ANNOUNCEMENTS

INTRO MYSELF

Hours T,W 9-11

WHO IS IN?!

Reading material

Required

1. Your reading packet- available in bookstore

2. Materials on reserve

BRING OVERHEAD MATERIALS TO CLASS (LAST 12 PAGES)

Supplemental

3. Books on reserve

Morrison et al. 1992. Wildlife-habitat relationships

Noss and Cooperrider. 1995. Saving nature's legacy.

Verner, et al. 1986. Wildlife 2000.

5. Other material mentioned in lecture and overheads

Guidelines for readings

READ MATERIAL BEFORE YOU COME TO CLASS

Labs

All labs will be held regardless of weather conditions.

A schedule for lab topics is given in your syllabus.

Please check your syllabus to find out where to meet and what we will be doing each week.

Field Trip

We have field trip scheduled for 7-9 February to the Galbreath Ranch. The trip is mandatory.

The exact times are yet to be decided.

Grading

There will be 2 midterm exams 100 pts. and a final exam (150 pts). There will be two written assignments in lab (25 pts ea), data from the field trip (25 ots), one lab project (100 pts), and a verbal summary of the lab project (25 pts). Thus, 550 points will be possible.

Letter grades will be assigned following a general distribution of >92.5% = A, 92.5-90 = A-, 90-87.5 = B+ 87.5-82.5 = B, 82.5-80= B-, same for C, 60% =D, <60% = F.

Plusses and minuses will be given. I may curve the distribution.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the ecology and management of upland habitats.

Reading

Vankat 1979

Morrison et al. 3-15

Course objectives and goals.

My intent is to offer you "tools" for finding answers to habitat management questions, rather than giving you hard-fast rules.

What am I referring to when I say "tools"?

Primarily fundamental concepts that you can use to address a variety of situations.

Every situation you will be faced with will be different; either because of changes in habitats, species or management objectives.

Thus, it will be more useful for you to have general ideas that you can mold into effective strategies once a given situation or objective is stated.

I could go through and describe each vegetation type you might encounter, expressing the habitat requirements of each related species and ask you to memorize and then regurgitate this information on an exam.

This would make you a walking data base! There are 48 vegetation types in the Cal WHR system and 116 (in the Kucher system) nationwide. We would have to go through 4 types per lecture just to get through the NA veg types!

Problems

1. Unlikely to retain the information

2. Cannot cover all situations

3. We do not have all the information ==> INFORMATION DATED

I'm not going to take this approach.

Lecture schedule

OVERHEAD

Introduction- Quick overview of upland habitat types of North America.

Introduce various wildlife habitat problems rather than teach you about each type.

Follows van Kat

Main body of lectures divided into 3 parts, roughly corresponding with the 3 Exams.

First segment - theoretical considerations in habitat selection. Questions:

What is Habitat?

Why and How is it important to Wildlife?

What is basis of habitat selection?

How scale effects analysis of wildlife-habitat data.

Second segment focuses on landscape level effects on wildlife and concepts of reserve design.

For example:

What determines the number of species in an area?

How does fragmentation affect the distribution and abundance of species?

How can we manage landscapes to ensure we maintain the maximum number of species ?

Third segment will focus on habitat models and management.

How can we classify models, what should we include in models and what drawbacks do current models have?

What should we be managing for; single species, endangered species, indicator species, guilds, communities, ecosystems, species richness, biodiversity?

Additional questions might include:

How can we apply our knowledge of wildlife habitat relationships to help make management decisions?

How can we use management to increase our understanding of wildlife-habitat relationships?

By the end of the course I hope you will have enough tools to:

1. evaluate wildlife habitat studies and

2. design approaches to answering habitat management questions.

Wildlife habitat management may sound straight forward objective.

But - very complicated, many uncertainties, few predictable results and I offer a quote by Engler to think about:

"Ecosystems are not only more complex than we think, they are more complex than we can think"

Thus, many of the habitat management problems you may face as professionals will require innovative thinking rather than application of dogma.

Brief overview of the kinds of habitats we will consider

When I use the term "habitat" here I use it very loosely refering to the types of vegetation associations we will be talking about in the course

Next time will discuss definitions of "habitat"

VEGETATION TYPES

Classification of vegetation is controversial and some believe that there are an infinite variety of vegetation types.

We must recognize that these are artificial classifications

However, it is useful to categorize vegetation so we can talk about it without using involved descriptions

Also, From a management standpoint similar vegetation often requires similar management actions for particular species

When describing vegetation there is a hierarchy of classification similar to the hierarchy in classification of species

Hierarchy -local to regional, small scale to large scale

Stand- actual examples of homogenous vegetation

ex) second growth redwood stand in Arcata community forest with homogenous overstory and understory

ex) clearcut within forest of similar age

Series- similar composition and structure of dominants and subdominants (understory). Understory species can be very important for wildlife.

ex) Redwood/swordfern series- stands dominated by redwood with swordfern understory

ex) Redwood/oxalis series

Association- groups of compositionally and structurally similar series. Usually defined by dominant overstory vegetation

Level that Calif WHR uses for describing habitat (48 in California WHR)

ex) ponderosa pine association- in drier areas of the Siera Nevada

ex) Mixed conifer- 3 types in CA

ex) coastal oak woodland- on tops of ridges and S facing slopes east of here

Formation- groups of associations dominated by the same growth form and climate but may differ in composition (Vankat lists 9 in NA)

ex) temperate rainforest of the northwest US

ex) temperate grasslands

Similar to Biome but biome includes both plants and animals
 
 

Definition of Upland habitats

How do we distinguish upland habitats from wetland habitats?

