Drying drives decline in muskrat population in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada
Empirical and anecdotal reports suggest that muskrat are in decline across North America, including in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (‘Delta’), Canada, one of the largest inland deltas in the world and part of a World Heritage Site with ‘in Danger’ status pending. Muskrat are a key ecological indicator...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf0ec |
| _version_ | 1827870658819784704 |
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| author | Ellen M Ward Steven M Gorelick |
| author_facet | Ellen M Ward Steven M Gorelick |
| author_sort | Ellen M Ward |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Empirical and anecdotal reports suggest that muskrat are in decline across North America, including in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (‘Delta’), Canada, one of the largest inland deltas in the world and part of a World Heritage Site with ‘in Danger’ status pending. Muskrat are a key ecological indicator in the Delta. We investigate whether the large-scale loss of critical habitat over the past half-century could be driving a decline in muskrat abundance in the Delta. To do this, we use the Landsat record (1972–2017) to construct a 46 year record of inundation, and compare changes in the extent of critical habitat to the survey record for muskrat (1970–2016) over this 5500 km ^2 region. Results show that the declines in critical habitat and muskrat numbers in the Delta are synchronous: ∼1450 km ^2 of temporarily inundated regions that support critical habitat have diminished by ∼10 km ^2 yr ^−1 over the past 46 years, while the muskrat population density (houses/km ^2 ) has also declined and is significantly related to critical habitat area (km ^2 ) ( R ^2 = 0.60, P = 0.0001). These findings have implications for the Delta, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in part for its role as a habitat for nearly 200 species of birds, many of which rely on the aquatic habitat considered here. Our results further suggest that the loss of wetland habitat is a primary driver of the decline of muskrat across the species’ native range. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:00:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-32eb6686c43e42c7a1d728edc3396e80 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:00:22Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-32eb6686c43e42c7a1d728edc3396e802023-08-09T14:40:21ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262018-01-01131212402610.1088/1748-9326/aaf0ecDrying drives decline in muskrat population in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, CanadaEllen M Ward0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7885-2698Steven M Gorelick1Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University , Stanford, CA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Earth System Science, Stanford University , Stanford, CA, United States of America; Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University , Stanford, CA, United States of AmericaEmpirical and anecdotal reports suggest that muskrat are in decline across North America, including in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (‘Delta’), Canada, one of the largest inland deltas in the world and part of a World Heritage Site with ‘in Danger’ status pending. Muskrat are a key ecological indicator in the Delta. We investigate whether the large-scale loss of critical habitat over the past half-century could be driving a decline in muskrat abundance in the Delta. To do this, we use the Landsat record (1972–2017) to construct a 46 year record of inundation, and compare changes in the extent of critical habitat to the survey record for muskrat (1970–2016) over this 5500 km ^2 region. Results show that the declines in critical habitat and muskrat numbers in the Delta are synchronous: ∼1450 km ^2 of temporarily inundated regions that support critical habitat have diminished by ∼10 km ^2 yr ^−1 over the past 46 years, while the muskrat population density (houses/km ^2 ) has also declined and is significantly related to critical habitat area (km ^2 ) ( R ^2 = 0.60, P = 0.0001). These findings have implications for the Delta, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in part for its role as a habitat for nearly 200 species of birds, many of which rely on the aquatic habitat considered here. Our results further suggest that the loss of wetland habitat is a primary driver of the decline of muskrat across the species’ native range.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf0ececohydrologyboreal ecologyhydrological remote sensinghabitat loss |
| spellingShingle | Ellen M Ward Steven M Gorelick Drying drives decline in muskrat population in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada Environmental Research Letters ecohydrology boreal ecology hydrological remote sensing habitat loss |
| title | Drying drives decline in muskrat population in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada |
| title_full | Drying drives decline in muskrat population in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada |
| title_fullStr | Drying drives decline in muskrat population in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada |
| title_full_unstemmed | Drying drives decline in muskrat population in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada |
| title_short | Drying drives decline in muskrat population in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada |
| title_sort | drying drives decline in muskrat population in the peace athabasca delta canada |
| topic | ecohydrology boreal ecology hydrological remote sensing habitat loss |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf0ec |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ellenmward dryingdrivesdeclineinmuskratpopulationinthepeaceathabascadeltacanada AT stevenmgorelick dryingdrivesdeclineinmuskratpopulationinthepeaceathabascadeltacanada |