Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken
Population declines of many wildlife species have been linked to habitat loss incurred through land-use change. Incorporation of conservation planning into development planning may mitigate these impacts. The threatened Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is experiencing loss of na...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Resilience Alliance
2016-06-01
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| Series: | Avian Conservation and Ecology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.ace-eco.org/vol11/iss1/art2/ |
| _version_ | 1797970733426540544 |
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| author | Catherine S. Jarnevich Tracy R. Holcombe Blake A. Grisham Jennifer Timmer Clint W. Boal Matthew J. Butler James Pitman Sean C. Kyle David Klute Grant M. Beauprez Allan Janus William E. Van Pelt |
| author_facet | Catherine S. Jarnevich Tracy R. Holcombe Blake A. Grisham Jennifer Timmer Clint W. Boal Matthew J. Butler James Pitman Sean C. Kyle David Klute Grant M. Beauprez Allan Janus William E. Van Pelt |
| author_sort | Catherine S. Jarnevich |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Population declines of many wildlife species have been linked to habitat loss incurred through land-use change. Incorporation of conservation planning into development planning may mitigate these impacts. The threatened Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is experiencing loss of native habitat and high levels of energy development across its multijurisdictional range. Our goal was to explore relationships of the species occurrence with landscape characteristics and anthropogenic effects influencing its distribution through evaluation of habitat suitability associated with one particular habitat usage, lekking. Lekking has been relatively well-surveyed, though not consistently, in all jurisdictions. All five states in which Lesser Prairie-Chickens occur cooperated in development of a Maxent habitat suitability model. We created two models, one with state as a factor and one without state. When state was included it was the most important predictor, followed by percent of land cover consisting of known or suspected used vegetation classes within a 5000 m area around a lek. Without state, land cover was the most important predictor of relative habitat suitability for leks. Among the anthropogenic predictors, landscape condition, a measure of human impact integrated across several factors, was most important, ranking third in importance without state. These results quantify the relative suitability of the landscape within the current occupied range of Lesser Prairie-Chickens. These models, combined with other landscape information, form the basis of a habitat assessment tool that can be used to guide siting of development projects and targeting of areas for conservation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:21:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a52fcf590cb54fce8e81a69aace95b66 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1712-6568 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:21:42Z |
| publishDate | 2016-06-01 |
| publisher | Resilience Alliance |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Avian Conservation and Ecology |
| spelling | doaj.art-a52fcf590cb54fce8e81a69aace95b662023-01-02T08:54:09ZengResilience AllianceAvian Conservation and Ecology1712-65682016-06-01111210.5751/ACE-00807-110102807Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-ChickenCatherine S. Jarnevich0Tracy R. Holcombe1Blake A. Grisham2Jennifer Timmer3Clint W. Boal4Matthew J. Butler5James Pitman6Sean C. Kyle7David Klute8Grant M. Beauprez9Allan Janus10William E. Van Pelt11U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science CenterU.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science CenterTexas Tech UniversityGraduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State UniversityU.S. Geological Survey, Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Texas Tech UniversityU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Wildlife Refuge SystemWestern Association of Fish and Wildlife AgenciesWestern Association of Fish and Wildlife AgenciesColorado Parks and WildlifeNew Mexico Department of Game and FishOklahoma Department of Wildlife ConservationArizona Game and Fish DepartmentPopulation declines of many wildlife species have been linked to habitat loss incurred through land-use change. Incorporation of conservation planning into development planning may mitigate these impacts. The threatened Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is experiencing loss of native habitat and high levels of energy development across its multijurisdictional range. Our goal was to explore relationships of the species occurrence with landscape characteristics and anthropogenic effects influencing its distribution through evaluation of habitat suitability associated with one particular habitat usage, lekking. Lekking has been relatively well-surveyed, though not consistently, in all jurisdictions. All five states in which Lesser Prairie-Chickens occur cooperated in development of a Maxent habitat suitability model. We created two models, one with state as a factor and one without state. When state was included it was the most important predictor, followed by percent of land cover consisting of known or suspected used vegetation classes within a 5000 m area around a lek. Without state, land cover was the most important predictor of relative habitat suitability for leks. Among the anthropogenic predictors, landscape condition, a measure of human impact integrated across several factors, was most important, ranking third in importance without state. These results quantify the relative suitability of the landscape within the current occupied range of Lesser Prairie-Chickens. These models, combined with other landscape information, form the basis of a habitat assessment tool that can be used to guide siting of development projects and targeting of areas for conservation.http://www.ace-eco.org/vol11/iss1/art2/conservation planningenergy developmenthabitat suitabilityland coverMaxentprairie grousespecies distribution modeling<span style="font-style: normal">Tympanuchus pallidicinctus</span> |
| spellingShingle | Catherine S. Jarnevich Tracy R. Holcombe Blake A. Grisham Jennifer Timmer Clint W. Boal Matthew J. Butler James Pitman Sean C. Kyle David Klute Grant M. Beauprez Allan Janus William E. Van Pelt Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Avian Conservation and Ecology conservation planning energy development habitat suitability land cover Maxent prairie grouse species distribution modeling <span style="font-style: normal">Tympanuchus pallidicinctus</span> |
| title | Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken |
| title_full | Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken |
| title_fullStr | Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken |
| title_short | Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken |
| title_sort | assessing range wide habitat suitability for the lesser prairie chicken |
| topic | conservation planning energy development habitat suitability land cover Maxent prairie grouse species distribution modeling <span style="font-style: normal">Tympanuchus pallidicinctus</span> |
| url | http://www.ace-eco.org/vol11/iss1/art2/ |
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