Due to the expected forecast, we will be heading to the historic Chicago Cultural Center for an (indoor) informal student walking tour! Explore the exhibits, art, and architecture while meeting your fellow students. If weather permits, on our walk back the hotel we will pass famous Chicago landmark Cloud Gate (the bean) in Millennium Park. To express interest in the walk, please email info@delaneymeetingevent.com to RSVP or show up, we will meet at 1:45 p.m. at the conference registration desk.
Welcome Remarks from Chicago Host Team - Emily Minor
IALE Business & 2019 World Congress in Turin - Rob Scheller
PLENARY PRESENTATION: Habitat Fragmentation: A Long and Sordid Tale, A New Beginning, and Some Unsolicited Advice - Dr. Lenore Fahrig, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
What is the scientific basis for conservation policies that protect large, contiguous natural areas but do not protect small areas, even if numerous? It turns out there is none.
In its earliest manifestation in the 1950's, the concept of 'habitat fragmentation' referred to an increase in the number of habitat patches, which often (but not always) co-occurs with habitat loss. A decade later, this original concept was eclipsed by the theory of island biogeography. From that point onward, instead of measuring fragmentation as the number of patches in a landscape, researchers measured it as the size or isolation of individual patches. This shift in scale caused the complete confounding of habitat fragmentation with habitat amount, leading to the widespread assumption that a single large patch has more conservation value than several small ones of the same total area.
I present the 27-year history of my role in the fragmentation debate. I conclude that habitat fragmentation as originally conceived is generally not detrimental to, and often benefits, ecological responses. While there may be practical reasons to focus conservation exclusively on large, contiguous areas, there is no scientific justification for this choice.
Dr. Fahrig is a Professor of Biology, and co-Director of the Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Research Laboratory, at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. For decades, she has studied the responses of wildlife, including plants, arthropods, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals... Read More →
Monday April 9, 2018 8:15am - 9:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Lindsay Darling*, The Morton Arboretum; Christopher Mulvaney, The Morton Arboretum; Lydia Scott, The Chicago Region Trees Initiative
ABSTRACT: Oak was the most abundant tree genus in the Chicago Region prior to Euro-American settlement, and it is a keystone genus that shapes the ecology of the area. However, the majority of oak ecosystems in the region have been lost to development, and the few that remain are often small and fragmented, and their health is frequently imperiled by mesophycation, invasive species, pests, and diseases. In response, several Chicago organizations drafted an oak ecosystem recovery plan that outlined strategies to restore these ecosystems across the urban landscape: from managing remnant natural areas to incorporating oaks into residential and commercial properties. This talk will briefly describe the development of the oak ecosystem recovery plan, and then outline how GIS is being used to create a landscape-scale model to inform the restoration, expansion, and re-connection of these important natural communities. A component of the recovery plan was to identify and map every remnant oak ecosystem in the Chicago Region. Now, this map layer is being used to develop a shared, regional vision for a network of publicly and privately owned lands consisting of large, high quality remnant oak ecosystems (cores), that are buffered and connected by a combination of smaller, lower quality natural areas, reclaimed ecosystems, and urban/residential plantings (buffers and corridors). This is being done with the input and cooperation of a wide variety of stake holders. Natural areas managers, county and regional planners, municipal foresters, and community outreach specialists worked together to identify which remnant ecosystems were the most important, and we then used a cost connectivity mapping tool to connect these core ecosystems. This mapping project is now being used by regional planning organizations to focus where and how they work, and to identify audiences that may otherwise not be in the conservation conversation.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Aurora Torres*, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg; Jodi S. Brandt, Boise State University; Kristen Lear, University of Georgia; Jianguo Liu, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Overexploitation of global supplies of sand is damaging the environment, endangering communities, and promoting violent conflict. Although previous studies have explored human-nature interactions and generated useful insights in the context of sand mining, they are largely disintegrated. Here we apply the telecoupling framework to begin disentangling this complex and understudied issue. We combine a global perspective of the collateral effects and feedbacks of sand mining and trade across diverse systems with two study cases to better understand cross-scale dynamics and how an effective global sand governance system can be crafted. We chose two study cases of coupled human and natural systems in Asia: (1) Singapore and sand suppliers; and (2) Poyang Lake and Chinese mega-cities. Singapore is the leader of global sand imports, which has triggered geopolitical tensions and environmental degradation in the region. On the other hand, the Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China and has become its largest source of sand, as a result of a sand mining ban along the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The application of the telecoupling framework suggests that the approach has the potential to help holistically understand and integrate human-nature interactions emerging from sand exploitation in fast-growing regions. Finally, we offer suggestions for operationalizing the telecoupling framework for sand supply and demand and discuss the need for an effective governance of our planet’s resources.
AUTHORS: Amy E. Frazier*, Peter Kedron – Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University
ABSTRACT: Researchers have been developing metrics to quantify the characteristic patterns of land cover patches long before the discipline of landscape ecology officially coalesced as a field of study. Citing Aldo Leopold’s law of interspersion, George Patton introduced what is widely recognized to be one of the first landscape metrics to quantify edge in 1975. Since then, hundreds of metrics have been developed, providing researchers with tools to describe and analyze landscape patterns in a computationally efficient manner. As further evidence of the importance of these measures in landscape ecology, the 1988 paper by O’Neill and colleagues in which three new metrics were developed remains the top-cited article in the journal Landscape Ecology. However, despite the widespread use and importance of spatial pattern metrics, there remains a lack of agreement on the meaning of pattern and how best to measure landscape patterns from an ecological perspective. Despite the plethora of metrics available, new and ‘improved’ indices are introduced each year, and development shows few signs of abating. Complicating matters further, the ecological relevance of many landscape pattern indices has been questioned, and there is growing recognition that spatial pattern metrics may not provide any real causal understanding of underlying ecological mechanisms. This study reviews the history of landscape pattern analysis over the last three decades. We first provide a brief history of the trends and development of spatial pattern indices alongside a discussion of some of the limitations of these conventional landscape metrics for making pattern-process linkages. We then discuss some of the alternative approaches for linking spatial patterns with ecological processes to situate the current state of where we are now in terms of describing and analyzing landscape patterns and support further discussions that seek to understand where we are headed in the future.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Jayme A. Prevedello, Rio de Janeiro State University; Victoria J. Bennett, Texas Christian University; Patrick A. Zollner*, Purdue University; Marcus V. Vieira, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
ABSTRACT: Over two decades ago, Behavioral Landscape Ecology (BLE) emerged as a coalition between Behavioral Ecology and Landscape Ecology, especially after the publication of Lima & Zollner’s (1996; Trends Ecol. Evol. 11: 131-135) perspective paper. Based on 549 studies citing this paper, we review how Behavioral Landscape Ecology (BLE) has developed over this time, and propose a unifying framework to guide further development. The majority of papers were empirical (58%), although simulation (or modelling; 28%) and reviews (14%) were also common. About half (52%) of the papers were published in Ecology journals, with many of the remaining papers published in Zoology (14%), Conservation (11%) and Behavior (9%) journals. Mammals (36%), birds (29%) and invertebrates (20%) were the most studied taxonomic groups. Finally, behavioral studies predominantly focused on movement (42%), habitat selection (22%) and foraging (16%), whereas landscape issues addressed focused upon connectivity (23%), landscape composition (10%) and configuration (9%). Based on this review, we propose a conceptual framework portraying BLE as a distinct discipline, emerging from the combination of landscape and behavioral approaches to study ecological phenomena. The landscape approach comprises two main themes, landscape composition (including habitat quantity, matrix quality and edge permeability) and landscape configuration (including habitat fragmentation and presence of corridors). The behavioral approach also comprises two themes: movement (including dispersal and routine movements) and habitat selection (including foraging, conspecific attraction and anti-predatory behavior). When combined, these approaches lead to two emergent themes, inter-patch movement (including perceptual range, gap crossing and corridors use) and landscape-level habitat selection (including habitat patch, matrix , and edge use), which form the core of BLE. Over only two decades, BLE has brought essential insights to ecology and conservation, and we hope our review and framework stimulate continued advances.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Jessica Salo*, University of Northern Colorado; Gabrielle Katz, Metropolitan State University of Denver
ABSTRACT: Water management has substantially altered the hydrology of the South Platte River in Colorado over the past 150 years. Although the river experiences substantial natural inter-annual flow variability, the altered annual flow regime is characterized by enhanced seasonal consistency of surface and ground water levels. Today, the river supports a broad cottonwood-willow riparian forest that established from 1900-1930, in a pulse of channel narrowing that accompanied historic flow alterations. The status of this forest in not well understood and little is known about its historic spatio-temporal pattern. We investigated recent changes to by developing and testing methods to assess riparian land cover change and channel movement on the South Platte River downstream of Greeley, Colorado. We digitized floodplain land cover on orthophotos taken at roughly 10 year intervals for three 30 km river segments in Weld, Morgan and Logan Counties, Colorado. Preliminary results indicate there is variability in land cover between the three reaches and major changes have occurred between 2006 and 2015. In all three segments, the major land cover types for both time periods included agricultural land use, riparian forests, and riparian herbaceous vegetation. Notable changes are present from 2006 to 2015. Specifically, active channel area increased 10-110% between 2006 and 2015, a period that included high flows and major flooding in 2013. In the two upstream segments, this change was accompanied by loss of dense forest and increase in open forest area. In the downstream segment, open forest area decreased while riparian herbaceous cover increased during this interval. This project is the first step to understanding historic rates and patterns of South Platte River riparian land cover dynamics to provide important context for informing management of this critical natural resource.
