Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Exurban Frontier: Predicting Human-Wildlife Interactions and Conservation Attitudes Where People Live, Work, and Play

博士论文研究：远郊边境：预测人们生活、工作和娱乐的人类与野生动物的相互作用和保护态度

• 批准号: 0525391
• 负责人: Barbara Knuth
• 金额: $ 1.12万
• 依托单位: Cornell Univ - State: AWDS MADE PRIOR MAY 2010
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2007-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0525391&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Exurban; Frontier

Conflicts between humans and wildlife are increasing. Reasons for this increase include (1) landscape changes leading to habitat loss, habitat recovery, and movements of wildlife populations into areas near human communities; (2) loss of top predators resulting in explosions of some species populations; and (3) a continuously growing human population. Exurban growth, defined as low-density developments ranging from 5 to 40 acres per building, acts as a catalyst for physical and social landscape change. Little research has specifically connected exurban development to increases in human-wildlife interactions, however. The purpose of this doctoral dissertation research project is to explore the relationships among exurban development, human-wildlife interactions, and conservation attitudes. This project will focus on northern New York State and the six million acre publicly and privately owned lands of the Adirondack Park. Methods will include spatial analysis of existing data and a self-administered mail questionnaire distributed to a random set of landowners in four study communities and to all residents within the study communities reporting human-wildlife interactions during the previous three years. The distribution of 3,900 mapped wildlife complaints from prior years will be spatially analyzed with other data sets including forest cover, roads, and housing densities to determine whether exurban landscape characteristics are useful predictors of human-wildlife interactions. The surveys will elicit information related to demographics, experience with wildlife, and attitudes towards habitat and wildlife conservation, allowing for comparisons between residents with and without reported wildlife complaints. The doctoral candidate will analyze the survey results to assess the most useful demographic characteristics and attitudes for predicting whether a human-wildlife interaction is perceived as positive or negative and to determine the relationships between perceptions of human-wildlife interactions and support for broader wildlife and land conservation practices. Spatial statistics and logistic regression will be used to test hypotheses and build predictive models that demonstrate the relationships among exurban development, human-wildlife interactions, and conservation attitudes.This research project will advance basic understanding of human-wildlife interactions by spatially integrating land-use, demographic, and attitudinal information. Results of the study will be useful for wildlife managers, land-use planners, and conservation practitioners, all of whom often must address these complex issues. Wildlife managers may develop targeted messages for specific areas and/or types of people prone to human-wildlife interactions. Land-use planners may use the information to demonstrate how land use decisions can influence human-wildlife interactions. Conservation practitioners can use information regarding what core characteristics influence perceptions of human-wildlife interactions and other attitudes toward conservation of natural resources and land use to build a strong constituency. If models developed from this research can successfully predict human-wildlife interactions, this approach may be applied in places where rapid development is occurring and emerging wildlife nuisance and damage issues must be anticipated and minimized. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

人类与野生动物之间的冲突日益加剧。 这种增加的原因包括（1）景观变化导致栖息地丧失、栖息地恢复以及野生动物种群向人类社区附近地区的迁移； (2) 顶级捕食者的丧失导致某些物种种群数量激增； (3)人口不断增长。 远郊增长被定义为每栋建筑 5 至 40 英亩的低密度开发，是物理和社会景观变化的催化剂。 然而，很少有研究专门将远郊发展与人类与野生动物互动的增加联系起来。 本博士论文研究项目的目的是探索远郊发展、人类与野生动物相互作用和保护态度之间的关系。 该项目将重点关注纽约州北部以及阿迪朗达克公园 600 万英亩的公有和私有土地。 方法将包括对现有数据的空间分析和自我管理的邮件调查问卷，分发给四个研究社区的随机土地所有者以及研究社区内报告过去三年人类与野生动物相互作用的所有居民。 前几年绘制的 3,900 份野生动物投诉地图分布将与其他数据集（包括森林覆盖、道路和住房密度）进行空间分析，以确定远郊景观特征是否是人类与野生动物相互作用的有用预测因子。 调查将获取与人口统计、野生动物经历以及对栖息地和野生动物保护的态度有关的信息，从而可以对有和没有报告野生动物投诉的居民进行比较。 博士生将分析调查结果，评估最有用的人口特征和态度，以预测人类与野生动物的相互作用是积极的还是消极的，并确定人类与野生动物相互作用的看法与对更广泛的野生动物和土地保护实践的支持之间的关系。 空间统计和逻辑回归将用于检验假设并建立预测模型，以证明远郊发展、人类与野生动物相互作用和保护态度之间的关系。该研究项目将通过空间整合土地利用、人口和态度信息来增进对人类与野生动物相互作用的基本理解。 该研究的结果将对野生动物管理者、土地利用规划者和保护从业者有用，他们所有人都经常必须解决这些复杂的问题。 野生动物管理者可以针对容易发生人类与野生动物互动的特定区域和/或人群制定有针对性的信息。 土地利用规划者可以利用这些信息来展示土地利用决策如何影响人类与野生动物的相互作用。 保护从业者可以利用有关哪些核心特征影响对人类与野生动物相互作用的看法以及对自然资源保护和土地利用的其他态度的信息来建立强大的支持者。 如果根据这项研究开发的模型能够成功预测人类与野生动物的相互作用，那么这种方法可以应用于快速发展的地方，并且必须预测并尽量减少新出现的野生动物滋扰和损害问题。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。