Understanding and tracking landscape change and animal health for effective management and conservation of species at risk

资源管理者必须了解人为造成的景观变化对野生动物种群的影响，以便做出有关资源利用和保护的明智决策。该研究项目将确定艾伯塔省和邻近灰熊栖息地的景观结构和变化与灰熊种群健康之间的关系，以便为景观管理提供信息并使其成为可能。我们的工作假设是，景观变化对灰熊种群的负面影响主要是由于熊个体长期的生理压力造成的。了解潜在的机制对于资源管理者确保濒危物种的保护至关重要。我们的研究目标是：(1)加强监测景观结构的地理空间工具，特别强调检测可能对灰熊造成不利健康影响的变化；(2)开发一种检测灰熊长期生理压力的技术；(3)确定长期生理压力与灰熊其他健康指标（寿命、生长、繁殖、免疫和活动）之间的关系；(4)建立灰熊个体健康状况与其栖息地内景观结构和变化之间的联系。将开发将景观结构与灰熊的发生和健康联系起来的详细地图。结合景观变化影响的预测模型，这些地图将使工业界和政府的资源管理者更好地了解灰熊的健康和资源选择以及灰熊对人类活动的反应，以便实施适当的土地管理决策。虽然本研究集中于单一物种及其生存环境，但其研究意义和应用范围更为广泛。我们正在开创一种评估和监测景观变化对野生动物种群健康影响的新方法。该方法和开发的工具都有望在未来应用于其他濒危物种，更广泛地说，可以更好地保护野生动物种群。

Resource managers must understand the impacts of human-caused landscape change on wildlife populations in order to make informed decisions concerning resource utilization and conservation. This research project will determine relationships between landscape structure and change and the health of grizzly bear populations in Alberta and contiguous grizzly bear habitat areas to inform and enable management of the landscape. Our working hypothesis is that negative effects of landscape change on grizzly bear populations arise largely as a consequence of long-term physiological stress in individual bears. Understanding the underlying mechanisms is critical for resource managers to ensure the conservation of this species at risk. Our research objectives are to: (1) enhance geospatial tools for the monitoring of landscape structure with particular emphasis on detecting changes likely to cause adverse health effects to resident grizzly bears, (2) develop a technique for detecting long-term physiological stress in grizzly bears, (3) determine relationships between long-term physiological stress and other measures of health (longevity, growth, reproduction, immunity, and activity) in grizzly bears, and (4) establish linkages between the health profiles of individual grizzly bears and the landscape structure and change within their home ranges along a gradient of human use. Detailed maps linking landscape structure with grizzly bear occurrence and health will be developed. Combined with predictive models of the effects of landscape change, these maps will provide resource managers, both in industry and government, with a better understanding of grizzly bear health and resource selection and grizzly bear response to human activities in order to implement appropriate land management decision-making. Although the proposed research concentrates on a single species and its environment, the significance and application of the research is much broader. We are pioneering a new approach to evaluating and monitoring the effects of landscape change on wildlife population health. Both the approach and the tools to be developed hold promise for future application to other species at risk and, more generally, better conservation of wildlife populations.