AUTHORS: Yifan He*, School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan; Juan Pablo Baldiviezo, The Bolivian Forestry Research Institute (Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal); Arun Agrawal, Ivette Perfecto – School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
ABSTRACT: While maintaining a socialist, pro-indigenous, and pro-nature image, the government of Evo Morales of Bolivia finds itself embracing export-oriented agriculture and extractivism as the country integrates into the global economy. This dual political discourse has profound impacts on Guarayos, an indigenous community located in eastern Bolivia that relies on their tropical dry forests as the main source of livelihood. In this study, I explore how the economic and social policies of Bolivia, prompted by the global demand for agricultural commodities, shape the forest and agriculture landscapes and the livelihood of the indigenous community in Guarayos. Spatial analysis of forest cover changes over the past 20 years based on remote sensing data shows how land tenure change, and the expansion of mechanized agriculture and cattle ranch contribute to forest loss in Guarayos. Semi-structured interviews with 25 community, business, and government stakeholders indicate that not only is there a lack of support for the forest sector, the central government is actively weakening the structure and governance capacity of indigenous institutions, which further hurt their forest management.
AUTHORS: Carol A. Johnston*, South Dakota State University; Nancy E. McIntyre, Texas Tech University
ABSTRACT: Agricultural expansion is a documented source of wetland area loss in the Dakota Prairie Pothole Region (DPPR), which could potentially affect the distribution of wetlands in the landscape and their accessibility to fauna with limited mobility. Using an existing map of DPPR wetland losses derived from the 2001 USGS National Land Cover Dataset and the 2011 USDA Cropland Data Layer, we analyzed the number, size, and connectivity among prairie pothole wetlands, comparing sampled quadrangles having a priori-defined high and low wetland loss rates. Connectivity was assessed using a suite of graph theoretic metrics. We expected that wetland density (i.e., the number of wetland patches per unit land area) would decrease with wetland areal loss and that the network’s coalescence distance would increase as wetlands became more sparse and separated from each other, which would be reflected in changes in metrics that quantify degree of linkages among wetlands and overall network connectedness. We found that average area per wetland decreased in quadrangles with high areal losses of wetlands (12 to 38% loss of wetland area between 2001 and 2011), but that wetland density and wetland connectivity did not change significantly in high or low loss quadrangles. Areal losses rarely resulted in total wetland elimination, instead subdividing and “nibbling away” at the edges of wetlands. This spatial pattern of wetland loss may reduce the impacts to organisms that must traverse the landscape from patch to patch, but may be more difficult to detect because it is so diffuse.
AUTHORS: Greg Spyreas*, David N. Zaya – Illinois Natural History Survey
ABSTRACT: Multiple lines of evidence suggest a rapid decline in populations of several pollinator taxa. Their declines have increasingly become a focus for conservation research. One of the largest gaps in knowledge is how floral resources for pollinators have changed through time, and how trends in those resources vary in different landscapes or habitat types. We compared long-term plant community data from the Chicago region, to the rest of Illinois, to measure differences in their floral resources. Data were drawn from 20 years of the Critical Trends Assessment Program (CTAP), which surveys randomly selected sites across Illinois. We considered both quantity and diversity of floral resources available. We found that changes in overall floral resources were largely driven by two factors, habitat loss/conversion, and within-site changes in the abundance of key plant species. The relative role of those two factors differed between the Chicago area and more rural regions. Our dataset is a unique, large-scale estimate of floral resources, which we use to quantify important patterns and trends in them across regions. Understanding these resource trends and spatial patterns will aid conservation of the pollinators that depend on them.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Min Gon Chung*, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University; Kenneth A. Frank, Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University; Jianguo Liu, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Across the world, humans are increasingly moving from the countryside to cities. This resultant rapid urbanization concentrates the demand of freshwater ecosystem services. In particular, the increased urban population demands more services from not only surrounding watersheds but also distant watersheds through the construction of infrastructure (e.g., dams). However, maintaining benefits to humans with built infrastructure while conserving healthy freshwater ecosystems is a complex challenge. A new strategy is needed to combine built infrastructure with natural infrastructure (e.g., wetland restoration). This study examines the roles of built and natural infrastructure in source watersheds for freshwater supply to urban areas using the ego-centric network analysis. Our results indicate that natural infrastructure plays an important role in sustaining freshwater supply to urban areas while built infrastructure focuses on freshwater supply in source watersheds. The results will have important implications for global urban sustainability in the telecoupled Anthropocene.
AUTHORS: Peter Vogt, European Commission, Joint Research Centre
ABSTRACT: National reporting on forest land cover is often derived from forest inventory plot data and summarized in statistical indices and tabular figures. Yet, this kind of reporting scheme is subject to the intrinsic limitations of any summary index, which is the lack of spatial information on the arrangement and configuration of forest cover. As a direct consequence, these indices may be of limited use for landscape planning or risk assessment studies, where the detection of hotspots and the information of spatial heterogeneity is an essential prerequisite. The solution to this problem is to provide map products with comprehensive measures of the spatial patterns of forest cover and the degree of forest fragmentation. This study illustrates a methodology for a satellite-based accounting scheme providing information on forest area, forest spatial patterns and the degree of forest fragmentation. Geographic maps showing the location and area coverage of forest patches and their degree of fragmentation (intact, interior, dominant, transitional, patchy and rare forest) provide a concise spatial summary on the state of forest. The proposed analysis scheme is based on geometric principles only and can be applied to any kind of forest raster maps, independent of the spatial resolution or the definition of forest. The methodology is available in the free software GuidosToolbox (http://forest.jrc.ec.europa.eu/download/software/guidos) and illustrated for European Union Member States using the most recent 20m-resolution Copernicus 2015 forest map.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Roger A. Powell, North Carolina State University; Aaron N. Facka, Oregon State University; Lynn L. Rogers, Wildlife Research Institute; Susan A. Mansfield, Wildlife Research Institute
ABSTRACT: Most researchers estimate home ranges using telemetry location estimates. With an appropriate estimator, this approach produces a utilization distribution that can be considered to approximate a probability distribution of where an animal spends its time. Essentially all home ranges estimated today use time as their currency. Estimating home ranges using other currencies, such as energy expenditure and importance of resources, provides insights into why animals use space as they do. Weighting each telemetry location by rate of energy expenditure at that time, estimated from travel speed using an equation in the literature, produces a new utilization distribution. For some animals, energy expenditure in their home range cores is higher, and in the home range peripheries lower, than time spent in those areas. Home range estimators have parameters that must be chosen to be appropriate to the biology of study animals and research technology. Choosing those parameters based on perceptual distances for sight, sound, smell and memory produce different utilization distribution yet, explaining different aspects of why animals use space as they do. I present data for fishers (Pekania pennanti) and black bears (Ursus americanus) to illustrate and to compare how using different currencies and perceptual distances affect utilization distributions, home range overlap, and home range cores. Techniques appropriate to the questions or specific hypotheses are needed to understand animal behavior and the potential for successful management.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Kimberly M. Meitzen*, John Phillips, Aspen Manning – Texas State University; Thais Perkins, TreeFolks
ABSTRACT: The Blanco River, which flows through the limestone Balcones Canyonlands of central Texas (USA), experienced catastrophic flooding in May 2015 that resulted in significant bio-geomorphic disturbance to its riparian corridor. High-resolution aerial and satellite imagery from pre- and post-flooding for a 55 km reach of river were used to map and categorize patterns of disturbance by degree of severity ranging from complete floodplain stripping to no disturbance. A two-part schema was used to classify disturbance relative to both riparian and geomorphic factors. Total disturbance are was quantified for FEMA floodplain boundary areas including the floodway, 100-, and 500-year floodplains. The most severe disturbance occurred within the floodway near the channel and decreased with lateral distance into the 100-year and 500-year floodplains, and beyond the 500-year floodplain. Disturbance patterns previously identified in the literature including meander scour, parallel chute scour, convex bank erosion, and macro-turbulent scour were all present following this event, as well as substantial disturbance proximal to tributary confluences. In the aftermath of this event, TreeFolks, a local non-profit organization, engaged with the community to actively replant and restore the riparian corridor of the Blanco River on both public and private lands. These reforestation efforts supplement the natural passive recovery of the riparian corridor, enabling the system to recover more quickly and be resilient to future flood events.
AUTHORS: Connor Crank, Jiquan Chen, Ranjeet John - Michigan State University, Department of Geography
ABSTRACT: Land use and cover change (LUCC) are caused by joint forces of physical changes and human activities, and have consequent roles in ecosystem and societal functions. Using a typical landscape of the Midwest region, the Kalamazoo Watershed in southern Michigan (2,200 km2), we quantified LUCC from 1976 to 2015 and examined the causes and consequences from socio-ecological perspectives, including variables of population, climate, and ecosystem function. We quantified the spatiotemporal changes in seven major cover types (i.e., barren, built-up, cropland, forest, grassland, water, and wetland) at five-year intervals based on classified images of Landsat MMS and Landsat TM using an object-oriented classification system (86.4% accuracy). Using historical records of temperature, precipitation, and net primary production, we aim to further explore the connections between LUCC and long-term changes in social and physical properties.
