Spatial and Temporal Variability Influences on Ecology and Conservation

气候变化的后果之一是极端天气事件的频率增加。此外，随着道路、能源走廊、农业、城市化和工业发展，人类继续碎片化和改变景观。综合起来，这些时间和空间变异性的变化对生态有复杂的影响，包括对保护的几个后果，例如，空间结构的捕食者-猎物相互作用，通过更好的对冲来降低风险，个体之间的饮食差异(达尔文关于物种起源的最后一段后面的“纠结的浅滩”)，以及收获和捕食的季节性变化与密度依赖相互作用，形成最佳的收获(“九头蛇效应”)。我建议进行三项实地研究，以开发时间波动和空间生态之间的界面的这些应用：(1)在觅食过程中的个体和空间差异，它抑制了黑(Ursus Americanus)和灰熊(U Arctos)适合度的年际变化；(2)麋鹿(Cervus Elaffus)的个性决定了应该如何管理收获；(3)捕食和猎人的收获影响了大角羊(Ovis Canamsis)对密度的依赖反应。我们拟议的灰熊和黑熊研究应用了基于无线电遥测的栖息地选择，以及最近从橡胶树收集的毛发样本的DNA。我们建议使用栖息地选择方法在空间环境中改进对熊种群的标记-重新捕获估计。阿尔伯塔省西南部熊的种群结构表明，由于与农业的冲突，熊的源汇平衡，但食物可获得性的时间和空间变化使情况变得复杂。我们对麋鹿的长期研究是基于对该物种进行的有史以来最大的无线电遥测研究之一，在过去8年中，在阿尔伯塔省西南部的季节性范围内积累了超过100万个GPS定位。我们将运动模型与栖息地选择相结合，得到了综合的阶跃选择分析(ISSA)，使我们能够分析麋鹿在栖息地背景下的运动模式。艾伯塔省环境和公园部计划在我们的研究区域实施一项关于麋鹿收获规定的试验性变化，在那里我们将记录麋鹿的人口统计和行为反应。最后，我们正在启动一项新的美洲狮(美洲狮)捕食和猎人收获大角羊的实验研究。我们已经有了大量关于美洲狮的无线电遥测数据，艾伯塔省环境和公园将在随机选择的野生动物管理单位上实施延长的美洲狮季节，旨在减少对被猎杀的大角兽种群的捕食。遥测、标记再捕获和我们的新ISSA工具使我们能够以新颖的方式将空间生态学与种群生物学结合起来，并直接应用于保护生物学和野生动物管理。

One of the consequences of climate change has been increasing frequency of extreme weather events. In addition, humans continue to fragment and alter landscapes with roads, energy corridors, agriculture, urbanization, and industrial development. When taken together these changes in temporal and spatial variability have complex ramifications for ecology including several consequences for conservation, e.g., spatially structured predator-prey interactions, dampening risk by bet hedging, among-individual variation in diet (the “Tangled Bank” after last paragraph in Darwin's On the Origin of Species), and seasonal variation in harvest and predation interacting with density dependence to shape optimum harvests (the “Hydra effect”). I propose 3 field studies that develop these applications of the interface between temporal fluctuations and spatial ecology on (1) individual and spatial variation in foraging that dampens among-year variation in fitness for black (Ursus americanus) and grizzly bears (U. arctos), (2) personalities among elk (Cervus elaphus) to shape how harvests should be managed, and (3) predation and hunter harvest influence density-dependent response by bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). Our proposed grizzly bear and black bear studies apply habitat selection based on radiotelemetry and more recently based on DNA from hair samples collected at rub trees. We are proposing to use habitat selection methods to refine mark-recapture estimation of bear populations in spatial context. The structure of bear populations in SW Alberta suggests a source-sink balance with sinks driven by conflicts with agriculture, but complicated by temporal and spatial variation in availability of foods. Our long-term elk studies are grounded in one of the largest radiotelemetry studies ever conducted on this species with over 1 million GPS relocations accumulated during the past 8 years on seasonal ranges in SW Alberta. We have integrated models of movement with habitat selection obtaining integrated step-selection analysis (iSSA) that allows us to analyze patterns of movement by elk in context of habitats. Alberta Ministry of Environment and Parks plans to implement an experimental change in elk harvest regulations in our study area where we will document demographic and behavioural responses by elk. Finally, we are initiating a new experimental study of cougar (Puma concolor) predation and hunter harvest of bighorn sheep. We have extensive radiotelemetry data on cougars already and Alberta Environment and Parks will implement extended cougar seasons on randomly selected Wildlife Management Units designed to reduce predation on hunted populations of bighorns. Tools of telemetry, mark-recapture, and our new iSSAs allow us to marry spatial ecology with population biology in novel ways with direct applications for conservation biology and wildlife management.