Population dynamics and critical habitat of woodland caribou in the boreal shield of Saskatchewan

萨斯喀彻温省北地盾林地驯鹿的种群动态和关键栖息地

• 批准号: 449509-2013
• 负责人: McLoughlin, Philip
• 金额: $ 24.96万
• 依托单位: University of Saskatchewan
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=597105
• 关键词: Population; dynamics; critical; habitat; woodland

Woodland caribou are classified as Threatened in the boreal forests of Canada. Caribou of the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield are faced with high levels of forest fire, but are exposed to some of the lowest levels of human activity in the country. They are also among the least studied of populations. In fact, the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield is the only one of 51 caribou ranges currently identified as data deficient by Environment Canada with respect to status, trend, and definition of critical habitat. Initiating research on this special population is of both provincial and national importance. In addition to providing perhaps our last opportunity to study the ecology of woodland caribou in a large, naturally regulated population (serving as a baseline reference for the rest of the country), uncertainty as to the local status of caribou has important implications for the people that live and work in Saskatchewan. In the absence of data, communities and companies of the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield face regulatory delays and costs to investment with respect to development, and little guidance as to how activities must be mitigated to allow for acceptable practices under the Species at Risk Act. Of particular concern are implications for developing access and infrastructure for northern communities and sustainably developing natural resources (especially mining gold and uranium; the latter occurs nowhere else in Canada and accounts for 17% of the world's production). Our proposed research is aimed at reducing uncertainty as to the status of caribou in a region fundamentally important to the Saskatchewan and Canadian economies while identifying novel means by which to define critical habitat for species. Our primary goals are to understand how caribou habitat and populations respond to conditions of high natural but low anthropogenic disturbance, and how we can define critical habitat by relating survival and reproduction of individual caribou to their unique experiences of the environment (including habitat, fire, predation risk). We present a 5-year plan founded in basic and applied ecology to study woodland caribou habitat in northern Saskatchewan, the population and behavioural ecology of caribou, and that of their natural predators (wolves and black bears).

在加拿大的北方森林，林地驯鹿被列为濒危物种。萨斯喀彻温北方盾地区的驯鹿面临着高度的森林火灾，但却暴露在该国一些最低水平的人类活动中。它们也是被研究最少的种群之一。事实上，萨斯喀彻温北方盾是目前加拿大环境部认定的51个北美驯鹿栖息地中唯一一个在现状、趋势和关键栖息地定义方面数据不足的地区。开展对这一特殊人群的研究具有全省乃至全国的重要意义。除了提供可能是我们最后的机会来研究林地驯鹿的生态，在一个大的，自然调节的种群（作为基准参考国家的其他地方），不确定的驯鹿在当地的地位对萨斯喀彻温省生活和工作的人有重要的影响。在缺乏数据的情况下，萨斯喀彻温省北方盾的社区和公司面临监管延误和开发方面的投资成本，并且关于如何减轻活动以允许《濒危物种法》下可接受的做法的指导很少。特别值得关注的是对发展北部社区的通道和基础设施以及可持续发展自然资源的影响（特别是开采黄金和铀；后者在加拿大其他地方没有，占世界产量的17%）。我们提出的研究旨在减少北美驯鹿在一个对萨斯喀彻温省和加拿大经济至关重要的地区地位的不确定性，同时确定新的方法来确定物种的关键栖息地。我们的主要目标是了解北美驯鹿的栖息地和种群是如何对高自然干扰、低人为干扰的条件做出反应的，以及我们如何通过将单个北美驯鹿的生存和繁殖与它们对环境的独特经历（包括栖息地、火灾、捕食风险）联系起来，来定义临界栖息地。我们提出了一个基于基础生态学和应用生态学的五年计划，以研究萨斯喀彻温省北部的林地驯鹿栖息地，驯鹿的种群和行为生态学，以及它们的天敌（狼和黑熊）。