Urban/built-up area increased from 3.5% in 1976 to 14% in 2015. While cropland dominated the landscape during the 40-year study period, it showed the greatest degree of overall change, declining from 60% to 48%. Amount of forest cover decreased by 5%, while the water and wetland increased by 1% and 5%, respectively. During this period, population increased by ~73%. The built-up and wetland cover types showed strong positive correlations with population growth (R=0.95 and 0.86, respectively), while cropland and forest land were negatively correlated with population growth (R=-0.94, -0.87, respectively). Temperature and precipitation showed no significant relationships with the growth or decline of land use/cover types. Using a novel MODIS-to-LANDSAT downscaling method, we will quantify net primary production of each cover type for every 5-year period to examine how long-term changes in LUCC affected ecosystem function within the watershed.
AUTHORS: Jessica Gorzo*, Chris Wright – Natural Resources Research Institute
ABSTRACT: Distance thresholds define habitat connectivity for waterfowl, which vary during the stages of their annual cycle. During the breeding season, many species of waterfowl in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the U.S. require a complex of wetlands within their home range for nesting, foraging and brood rearing. Ideal spatial configuration and requisite distances between wetlands within the breeding site are largely unknown, yet likely drive larger-scale patterns of waterfowl distribution. Mallard (Anas platyrhyncos), the most common species in the PPR, are driven to settle breeding sites by conspecific attraction. Suitable habitat changes inter-annually with the spatially dynamic wetland conditions in the PPR. We aimed to test if annual mallard “hot spots” correlated with modularity of wetland networks at various spatial scales, and if correlations between hotspots and wetland network metrics varied according to inter-annual weather conditions. We used the Global Surface Water Layer (GSWL) to identify and map wetlands in the PPR, generated by the European Union via remote sensing imagery of 30-m resolution. The raster dataset spans 1984-2015, which includes high variability from severe drought through wet years in the PPR. We built upon the work of Janke (et al. 2017), who performed a hot-spot analysis annually during the study period from the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey (WBPHS). We investigated the relationship between mallard hot/cold spots (measured via a Z-Score from the Gi* test, spdep package in R) and characteristics of wetland network modules at 1km, 5km and 10km scales using regression trees and random forests. We found that network characteristics better predicted mallard Z-Scores than raw measures of wetland number or density within the vicinity of the survey segment. The most influential scale of wetland network modules varied with weather conditions, and thus characteristics of the networks local to each segment in a given year.
AUTHORS: Anita T. Morzillo*, University of Connecticut; Mindy S. Crandall, University of Maine; Kathleen P. Bell, University of Maine; Darla K. Munroe, Ohio State University; Chris R. Colocousis, James Madison University
ABSTRACT: The decline of traditional natural resource-based industries introduces challenges and opportunities for rural communities. Collectively, the future trajectories of these communities have enormous consequences for forested landscapes and the myriad ecosystem services they provide. We examined recent community trajectories in terms of reliance on new manufacturing or new amenity-based industries or continued reliance on traditional industries to glean insights about similarities and differences across communities, document patterns in community responses to landscape shocks, and assess linkages between local- and regional-scale landscape shocks. We focused on 8,650 communities positioned within forested regions that are neither within unpopulated wilderness nor suburban or urban areas. In 2010, these areas included 27% of the continental US, less than 5% of the US population, and an average of 60% forest cover. Using diverse data describing the place-based characteristics of these communities and their surrounding landscapes, we established groupings of communities using cluster analysis and tested these groupings against established potential trajectories, including: production-shock-economic decline; production-shock-amenity based; or production-shock- reinvented production. Our results show strong patterns across communities, and that place-based characteristics influence how communities adapt to changes like decline in natural resources employment. These findings improve understanding of community and landscape change, and reveal challenges and opportunities for maintaining forested landscapes.
ABSTRACT: Rare native plants are important contributors to biodiversity, but they are threatened by local and regional factors such as habitat loss, invasive species, altered disturbance regimes, and climatic change. A rich array of rare plant species persists in the tri-state Chicago region despite extensive urbanization, due in large part to long-term, collaborative conservation efforts. Plants of Concern is a monitoring program in the Chicago region that engages volunteer citizen scientists in tracking rare native plant species and quantifying threats to their populations. The data collected is submitted to landowners and decision makers for use in conservation planning, and is analyzed by partner researchers. Across 17 years, this program has targeted a broad suite of suite of species, made significant strides towards understanding their trends and threats, and engaged hundreds of volunteers in this effort. Extensive collaboration with landowners, agencies, researchers, and individuals has facilitated the success of the program. From its inception, Plants of Concern has addressed needs identified by the Chicago Wilderness consortium, and has recently been a driving force behind a Chicago Wilderness effort to prioritize plant and fungal species for conservation action. This region-wide effort aims to identify a small suite of species and engage partners in developing collaborative work plans to advance their conservation. Selected species represent important landscapes and stories of the region, and planned action should benefit a larger suite of species. These efforts illustrate the potential of regional collaboration to advance meaningful biological conservation.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Julie G. Zaehringer*, Flurina Schneider, Peter Messerli – Centre for Development and Environment and Institute of Geography, University of Bern
ABSTRACT: Landscapes on forest frontiers in the humid tropics provide powerful examples of the challenge to reconcile human development with increasingly evident planetary boundaries. These social-ecological systems not only have to meet the immediate livelihood needs and the broader development aspirations of their local populations. They are also expected to ensure the complex mix of ecosystem service flows that support human well-being locally and provide environmental benefits worldwide. Driven by demands for commercial agricultural production, carbon sequestration or biodiversity conservation among others, distant socio-economic and environmental influences are becoming increasingly entangled, triggering not only rapid LUC processes at the local scale, but also unchaining multi-directional spill-over and feedback effects affecting other SES. This phenomenon, which land change scientists have recently conceptualized under the term “telecoupling”, points to major methodological and empirical research gaps. The forest frontier contexts of Laos, Madagascar, and Myanmar illustrate the abovementioned sustainable development challenges, which call for an operationalisation of the telecoupling concept. Complementing a conventional a-priori spatial delineation of our case-study sites, we take relevant land use changes as starting points to analyse the network of all relevant actors interlinked by flows of goods, capital, information, and guided by institutions. Meaningful spatio-temporal system boundaries will be delineated as an outcome of our empirical research. Such a research approach shall bring a more conventional place-based approach into play with a process-based perspective on land change, allowing us to advance the concept of telecoupling and demonstrate various ways of its operationalisation. In the proposed presentation, we would like to share our conceptual advancements as well as first empirical results on land system regime shifts, land use decision making, and impacts on human well-being from Laos, Madagascar, and Myanmar.
AUTHORS: Jakub Nowosad*, Tomasz F. Stepinski – University of Cincinnati
ABSTRACT: Landscape metrics quantify various aspects of a pattern and are well-suited for comparing landscapes from a focused perspective, for example, a landscape fragmentation. However they are ill-suited for an overall assessment of similarity between landscapes because it is unclear how to combine semantically different metrics into a single measure of patterns congruity. To perform analyses based on an overall similarity between landscapes, we represent their patterns by a histogram of co-occurrence pattern features. A co-occurrence feature is a pair of classes assigned to two neighboring raster cells. For a landscape with k classes the histogram has (k^2+k)/2 bins which together quantify composition and configuration of the pattern. Note that all bins have the same semantic meaning – they are counts of co-occurrence features – so there is no problem of how to combine them to assess an overall similarity between two landscapes. For such assessment we use the Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD) between two co-occurrence histograms. The result is a single number between 0 (patterns are identical) and 1 (none of the classes found in one landscape is found in the other).Similarity-based analysis allows working with patterns in large (regional, continental, global) datasets. Possible tasks include: pattern regionalization, change detection, and search. We have developed an open-source software GeoPAT 2.0 (Geospatial Pattern Analysis Toolbox), downloadable from http://sil.uc.edu/cms/index.php?id=geopat2, which performs those tasks.Presented examples include global delineation of ecophysiographic land units (utilizes patterns of land cover, land forms, soils, and climate), global assessment of local landscape change between 1992 and 2015 (utilizes CCI-LC global land cover data), and landscape search over the US (utilizes NLCD). Landscape search is illustrated by an online interactive application (http://sil.uc.edu/webapps/landex_usa/) where user selects a landscape and the app produces a map of US indicating locations with an overall similar landscape.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Marie-Josee Fortin*, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Ontario, CanadaAntonio Golubski, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA
ABSTRACT: Graph theory has contributed tremendously to spatial ecology by enabling quantitative analyses and modeling of how fragmented landscapes affect organisms movement and dispersal through them. However, the most commonly used network metrics are unable to effectively accommodate important direct and indirect effects within dispersal networks ranging from facilitation or inhibition of dispersal links between habitat patches by accounting for 'stepping stone' patches, microhabitat and matrix characteristics, and anthropogenic landscape features such as roads or dams, or even alternate dispersal routes. We suggest hypergraphs as a novel network framework that is well-suited to investigating networks containing both direct and indirect topological effects. To demonstrate their utility, we develop three potential hypergraph models addressing the aforementioned scenarios: the contribution of 'stepping stone' patches, and the disruption and/or creation of dispersal links by roads, or modification of dispersal link strength by alternate 'competing' routes. As researchers in spatial ecology seek tools that circumvent the limitations of graphs, hypergraphs offer a versatile option whose strengths are allowing to model more realistic animal dispersal behaviors in fragmented landscapes.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Adams Room
ABSTRACT: On the night of May 23, 2015, a record flood occurred on the Blanco River in central Texas. The flood scoured away much of the riparian buffer along the river. Following a disturbance as severe as the 2015 flood, riparian ecosystems typically transition from bare ground to full-canopy forest. The transition follows one or more trajectories that result in the succession in dominance of fast-growing, full sun-tolerant species to a diverse forest of shade-tolerant, slower-growing trees. This study aims to answer the question: What are the patterns of natural regeneration present in the early stages of recovery following the 2015 flood? Trees were sampled in five public parks along the Blanco River in Hays County, Texas. Possible succession trajectories were determined by the presence of vegetation propagules (seed sources or extant plants), and local geomorphic variables such as proximity to the channel, soil type and depth, and flow characteristics. This research can inform land management and conservation decisions by revealing long-term changes in riparian community make-up and by identifying possible invasions by exotics and other potential problems.
