, offset any projected gains in habitat and carrying capacity resulting in the loss of all secure, unprotected territories, regardless of forest harvest method, within the first 20-30 years of simulation. We suggest that natural disturbance-based forestry is an ill-suited management tool for sustaining declining populations of grizzly bears. A management model that explicitly considers road access is more likely to improve grizzly bear population persistence than changing the size of clear-cuts. In fact, large clear cuts might be counter productive for bears since a diversity of habitats within each bear's home range is more likely to buffer against future uncertainties. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace Canada Biological Conservation 141 9 2193 2207 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftunivqespace |
language |
English |
topic |
Habitat Persistence Population viability Ursus arctos 1105 Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 2309 Nature and Landscape Conservation |
spellingShingle |
Habitat Persistence Population viability Ursus arctos 1105 Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 2309 Nature and Landscape Conservation Nielsen, Scott E. Stenhouse, Gordon B. Beyer, Hawthorne L. Huettmann, Falk Boyce, Mark S. Can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears? |
topic_facet |
Habitat Persistence Population viability Ursus arctos 1105 Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 2309 Nature and Landscape Conservation |
description |
Forest managers are increasingly considering historic patterns of natural forest disturbance as a model for forest harvesting and as a coarse-filter ecosystem management tool. We evaluated the long-term (100-year) persistence of a grizzly bear population in Alberta, Canada using forest simulations and habitat modelling. Even with harvesting the same volume of timber, natural disturbance-based forestry resulted in a larger human footprint than traditional two-pass forestry with road densities reaching 1.39 km/km or more than three times baseline conditions and suggested maximum levels of security for grizzly bears. Because bears favour young forests and edges where food resources are plentiful, a future shift to young forests and more edge habitat resulted in a 20% projected increase in habitat quality and a 10% projected increase in potential carrying capacity. Human-caused mortality risk, however, offset any projected gains in habitat and carrying capacity resulting in the loss of all secure, unprotected territories, regardless of forest harvest method, within the first 20-30 years of simulation. We suggest that natural disturbance-based forestry is an ill-suited management tool for sustaining declining populations of grizzly bears. A management model that explicitly considers road access is more likely to improve grizzly bear population persistence than changing the size of clear-cuts. In fact, large clear cuts might be counter productive for bears since a diversity of habitats within each bear's home range is more likely to buffer against future uncertainties. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nielsen, Scott E. Stenhouse, Gordon B. Beyer, Hawthorne L. Huettmann, Falk Boyce, Mark S. |
author_facet |
Nielsen, Scott E. Stenhouse, Gordon B. Beyer, Hawthorne L. Huettmann, Falk Boyce, Mark S. |
author_sort |
Nielsen, Scott E. |
title |
Can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears? |
title_short |
Can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears? |
title_full |
Can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears? |
title_fullStr |
Can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears? |
title_sort |
can natural disturbance-based forestry rescue a declining population of grizzly bears? |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:331490 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_relation |
doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.06.020 issn:0006-3207 issn:1873-2917 orcid:0000-0002-5430-0784 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.06.020 |
container_title |
Biological Conservation |
container_volume |
141 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
2193 |
op_container_end_page |
2207 |
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1766231813135532032 |