The easiest way to define uplands is to define wetlands and then call everything that is not a wetland, uplands.

Wetland- "lands where saturation by water is the dominant factor determining the nature of the soil development and the types of plant and animal communities living in the soil and on its surface" Cowardin 1979

"soil or substrate that is at least periodically covered by water"

OVERHEADS OF HABITAT TYPES FROM COWARDIN 1979

Basically everything that does not have ducks on it is upland habitats.
 
 

Biomes/Formations of North America

1.Temperate rain forest- Pacific coast of NA from northern California to S. Alaska

-abundant rain in winter, cool (foggy) summers

-tallest trees in the world (some Eucalypt forests in Australia reach similar heights)

-low diversity of plants and animals relative to tropical rain forests

SLIDE 1- VIEW OVER CANOPY

SLIDE 2- REDWOODS IN ARCATA COMMUNITY FOREST

SLIDE 3- LOGS PILED UP

SLIDE 4- CLEARCUT

SLIDE 5- THIS LEADS TO FRAGMENTATION

SLIDE 6- CAUSES PROBLEMS FOR SPECIES WITH LARGE AREA REQUIREMENTS

LIKE THE SPOTTED OWL

PROBLEMS

loss of oldgrowth and forest species that depend on oldgrowth
 
 

2. Temperate deciduous forest- Eastern US from Gulf coast to Canada

-moderately humid temperate zone climate

-summer rainfall and cold winters

-broadleaf deciduous trees

-animal life abundant but strongly seasonal

SLIDE 7-OVENBIRD

PROBLEMS

-old gowth gone

-fragmentation of second growth is severe

-much has been converted to ag and urban uses => permanent

-pesticides

-migrants landbirds declining

-acid rain

-introduced disease (Dutch elm, chestnut blight)

3. Temperate evergreen forests- western US in continental climates where soil and fire favor pines over broadleaf trees. Summers often are hot and dry winters cold and wet.

Forest of most of the western mountain regions- much of it is public land

SLIDE 8- PONDEROSA PINE

SLIDE 9- FIRE IN YELLOWSTONE

SLIDE 10- SUPRESSION CAN ALSO CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR WILDLIFE

EX) BIGHORN IN CO

SLIDE 11- INVASION OF WHITE FIR

PROBLEMS

-fire supression- has reduced diversity of successional stages in landscape

-fragmentation becoming a problem

-large areas still intact (Yellowstone) but even these are too small for some top carnivores

4. Taiga- subarctic/subalpine, cold edge of forest range

-dominated by spruce and fir

-still largely intact

SLIDE 12- TIAGA IN BROOKS RANGE OF AK

SLIDE 13- PIPELINE -OIL EXTRACTION CAUSING PROBLEMS FOR CARIBOU
 
 

5. Temperate woodlands- open canopy, winter or summer precip. drier than temperate evergreen forests

- pinyon-juniper (extensive), oak woodlands

SLIDE 14- PJ

SLIDE 15- OAK WOODLAND

PROBLEMS

-grazing

-conversition to agriculture (especially oak woodlands in CA)

6. Temperate shrublands- mediterranean climates (s facing slopes here)

-fire very important in maintaining these systems

SLIDE 16- chapparal in Arizona

PROBLEMS

-Habitat conversion, fragmentation in S CA,fire supression

7. Temperate grasslands- Great plains, low rainfall

-high plant diversity in some locations

-very limited vertical profile => low bird and mammal diversity

SLIDE 17- MIXED GRASS PRAIRIE

SLIDE 18- GRAZING- BOUNDARY OF CANYONLANDS

PROBLEMS- conversion, fragmentation, grazing, invasion of exotics, tall grass priarie threatened

8. Arctic alpine- tops of tall mtns in lower 48, N of forest in Alaska and Canada. No trees, low species diversity

-North slope in AK still largely intact but it is being encroached upon

-best protected habitat in the US and the world

SLIDE 19- SIERRA

SLIDE 20- WHITE MTNS

9. Desert- less than 10 inches of rain/yr

Warm temperate- Chihuan and Sonoran

SLIDE 21- SONORAN

SLIDE 22- TORTOISE

Cold temperate- sagebrush/greasewood

SLIDE 21- SAGE

SLIDE 22- COWS

PROBLEMS- grazing, exotics, fire
 
 

10. Riparian Habitat- vegetation along streams, lakes, and rivers dominated by trees or shrubs that are dependent on the availability of water. Usually very linear in form.

ex) Cottonwood forests along rivers in central valley

ex) willow thickets along rivers in this area

-high species diversity

-high productivity

-very vulnerable to changes in water regime

-dams, diversions, and cattle grazing have had profound impacts on this vegetation type