AUTHORS: Chenwei Shang*, Beijing Normal University; Jianguo Wu, Arizona State University & Beijing Normal University; Qun Ma, Beijing Normal University
ABSTRACT: The Mongolian Plateau is best known for its vast grasslands, but increased human population and land use change have profoundly transformed the grassland landscapes on the plateau. Approaches based on landscape ecology and sustainability science are needed for better protecting the Mongolian grasslands. Thus, the main objective of this study was to investigate the spatiotemporal patterns, drivers, and environmental impacts of land use and land cover in the Wulagai River Basin – a biodiversity-rich, spectacular landscape known as the “last beautiful grassland” in Inner Mongolia, China. We used Landsat remote sensing data to derive land use and land cover (LULC) maps for the years of 1989, 2000, 2006, and 2016, based on visual interpretation. Landscape pattern metrics were then used to quantify spatiotemporal patterns of LULC change. Our results show that during the 27 years typical steppes expanded while meadow steppes decreased in spatial extent. At the same time, wetlands shrank, impervious surfaces expanded, and coal mining areas increased rapidly. Several landscape attributes, including patch density, edge density, landscape shape index, mean patch size, largest patch index, and fractal dimension increased, changed considerably, indicating an increasingly diversified and fragmented landscape. From the landscape pattern analysis, we further examined the major socioeconomic driving factors and environmental impacts.
AUTHORS: Paul Marr*; Claire Jantz – Geography-Earth Science Department and Center for Land Use and Sustainability, Shippensburg University; Diego Aranibar, Soraya Zorzal, Carla Betanzo, Claudio López, Jorge Gonnet, Elizabeth Lictevout – Corporación de Estudios y Desarrollo Norte Grande
ABSTRACT: The central Andean dry puna (altiplano) ecoregion occupies the arid montane grasslands of northern Chile and Argentina, and western Bolivia, where peat-forming cushion bogs (bofedales) form in the flat areas bordering streams. Traditional agro-pastoral practices of the indigenous Aymara includes intensive management of wetlands to expand and preserve grazing land for llamas and alpacas. Scarce within an otherwise arid landscape, these wetlands are vulnerable to degradation due to drought, human-caused hydrologic changes (i.e. road construction), and abandonment of active management. In 2013 the Corporación de Estudios y Desarrollo Norte Grande, a Chilean non-profit organization, began wetland restoration efforts employing traditional Aymaran water management techniques through their Más Agua initiative. We are now testing the efficacy of using MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI) data to monitor these restoration efforts. Given the high annual and seasonal variability of bofedal productivity, the near daily acquisition schedule of MODIS, along with the rapid availability of 16-day EVI composites, make it potentially well-suited for monitoring purposes. Results so far are mixed but show promise. Time series analyses revealed that the impacts of restoration efforts on productivity are significantly influenced by the site and situation of the bofedal. Increases in plant productivity that are readily apparent in the field are difficult to discern in the EVI data, due in part to scale differences between sensor and the restored wetland areas. Although it is difficult to identify before and after productivity differences in an individual bofedal, we were able to find positive differences between restored and unrestored bofedales along the same water course. We conclude that MODIS offers a limited but potentially promising monitoring option for wetland restoration in this region.
ABSTRACT: Urban landscapes are heterogeneous matrices of residential, recreational, and commercial development, as well as managed and un-managed natural and agricultural lands. While heterogeneity at sub-city scales has been well studied, the heterogeneity among cities remains poorly characterized across diverse physiographic regions and population sizes. This knowledge gap inhibits our ability to identify the scope of inference for case-studies and design multi-city studies. In other heterogeneous systems, such as biology or soil science, taxonomic frameworks facilitate research design and interpretation. No such classification system is available for urban ecology. To work towards this larger goal, this study: 1) quantified the land cover composition using the 2011 NLCD, population density, and biophysical characteristics of urban areas in the conterminous United States from 2500 to 18 million people, 2) separated cities into similar types using a grouping analysis and identified which attributes differentiated cities, and 3) determined if the city types had different amounts of natural capitol (biomass) and environmental impacts (CO2 emissions, impervious surface, and impaired stream length). Four types of cities emerged that were differentiated by medium intensity development and undeveloped land, followed by low intensity development and population density. The city types were geographically concentrated in, but not limited to, different regions of the US. Notably, natural capitol and environmental impacts differed significantly among the city types. These results provide the basis of a classification system for cities that enhances our ability to design research that considers and captures differences among cities and their effects on the local, regional, and global environment.
AUTHORS: Christine A. Ribic*, U.S. Geological Survey; Michael R. Guttery, Alaska Department of Fish and Game; David Sample, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Chris Trosen, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Andy Paulios, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
ABSTRACT: Real estate agents have long recognized that home values are dependent upon characteristics of a property as well as the neighborhood in which the property is located. In recent years, ecologists have realized that grassland birds may assess habitat value in a similar way. While much is known about the specific patch-level habitat requirements for most grassland bird species, far less is known about how birds respond to landscape composition, and particularly, the scales at which various species respond to different aspects of the landscape surrounding a patch. Using grassland bird point count data collected in Wisconsin from 2012-2014, we evaluated scale-specific effects of landscape composition (idle grass, pasture, cropland, hay, forest) on patch occupancy to a radius of 3000m from the patch perimeter. Bobolink selected for grassland habitats in the surrounding landscape at all spatial scales while selecting against other cropland and forest. Eastern Meadowlark displayed evidence of scale sensitivity for all habitat types. Grasshopper Sparrow showed a strong positive response to pasture and idle grass at all scales and negatively to cropland at large scales. Unlike other species, patch occupancy by Henslow’s Sparrow was primarily influenced by patch area. Our findings provide important insights into effective landscape conservation planning for grassland birds.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:45am - 11:00am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Yingjie Li*, Zhenci Xu, Jianguo Liu – Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: The United Nations launched 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have been committed by 193 nations. Growing international trade connects distant countries into an integrated system in the era of globalization. However, little is known about the impacts of international trade on the progress toward achieving the SDGs. To fill this knowledge gap, we analyzed the impacts of international trade on six SDGs related to five global important issues - water use (Goal 6), energy use (Goal 7), material use (Goals 8 and 12), carbon emissions (Goal 13) and forestland use (Goal 15) - embodied in international trade. Our results reveal that the world as a whole made progress towards these SDGs from 1995 to 2009, and international trade had positive impacts on the progress. The progress was mainly raised by the improvement in developed countries, but at the expense of most developing countries. Promisingly, regional environmental policies and technological improvement have helped developing countries reduce inequality rooted in trade. We also find that large amounts of trade among distant countries helped to lower resource intensity. This study provides a new prospective by assessing the impacts of international trade on six SDGs, which could help inform the allocation of global environmental responsibility and optimize global sustainable development strategies.Keywords: sustainable development goals, virtual resource flow, telecoupling, global sustainability
ABSTRACT: Landscape patterns across the vast centre of North America are intensively modified for agriculture. Being able to measure changing agricultural landscape patterns is important to understanding the consequences of this dominant land use. Land cover changes in agriculture can be rapid and are often predictable when associated with agronomics of crop rotations. Rotation diversity can be higher in moderately-complex landscapes and those with integrated crop-livestock enterprises. Measurement and estimation of changes in agricultural landscape patterns is challenging, then, because observations might be skewed by rotation sequencing or because of limited observations. Farming practices like double-cropping or cover crops increase management intensity and change landscape patterns within a single growing season, making landscape pattern classification and measurement more difficult. Temporal autocorrelation from crop rotations can occur in time series analysis but is not always considered in agricultural landscape pattern measurement. This presentation explains how short-term dynamism in agriculture can lead to skewed landscape pattern measurement for an intermediately-complex Great Lakes farm landscape. Focusing on typical crop rotation sequences and common agronomic practices, the presentation describes how fundamental landscape pattern attribute measures can vary in short terms. Typical and normative crop rotations are used to project field and farm conditions at different times (using LandSFACTS) with landscape pattern metrics measuring the outcomes (FRAGSTATS). Findings can be used to inform the application and interpretation of landscape pattern measures at short time steps in highly-dynamic landscapes.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:45am - 11:00am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Marcus Vieira*, Manoel Muanis, Jayme Prevedello – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ABSTRACT: Inter-patch movements are essential for population dynamics and persistence in fragmented landscapes, and the type of matrix is a strong determinant of inter-patch movements. Less known and explored are the effects of fine-scale elements within a matrix, such as scattered trees, cattle trails, hedgerows, and plantation rows, which may affect movement behavior and orientation of individuals. We reviewed the type of behavioral responses of individuals to fine-scale elements, and investigated how scattered trees and cattle trails affect movement tortuosity - a key attribute determining the success of inter-patch movements – in a Neotropical marsupial, Philander frenatus. Using translocation experiments and VHF telemetry, we compared path tortuosity before and after individuals used scattered trees or cattle trails, and how the amount of cattle trails and scattered trees affected tortuosity of the entire path. We also determined step-by-step habitat selection of individuals along their radio-tracked trajectories at fine scale (pastureland), which included pasture areas with and without scattered trees. Paths were on average 44.8 % more tortuous before than after individuals used individual scattered trees, but tortuosity of the entire path increased as more scattered trees were used, and decreased as more cattle trails were used. Individuals selected areas with scattered trees, which were 3 to 6 times more favored than areas without scattered trees. Areas with cattle trails were selected positively, but with a lower strength of selection compared to areas without trees and without cattle trails. The results demonstrate how fine-scale matrix elements affect the tortuosity of inter-patch movements, and how they may enhance functional connectivity in heterogeneous landscapes. Scattered trees in particular should be studied as potential strategies to increase functional connectivity in fragmented landscapes.
