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.

人与野生动植物之间的冲突正在增加。 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植物种群进入人类社区附近的地区； （2）导致某些物种种群爆炸的顶级捕食者的丧失； （3）人口不断增长。 外部郊区的增长被定义为每个建筑物的5到40英亩的低密度发展，是物理和社会景观变化的催化剂。 然而，很少有研究将外市发展与人类野生动物相互作用的增加联系在一起。 该博士学位论文研究项目的目的是探索外部发展，人类野生动物互动和保护态度之间的关系。 该项目将重点关注纽约州北部和阿迪朗达克公园公共和私人拥有的600万英亩土地。 方法将包括对现有数据的空间分析以及分发给四个研究社区的一组土地所有者的自我管理邮件问卷，以及在过去三年中报告人与人之间相互作用的研究社区中的所有居民。 前几年的3,900个映射野生动植物投诉的分布将与其他数据集进行空间分析，包括森林覆盖，道路和住房密度，以确定外城景观特征是否是人类野生动物相互作用的有用预测指标。 这些调查将获取与人口统计学，野生动植物的经验以及对栖息地和野生动植物保护的态度有关的信息，从而可以在有和没有报告的野生动植物投诉的居民之间进行比较。 博士候选人将分析调查结果，以评估最有用的人口统计学特征和态度，以预测人类野生动植物的互动是否被认为是正面的还是负面的，并确定对人野生动植物相互作用的看法与对更广泛的野生动植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，以证明外部发展，人类野生动植物相互作用和保护态度之间的关系。这项研究项目将通过空间整合土地使用，人口统计学，人口统计学和态度信息来提高对人类野生动植物相互作用的基本了解。 该研究的结果将对野生动植物管理者，土地利用计划者和保护从业人员有用，他们通常都必须解决这些复杂问题。 野生动植物经理可能会为特定领域和/或容易发生人类野生动植物相互作用的人开发针对性的信息。 土地利用计划者可以使用这些信息来证明土地使用决策如何影响人类野生动物的互动。 保护从业人员可以使用有关哪些核心特征影响对人类野生动物相互作用的看法以及对保护自然资源和土地用途的其他态度的信息，以建立强大的选区。 如果这项研究开发的模型可以成功预测人类野生动植物的相互作用，则可以在发生快速发展的地方应用这种方法，并且必须预料和最小化野生动植物的滋扰和损害问题。 作为博士学位论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立强大的独立研究职业。