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，以便就资源利用和保护作出明智的决定。该研究项目将确定景观结构和变化与阿尔伯塔和邻近灰熊栖息地地区灰熊种群健康之间的关系，以告知并实现景观管理。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长期的生理压力在个别熊。了解潜在的机制是至关重要的资源管理人员，以确保保护这一物种的风险。我们的研究目标是：（1）加强用于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）开发检测灰熊长期生理压力的技术，（3）确定长期生理压力与其他健康指标之间的关系（寿命，生长，繁殖，免疫力和活动）在灰熊，（4）建立联系的健康档案的个别灰熊和景观结构和变化，在他们的家园范围内沿着梯度的人类使用。将绘制详细的地图，将景观结构与灰熊的出现和健康联系起来。结合景观变化影响的预测模型，这些地图将使工业和政府的资源管理人员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。虽然所提出的研究集中在单个物种及其环境，但研究的意义和应用范围要广泛得多。我们正在开创一种新的方法来评估和监测景观变化对野生动物种群健康的影响。这种方法和有待开发的工具都有希望在未来应用于其他濒危物种，更普遍地说，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.