Monday April 9, 2018 10:45am - 11:00am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Molly Van Appledorn*, Nathan R. De Jager, Jason J. Rohweder, James T. Rogala – U.S. Geological Survey Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center
ABSTRACT: Flooding is a dominant physical process that drives the form and function of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). Despite its importance, inundation patterns have not been systemically characterized in spatially-explicit ways that would advance understanding of ecological processes or inform management actions in the UMRS. We developed a geospatial model of floodplain inundation using topo-bathymetric terrains and 40 years of daily water surface elevations. We applied the model across 2.8 million acres of the UMRS and summarized long-term patterns of surface water dynamics in terrestrial areas including inundation frequency, duration, depth, and timing. We found that distributions of these flooding attributes varied within and among multiple levels of river organization, including navigational pools and geomorphic reaches. Non-linear relationships among inundation attributes and their geospatial distributions likely reflect complex interactions among topographic, hydrologic, and anthropogenic constraints on flooding dynamics. We discuss current and future applications of the inundation model to advance process-based knowledge of ecological phenomena and to inform management decisions in the UMRS floodplain.
AUTHORS: Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso*, Jose M. Mata, Janel L. Ortiz, John T. Edwards, April A. Torres Conkey, Fidel Hernández, Leonard A. Brennan, Eric D. Grahmann, Sandra Rideout-Hanzak, David B. Wester – Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
ABSTRACT: The gradient concept of landscape structure is a relatively new conceptual paradigm in landscape ecology that provides an additional framework to pattern-process relationships occurring in the landscape. This model, takes into consideration the inherent environmental variability that exists in a landscape. This variability results in a gradient influencing organisms and ecological processes and their corresponding responses to changes along this gradient. This inherent continuous nature of ecological attributes was not previously well represented with the patch mosaic model, which has been used by landscape ecologists to describe landscape spatial heterogeneity. The aim of our research is to assess the value of the gradient concept of landscape structure based on remote sensing data to quantify suitable areas of northern bobwhite habitat (example 1) and hotspots of guild richness (example 2) in ground foraging avian species in South Texas. The first example uses existing data from northern bobwhite to assess suitability in habitats affected by tanglehead. The second example uses surface metrics to quantify potential hotspots for ground foraging birds. We applied the gradient concept of landscape structure by quantifying landscape metrics to develop surface metrics. We used moving window analyses to develop surface layers that describe landscape structure for northern bobwhites and ground foraging birds in South Texas. The selected metrics for these analyses included percent woody cover, mean patch area, edge density, aggregation index, interspersion and juxtaposition index, and cohesion index for woody cover and herbaceous cover (including tanglehead for northern bobwhites). These surface metrics were then used to develop spatial models that can quantify habitat suitability for avian populations in rangelands. Our results show that these models can be very useful to identify suitable areas for northern bobwhite habitat as well as predicting guild richness for ground foraging avian species.
AUTHORS: Sara L. Zeigler*, Erika E. Lentz, Benjamin T. Gutierrez – U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center; Nathaniel G. Plant, U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center; Emily J. Sturdivant, E. Robert Thieler – U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
ABSTRACT: Barrier islands and other coastal landforms are highly dynamic systems, changing in response to wind, wave action, water levels, currents, and vegetation. Several forces are responsible for dynamic ecomorphological changes in these systems, including pulse-type, short-term perturbations (e.g., storms) and press-type, persistent forcing (e.g., sea-level rise). As a result of these disturbances and on-going changes, multiple stable ecomorphological states exist for barrier islands. In this study, we used a probabilistic Bayesian network approach to investigate the likelihood of shifts in alternative equilibrium states on Fire Island, New York under several sea-level rise (SLR) scenarios. Specifically, we highlight areas that are most likely (i) to become inundated, (ii) to shift from one non-inundated state (or landcover type) to another (e.g., a forest becomes beach), or (iii) to remain in the current landcover state. We further explore potential correlates with each of these response types—including surrounding landcover diversity, distance from human development, and elevation—while also determining SLR thresholds at which point inundation is more likely than other response types. We conclude by discussing the implications of these likely ecomorphological changes for people and the federally protected piping plover (Charadrius melodus) – namely how potential losses in above-water land may affect human development and shorebird habitats.
AUTHORS: Abel Ayon*; Doctoral student, Urban Landscape Ecology Laboratory, University of North Carolina Charlotte; Sara A. Gagne, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of North Carolina Charlotte
ABSTRACT: Our natural environment is negatively affected by urbanization. Studies demonstrate that contact with nature have direct and indirect positive effects on psychological well-being. Therefore, urban dwellers may suffer from reduced psychological well-being due to, among other factors, a lack of exposure to nature. Our objective was to understand the effect of bird diversity on human psychological well-being in low- and high-income neighborhoods in Charlotte, NC. We predicted two possible outcomes. First, bird diversity could have a larger effect on well-being in low-income neighborhoods. This is because the people in this category are starting out at very low well-being, so biodiversity can make a large difference in their well-being. Second, bird diversity could have a smaller impact in low-income neighborhoods. This is because well-being in these neighborhoods may be much more strongly determined by socio-economic factors, which swamp the effect of bird diversity. We selected nine neighborhoods according to their income and vegetation cover. We interviewed 700 residents of the chosen neighborhoods from February to June 2016. We assessed psychological well-being using the Attentional Function Index (AFI) and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). For the case of AFI, the variables “managed land” and “abundance of birds” appeared as significant factors influencing on common daily activities. On the other hand, the VAS is influenced by the variable income. From May to July of 2015, we performed point counts to identify bird diversity. From our results, abundance is much higher on low-income neighborhoods with 3420 over 2790 in high-income neighborhoods. Overall, from the community of birds among neighborhoods, around 85% are equitably distributed. We conclude that nature can have a significant positive effect on the attention of common daily activities of dwellers in Charlotte and also this discovery can be very valuable for their well-being and incur into strategies of urban planning.
