Ecological processes in heterogeneous landscapes: predation and diseases

人类正在给世界各地的景观带来巨大的变化。这些变化对野生动物的影响取决于资源分散的空间和时间尺度、动物迁移的规模以及与迁移和使用资源有关的风险。因此，将动物表现与景观异质性联系起来仍然是预测自由放养物种种群动态的一个关键挑战。我研究的目标是确定空间结构景观如何影响动物运动、互动和表现，并对物种管理产生影响。我提出了3个项目，解决人类改变景观的捕食和疾病。 首先，移徙人口的流失是一个全球现象，但我们很少完全理解为什么会出现这种流失。在我们过去的研究中，麋鹿-狼-人在山地阿尔伯塔的相互作用，我们发现在夏季迁移的营养优势，只有部分抵消了捕食避难所时，麋鹿留在冬季范围。 我们将量化觅食的差异移民和居民麋鹿同域冬季范围和产犊期间，因为在夏季积累的营养优势移民可能会作废，并有助于他们的灭亡。其次，食肉动物管理是世界上最具争议的野生动物问题之一。 高，但可持续的狼收获在中部阿尔伯塔可能是空间结构的收获从注册陷阱系统，偏向于收获的少年狼。 因为没有配额存在狼的收获，我假设，增加道路通道猎人可能有更大的影响比诱捕狼，因为它是选择性和结构空间。我们探索这一假设的建模背景下使用狼的人口和遗传数据从过去的研究。第三，慢性消耗性疾病是一种100%致命的野生鹿朊病毒疾病，2005年首次在阿尔伯塔东部发现，目前正在蔓延。 鹿对异质资源的季节性反应可能会影响鹿接触率和疾病传播方向。 我们使用当地信息来评估在空间结构化环境中控制疾病的人群水平管理方案。

Humans are causing vast changes to landscapes worldwide. The consequences of these changes to wildlife depends on the spatial and temporal scales at which resources are fragmented, scales at which animals move, and the risks associated with moving to and using the resources. Linking animal performance to landscape heterogeneity therefore remains a key challenge to predicting population dynamics of free-ranging species. The goal of my research is to identify how spatially structured landscapes influences animal movements, interactions, and performance with implications for species management. I propose 3 projects addressing predation and disease in human-altered landscapes. First, loss of migratory populations has been a global phenomenon, but rarely do we fully understand why the loss occurs. In our past studies of elk-wolf- human interactions in montane Alberta, we found a nutritional advantage for migrating in summer that was only partially offset by a predation refuge when elk remain on winter range. We will quantify foraging differences between migrant and resident elk on the sympatric winter range and during calving because nutritional advantages accrued by migrants in summer may be voided and contribute to their demise. Second, carnivore management is among the most controversial wildlife issues worldwide. High but sustainable wolf harvests in central Alberta may be the result of spatially structured harvest from the registered trapline system that is biased toward harvest of juvenile wolves. Because no quotas exist for wolf harvest, I postulate that increasing road access for hunters may have greater influence than trapping on wolves because it is less selective and structured spatially. We explore this hypothesis in a modeling context using wolf demographic and genetic data from past studies. Third, chronic wasting disease is a 100% fatal prion disease in wild deer that was first detected in eastern Alberta in 2005 and is spreading. Seasonal responses of deer to heterogeneous resources is likely to influence the rates of deer contacts and directions of disease spread. We use local information to assess population-level management options for controlling the disease in a spatially structured environment.