AUTHORS: Nat Miller, Audubon Great Lakes; Chad B. Wilsey. National Audubon Society, Caitlin M. Jensen. National Audubon Society
ABSTRACT: Grassland habitats are threatened by both urbanization and conversion to agriculture. However, grasslands provision a variety of ecosystem services of significant value, which is of particular interest of local and county land managers. These include: flood control, groundwater recharge, water purification, and carbon sequestration as well as biodiversity protection. The National Audubon Society is working in partnership with researchers, citizen scientists and land managers across the greater Chicago metropolitan area, a seven-county region, to develop a landscape conservation plan for grasslands based on both biodiversity information and valuations of ecosystem services. Biodiversity information is quantified using models of abundance for five grassland obligate species, Eastern Meadowlark, Bobolink, Grasshopper Sparrow, Sedge Wren, and Henslow’s Sparrow. Models were built using abundance data from point count data collected by volunteer scientists. Ecosystem services were extracted from the Chicago Wilderness Green Infrastructure Vision dataset. In a GIS workflow, we identified patches of suitable habitat with an appropriate minimum abundance target for each of the five focal species, calculated the estimated abundance of birds and valuations for each ecosystem service, identified the proportion of each patch which is currently protected, and recommended future conservation focus on the largest tracts of unprotected potential habitat. Outputs provide spatially explicit recommendations for grassland bird conservation informed by both biodiversity data as well as quantitative metrics for the provisioning of ecosystem services.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Hancock Parlor
ABSTRACT: Most ecosystem services research has been disciplinary, site-based, and provincial to delimited single system boundaries. Although this stream of research still holds value to advance the understanding of numerous benefits of ecosystems and their dynamics, it is becoming more essential to understand the full range of flows moving across systems, time and spaces as the world gets more connected in multiple fronts. The notion of telecoupling supports this knowledge base as an integrative way to study coupled human and natural systems that are linked over long distances, and has been proved convincing in framing problems in many studies. This study examines the applicability of telecoupling framework in ecosystem services research with a case example of Texas rangeland ecosystem services. Rangeland ecosystem services are unique and pivotal in the context of land preservation and watershed health. They influence, and are influenced by, land management practices in a direct manner and play a key role in sustaining the livelihoods of the largest share of society. Along with the known benefits and services that rangeland ecosystems provide (e.g., cattle grazing, food production, open viewscape, clean water, carbon sequestration), the interaction between the ecological and associated human systems and invisible trajectories of ecosystem service flows across distant systems will be investigated using the lens of the telecoupling conceptual framework. By exploring the defining components of the telecoupling framework (e.g., systems, agents, flows, causes, and effects) in the larger system context, this study attempts to seek the potential to better address the issue of how ecosystem services are connected and transferred in the production-benefit cycle, and to rightly answer how to identify, prioritize, and respond to the opportunities and threats to the sustainable management of rangeland ecosystems in arid regions.
AUTHORS: Quentin D. Read*, Michigan State University; Sydne Record, Bryn Mawr College; Kyla Dahlin, Michigan State University; Phoebe L. Zarnetske, Michigan State University; Sparkle L. Malone, Florida International University; Keith Gaddis, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; John M. Grady, Bryn Mawr College; Jennifer Costanza, North Carolina State University; Martina L. Hobi, Swiss Federal Research Institute; Andrew Latimer, University of California-Davis; Stephanie Pau, Florida State University; Adam M. Wilson, University at Buffalo; Andrew Finley, Michigan State University; Scott Ollinger, University of New Hampshire
ABSTRACT: Goals: Biodiversity, the variety and distribution of species and their functions, is intimately related to geodiversity, the variety and distribution of nonliving features and processes. Novel remote sensing data products generated by NASA and other agencies show promise for increasing our understanding of this relationship. How we conceive of geodiversity and how we measure it are both critical for understanding and predicting biodiversity. We need to establish ways to conceptualize and measure landscape diversity to better conserve the living and nonliving diversity of the physical world.Approach: Here, we investigate several ways of measuring geodiversity of continuous variables, using topography as an example. We compare how well simple "spatially naive" metrics like standard deviation that ignore spatial arrangement of pixels predict variation in biodiversity compared to with more complex "spatially conscious" metrics that incorporate spatial arrangement of pixel values. Next, we compare different kernel sizes (spatial grains) ranging from 5 km to 100 km. We present relationships between these geodiversity metrics and the alpha-diversity (average species richness) and beta-diversity (variation in species across sites) of trees and birds in the continental USA.Results/Discussion: We found that spatially naive metrics of geodiversity predict biodiversity roughly as well as the spatially conscious metrics. In addition, increasing the radius over which the metrics are calculated provides different information. Interestingly, geodiversity explains little variation in alpha-diversity, but is strongly positively related to beta-diversity and gamma-diversity. This effect is especially pronounced in trees relative to birds, which may be due to their relatively poor mobility.The data processing pipeline we have developed to calculate many different geodiversity metrics at different kernel sizes is available on GitHub; we welcome collaboration and feedback.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Evelyn Merrill, University of Alberta; Mark Lewis, University of Alberta, Jacqui Frair, SUNY, Hannah McKenzie, Alberta Parks and Environment
ABSTRACT: Over the past 2 decades, new technologies in remote sensing of animal locations including GPS technology have opened the door to studying animal movement behaviors over large spatial and short temporal scales. The detailed information on animal movement can inform models that managers use to address wildlife conservation problems. We present how we have developed 2 movement models to the understanding the effect of linear features on wolf-human-elk interactions under different management scenarios.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Nathan R. De Jager, Molly Van Appledorn, Jason J. Rohweder, Yao Yin, Timothy J. Fox – USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center; Lyle J. Guyon, Andrew R. Meir, Robert J. Cosgriff, Benjamin J. Vandermyde – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
ABSTRACT: Patterns of forest succession in floodplains are difficult to predict given the stochastic nature of flooding and its importance in shaping different aspects of plant community dynamics (e.g., germination, recruitment, competition, and survival). Observational and greenhouse studies have focused on developing a quantitative understanding of how different plant species perform during flooded conditions (i.e., flood tolerance). Meanwhile, increasingly sophisticated hydraulic and geospatial modelling approaches have been developed to simulate water movement across complex landscapes. However, it remains unclear how spatial and temporal variability in patterns of inundation alter long-term and broad-scale patterns of forest succession in floodplains, because there are no simulation models that link forest successional processes with inundation dynamics. We adapted the LANDIS-II forest succession model for use in floodplains by developing a flood disturbance extension to simulate the effects of annual spatial patterns of flood inundation on the survival of tree species-age-cohorts. A case study was conducted along 1335 km (95,321 ha) of the Upper Mississippi River floodplain, USA to illustrate the functionality of the extension and evaluate potential future successional trajectories in a system with a modified hydrological regime. Results suggest that the modelling approach may be broadly applicable for efforts aimed at: 1) disentangling effects of internal stand dynamics from effects of inundation, 2) Identifying locations within complex landscapes expected to be suitable for certain species and to display certain succession trajectories, 3) evaluating whether current species distributional patterns are at equilibrium with the hydrological regime of river-floodplains, and 4) simulating effects of alternative hydrological regimes on forest succession, and in the context of other disturbances.
AUTHORS: Ginger R.H. Allington*, George Washington University; Daniel G. Brown, University of Washington
ABSTRACT: Recent initiatives to assess changes in forest cover regionally and globally are clearly important, however they necessarily overlook significant portions of the global land area; regions dominated by non-forest vegetation. Rangelands, despite their importance for livelihoods of millions of people worldwide, have not received the same methodological or thematic attention. Here, we present a new ontology for grassland classification that characterizes spatio-temporal patterns to incorporate land-cover dynamics, land-use history, and grassland condition, based on known state-and-transition (STM) vegetation dynamics. Compared to traditional discrete classification schemes, our approach draws from research on state changes to classify and interpret temporal signals of a simple vegetation index (NDVI) derived from moderate-resolution (30m) remote sensing data from Landsat sensors. We present a revised classification system based on five categories of linear and non-linear change in productivity over time, which represent distinct vegetation trajectories. We found that, while traditional land cover datasets primarily classified our case study regions as having stable classes over the timeseries, we identified many areas that experienced significant negative and non-linear trends in productivity. We also explored how our proposed classes manifest in detectable landscape patterns within our case study regions. We found that the positive trend classes tend to exhibit more regular shapes (likely due to the influence of the regular shapes of agricultural fields), while the negative trends exhibit more irregular shapes but are more aggregated at the landscape scale.Future work to quantify the global status of rangeland resources and degradation hinges on innovation in strategies for classification that encompass the dynamic nature of these systems. Our work builds on previous work on detecting trends in greenness by identifying timeseries signatures & linking them to known vegetation transitions, even in areas without change in dominant cover type.
AUTHORS: Erika E. Lentz*, Sara L. Zeigler, E. Robert Thieler – U.S. Geological Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA; Nathaniel Plant, U.S. Geological Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, FL
ABSTRACT: Sea-level rise (SLR) will result in widespread, variable, and possibly irreversible changes to built and natural coastal environments. Consequently, determining how the landscape will respond to varying amounts or rates of SLR can identify where coastal land is more likely to 1) be lost due to erosion or inundation; or 2) remain stable, and even adapt to future SLR. Through a probabilistic modeling approach, Lentz et al. [Nature Climate Change, doi: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2957,(2016)] developed a capability to forecast the likelihood that the Northeastern U.S. coast will either inundate or dynamically adapt to SLR under varying scenarios. The approach allowed us to couple known parameters (land cover, relative sea level rise scenarios, and elevation) with less well constrained components (future SLR rates and magnitudes, data uncertainties, tipping points for the response of different land cover types) to generate probabilistic estimates of future regional response at 30x30 m horizontal resolution.Using the predictions of Lentz et al. (2016), we apply uncertainty terminology to define and quantify potential changes in regional land cover state and at 26 sites representing varying levels of land cover diversity through the 2080s. Our results show that by as early as the 2020s, we cannot rule out inundation as a possible outcome for the majority of low-lying, habitable coastal land in the region– 56% of the land area comprised of marshes, beaches, forests, developed areas and rocky coast is as likely as not (P = 0.33 to 0.66) to inundate in response to SLR, increasing to 64% by the 2080s. We also find the near-term SLR resiliency and the rate at which state shifts are likely to occur are correlated with land cover heterogeneity, and alternatively, catastrophic state shifts may be more likely, sooner, in areas with lower diversity, such as heavily developed or urban locations.
AUTHORS: Mamitiana Andriamanjato, BNC-REDD+ Madagascar; Deny Christian Zafindramiadana, Zo Hasina Rabemananjara, Patrick Ranjatson, Harifidy Rakoto Ratsimba* – Department of Water and Forest, School of Agronomy
ABSTRACT: The challenge between continuous increases of demand on natural resources and the need of balancing the interests on ecosystem services to support rural livelihoods becomes today more and more critical in developing countries. In Madagascar, despite its worldwide known richness in biodiversity, policies and strategies have failed until now to develop a sustainable management of natural resources. Our study is focused on a socio-ecological analysis of the landscape in the North East of Madagascar based on institutional analysis integrating all stakeholders (resource users and decision-makers) to observe the behavior change (logical process of decision) based on landscape changes (land use and land use change perception). The observation from quantitative analysis has been added to a natural resources management role playing game to understand the weight of each actor in the arena. Thus, the process has shown that the interest of stakeholders is not only based on economic factor (especially for cash crop investment), but also, on social interaction of all stakeholders with a specific power management which is created inside the arena itself (land tenure issue). These findings have shown the complexity of driving changes inside the arena without having any driving vision based on the stakeholder’s perception themselves. In this way, to be more effective, the policy making process has to be more participative and based on the perception of local communities.
AUTHORS: Daniel Suarez*, Audubon Great Lakes; Stephanie Beilke, Audubon Great Lakes,
ABSTRACT: Prairies once dominated Illinois landscapes, but are now on the brink of extinction in the state largely because of agricultural conversion. Nevertheless, scattered grassland habitat patches and corresponding bird populations have persisted throughout Illinois, including within the highly urbanized Chicago region. However, as these grassland patches are often isolated and have varied land ownership, land management activities also tend to occur in relative isolation. Audubon Great Lakes convened the Chicago Wilderness Grassland Bird Task Force to engage Chicago region partners and strategize grassland bird conservation at a regional level. The Task Force identified a need to synthesize grassland bird data and habitat management data across the seven-county region to begin to assess the state of Chicago Wilderness grasslands and inform best management practices and future monitoring. Task Force members, including Audubon Great Lakes, Illinois Audubon Society and the Bird Conservation Network, initiated data gathering in coordination with county land managers for the purpose of associating grassland bird presence/absence with specific habitat management activities. The results of our analysis were then documented in our annual collaborative “State of the Grasslands” report, which we shared broadly with landowners and stakeholders, thus introducing managers to the practices and results of neighboring counties. Annual reports and meetings will continue to provide opportunities for Task Force members to provide and receive feedback regarding land management and monitoring practices, while reinforcing our ultimate shared goal of improving grassland habitats and bird populations in the Chicago Wilderness.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Andrew K. Carlson*, William W. Taylor, Jianguo Liu, Ivan Orlic – Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Fisheries are coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) across distant places, yet fisheries research has generally focused on better understanding either fisheries ecology or human dimensions in a specific place, rather than their interactions over distances. As economic and ideational globalization accelerate, fisheries are becoming more globally connected via movements of fish products and fisheries finances, information, and stakeholders throughout the world. As such, there is a pressing need for systematic approaches to assess these linkages among global fisheries, their effects on ecosystems and food security, and their implications for fisheries science and sustainability. Use of the telecoupling framework is a novel and insightful method to systematically evaluate socioeconomic and environmental interactions among CHANS. Here, we apply the telecoupling framework to the Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) fishery, the world’s largest single-species commercial fishery and a complex CHANS. The anchoveta fishery has diverse and significant telecouplings – socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances – with the rest of the world, including fishmeal and fish oil trade, monetary flow, knowledge transfer, and movement of people. The use of the telecoupling framework reveals complex fishery dynamics such as feedbacks (e.g., profit maximization causing fishery overcapitalization) and surprises (e.g., stock collapse) resulting from local and long-distance ecological and socioeconomic interactions. The Peruvian anchoveta fishery illustrates how the telecoupling framework can be used to systematically assess the magnitude and diversity of local and distant fisheries interactions and thereby advance knowledge derived from traditional monothematic research approaches. Insights from the telecoupling framework provide a foundation from which to develop sustainable fisheries policy and management strategies across local, national, and international levels in a globalized world.
AUTHORS: Nathan Tarr*, Matthew Rubino – North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
ABSTRACT: We are exploring landscape fragmentation metrics suitable for large numbers of habitat maps at multiple scales to determine whether and how sufficient connectivity for species with dissimilar dispersal abilities and habitat preferences can co-occur in a landscape. The USGS Gap Analysis Project (GAP) will soon release seasonal habitat maps with 30m x 30m spatial resolution for over 1,500 species within the conterminous United States. Those maps can be processed into maps of habitat networks at multiple resolutions that can then be used for habitat assessments at broad extents, as well as theoretical studies of fragmentation and connectivity. The challenge is to find a set of biologically relevant metrics of landscape pattern along with computational methods that can be used to calculate those metrics for such a large dataset. We are leveraging data from GAP and other biological databases to identify areas of fragmented habitat for individual species, assessing the configuration of habitat in fragmented networks, and assessing network similarity among multiple species that co-occur in heterogeneous landscapes. We will report on efforts to determine the biological relevance and computational challenges of calculating and aggregating landscape metrics from multiple species and discuss the challenges and opportunities for using GAP habitat maps in assessments of fragmentation given gaps in biological knowledge and limitations in GAP data. Our talk will aim to spark discussion and elicit feedback on the prospects of developing multi-species, multi-scale methods for landscape assessment that could provide new insights and hypotheses for Landscape Ecology and contextualize landscape conservation plans and tools, such as the use of surrogate species and large, forested corridors.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Robert Fletcher, University of Florida; Caroline Poli*, University of Florida; Miguel Acevedo, University of Puerto Rico; Jorge Sefair, Arizona State University; Divya Vasudev, Wildlife Conservation Society; Varun Goswami, Wildlife Conservation Society
ABSTRACT: Connectivity is fundamental to ecology, evolution, and conservation. Despite the increasing emphasis on connectivity across fields, accurately predicting and mapping connectivity in space and time has been challenging. Here we derive connectivity models from first principles regarding individual movement behavior and mortality risk across landscapes. We develop these models based on the framework of Absorbing Markov chains. These models isolate the role of the matrix on movement behavior and mortality risk, allow for straightforward integration of propagule pressure (e.g., occupancy and abundance), and provide analytical solutions for connectivity parameters of interest (e.g., probabilities of dispersal success) that explicitly acknowledge temporal variation in connectivity. We illustrate the modeling framework with both data from an experimental model system undergoing habitat loss and fragmentation as well as for human-wildlife conflict issues for elephant conservation across a broad region of India. Results from the experimental model system illustrate that this framework better predicts observed movement than existing frameworks for connectivity. Application to elephant conservation highlights how this framework can identify key areas for promoting connectivity while minimizing human-wildlife conflict. Importantly, the incorporation of mortality risk fundamentally alters predictions for connectivity. We provide guidance for the application of this framework for connectivity conservation.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: David Theobald*, Conservation Science Partners; David Merritt, USDA Forest Service; Ian Leinwand, Conservation Science Partners
ABSTRACT: Riparian ecosystems are important landscape features, particularly in arid regions, because of the disproportionate biodiversity found in them. Riparian ecosystems are also important because they naturally connecting broader landscapes across ecological gradients, and hence they are key to climate change adaptation. Assessing riparian ecosystems at regional extents remains challenging because the fine-scale of riparian features, as well as the multitude of human land uses that stress these ecosystems. Because climate change has increasingly altered important ecological processes that drive riparian ecosystems, characterizing the geomorphic setting in which these processes operate, particularly longitudinal and lateral connectivity, is key. Here we describe our methods to map valley bottoms in the western US and characterize them using the Hydro-Geomorphological Valley Bottom classification. We found that reservoirs can store between 16% to 200+% of the annual stream discharge delivered to streams, and that about 15% of the West’s valley riparian areas are modified by roads, development, or agriculture.
AUTHORS: Andrew J. Elmore, Heath Kelsey, Dylan Taillie – University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
ABSTRACT: The Tennessee River Basin is home to over 5 million people and some of the most diverse biological communities found anywhere in the United States. Similar to many regions of the United States, the ecological condition of the landscape is impacted by stressors such as development, agricultural runoff, and impoundments. Managing environmental resources in the basin requires synoptic data on where natural resources are and progress towards protecting those resources from the dominate stressors. One way of communicating these challenges, and progress towards stated conservation goals, is through the use of environmental report cards. Environmental report cards have been developed for a wide range of habitats revealing many common themes related to the specificity of the indicators, our ability to scale the indicators to meaningful thresholds, and update the grades at temporal frequency matching the frequency of decision making. Leveraging information gained at stakeholder meetings, we created an environmental report card that synthesized data on the spatial configuration of stressors, ecological condition, and management responses for the entire Tennessee River Basin. A key component was the evaluation of land cover and land protection status within forest core and corridor regions important for maintaining forest connectivity across the basin. Based on an unweighted evaluation of 13 indicators, the Tennessee River Basin received a grade of C. Individual indicator scores ranged from F to A, and varied widely across this diverse basin.
AUTHORS: Georgia Basso*, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Jamie M.P. Vaudrey, University of Connecticut; Kevin O’Brien, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection; Melissa Albino Hegeman, Victoria O’Neill – New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
ABSTRACT: Coastal habitats like wetlands, rivers, and eelgrass are extremely vulnerable and valuable to humans. Their continued decline has an impact on people and ecosystems. Understanding land use and land cover change is a critical component of effective landscape scale planning. A small team of habitat experts conducted the first assessment of tidal wetland change over the past 130 years for the Long Island Sound National Estuary. We also assessed change in river condition and eelgrass habitat in this estuary. Drawing on a recent ecosystem service assessment, we quantified the economic impact of habitat change and the effect that land cover change has on ecosystem services including carbon and nitrogen sequestration. Understanding land cover change is valuable for goal setting and helps prevent shifting ecological baselines. Historic information provides perspective and can galvanize public support. Understanding the extent and impacts of this change is the first step to designing and protecting a landscape that provides the level of ecological function and value that people desire.
AUTHORS: Iara Lacher*, Tom Akre, William McShea, Jonathan Thompson, Craig Fergus – Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
ABSTRACT: Human activity has altered over 50 % of the terrestrial landscape, with detrimental effects on ecosystems. If the current trend continues, biodiversity loss will intensify with potentially irreversible consequences on wildlife and human well-being. Advances in satellite data, GIS, and statistical modeling can provide a unique opportunity for tracking global change and understanding underlying drivers. These data are essential to planning for a brighter future, but only if we can connect to and engage with decision makers on issues of mutual benefit. Our research integrates feedback from regional stakeholders into a spatially explicit land use change model to illustrate future landscapes under five different scenarios. We developed scenarios with a group of stakeholders with diverse natural resource and socio-economic backgrounds. These scenarios represent futures spanning wide demographic differences and planning efforts that range from strategic to opportunistic. Starting with environmental and socio-economic data, we incorporated local knowledge of future development densities and a logistic growth sub-model using population projections provided by academics and state governments. We used the modeling platform DinamicaEGO to create maps representing 50-year projections in land use change for each scenario. Projected land use futures demonstrated how each scenario affected the total area and overall connectivity of forest patches in our study area of Northwestern VA. Overall, forest cover decreased in every scenario, however patch size, core area, and spatial configuration differed depending on whether development concentrated near urban areas or sprawled across the landscape. In addition, all scenarios resulted in a loss of forested buffers around large, existing protected lands. The spatial configuration of forests and their role as protected areas buffers is relevant to wildlife conservation, recreation, and freshwater provisioning and quality. Our approach illustrates an example for how to balance engagement, credibility, saliency, and legitimacy in the burgeoning field of translational ecology.
AUTHORS: Chad Wilsey*, Lotem Taylor – National Audubon Society; Arvind Pinjabi, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies; Caitlin Jensen, Gary M. Langham – National Audubon Society
ABSTRACT: For more than 40 years, grassland birds in North America have been in decline due largely to land conversion. Recent landcover change analyses show that high rates of grassland conversion continue in part due to energy policy and that conversion is highest in portions of the Midwest. In addition, the highest climate change velocities in North American are predicted to occur in the Great Plains, making climate change an emerging threat to this already imperiled group. We assessed that threat using a model-based, climate change vulnerability assessment of 35 grassland bird species under greenhouse gas reduction commitments in the Paris Agreement. We found that 63% of North American grassland bird species have moderate to high vulnerability to climate change under the Agreement, but that this could be reduced to 40% with further emissions reductions. We further explore the vulnerability of a subset of species with significant proportions of their population occurring in the Midwest and identify similar rates of regional vulnerability. Therefore, continued policy actions to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions are urgently needed to protect grassland birds in addition to the reversal of energy policies that promotes grasslands conversion for biofuel production.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:30am - 11:45am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Yueyue Du, Jianguo Liu, Jian Peng, Yanglin Wang
ABSTRACT: The Belt and Road Initiative connects the active East Asia and the developed Western Europe, beneficial to the countries along the New Silk Road occupying 50% of extreme-poverty population in the world. Water resource becomes one of the most restraining factors during the development of Western Asia and Northern Africa. Virtual water flows embedded in telecoupling trade would affect local water resource pressure; climate change and social-economic development also matter much for water supply and utilization. According to our study, water security situation is evaluated through identifying telecoupling pattern of virtual water and examining self-support ratio of fresh water resource during 2000-2015. “Virtual water flow distance” is calculated among groups of adjacent or distant countries, and water saving effect is also assessed. Moreover, considering climate change and social-economic development scenarios (Year 2050), the virtual water flows and water security pattern change will be explored to find the potential challenges and chances facing the whole New Silk Road regions and China.
AUTHORS: Yun Zhao*, Peter Kedron, Amy Frazier – Oklahoma State University
ABSTRACT: More than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas, and the percentage is only projected to increase. Despite growth in the use and development of spatial pattern metrics to measure urban form, experts have yet to reach agreement on how to best measure the structure of urban environments. As a result, we remain several steps removed from connecting urban patterns to their causal processes. While research suggests that the height and shape of the urban environment may influence ecological processes (e.g., heat islands), researchers to date have mainly adopted traditional 2D spatial pattern metrics to describe and analyze urban landscapes. While 2D spatial pattern metrics catapulted spatial pattern analysis to the forefront of quantitative ecological assessment and have been instrumental in advancing theories of pattern-process relations, these metrics fail to capture a critical dimension of urban form. In this study, we introduce several new 3D spatial pattern metrics to assess the structure of the urban environment. Specifically, we use lidar data, which is increasingly available, to extend the existing set of 2D patch-, class-, and landscape-metrics into three dimensions. We compute these metrics for 12 cities in the United States, which collectively represent a range of urban development histories and ecological regions, as a first step toward describing and analyzing relationships between 3D patterns and urban ecological processes.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:30am - 11:45am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Daniel Bampoh*, Purdue University; Julia E. Earl, Louisiana Tech University; Patrick Zollner, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Active subsidies are resource transfers by animals navigating ecosystems within landscapes. Animal movement behavior has the potential to significantly mediate the extent and intensity of ecological subsidies and corresponding ecosystem responses. Correlated random walk (CRW) and Lévy walk (LW) models are stochastic random-walk patterns that simulate animal dispersal and foraging movement behavior. We use spatially explicit individual-based model (IBM) simulations to investigate the relative effect of CRW and LW with mortality on the intensity and extent of nutrient (dead) and consumer (living) subsidy distribution. We found that variation in movement pattern scaling is the most significant determinant of the distances over which subsidies are deposited and the mortality probability was the strongest predictor of the impact or density of subsidy deposition for both living (consumer) and dead (nutrient or energy) subsidies. Consumer subsidies deposit further and at lower densities than nutrient subsidies, and straighter (CRW) and more scale-invariant (LW) movement result in the further displacement at lower densities for both consumer and nutrient subsidies. More scale-invariant (LW) movement at lower mortality deposits subsidies further and at lower densities than straighter (CRW) movements for both consumer and nutrient subsidies. Sinuous (CRW) and less scale-invariant (LW) movements deposit subsidies closer to the ecosystem boundary with higher densities at high mortality. Mortality as a function of distance deposits higher amounts of nutrient subsidies at lower densities than mortality as a function of time for LW. The results underscore the importance of characteristic animal movement behavior to understand and potentially predict variations in the impacts of animal-transported subsidies, which could have implications for species conservation, wildlife, and invasive species management.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:30am - 11:45am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Amanda Girard*, Simon Fraser University, School of Resource and Environmental Management; Sari Saunders, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development; Paul Alaback, University of Montana; Ken Lertzman, Simon Fraser University, School of Resource and Environmental Management; Brian Buma, University of Alaska; Heather Klassen, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations
ABSTRACT: Old-growth riparian forests are structurally complex and some of the most diverse ecosystems in the North Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest (NPCTR); however, regional variation in the structure and composition of these ecosystems is poorly understood. Having a strong understanding of this variability and its drivers is critical for refining landscape-level theory and models of old-growth development to inform conservation of riparian forests. We examined tree, snag, and coarse woody debris data from permanent, stand-mapped, Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) floodplain sample plots across 11° of latitude, from Southeast Alaska, along the British Columbia Coast, to Washington State. A combination of univariate, graphical, and multivariate analyses were used to assess variability in characteristics among these plots and against previously published data, and to evaluate the relative roles of climate, disturbance regime, biophysical site features, and their interactions in driving riparian structure. Two principal components explained 74% of variation in stand characteristics. The first component was associated with mean tree diameter at breast height (DBH), standard deviation (SD) of tree DBH, and number of large stems/ha (>100cm). The second component was strongly correlated with Sitka spruce density and total number of medium stems/ha (50cm 7.5cm (mean = 280 ± 161 SD), was higher in northern latitudes, and there were greater numbers of large trees in the south (mean = 25.98 ± 16.99 SD). Sub-regional climate was the primary driver of differences in plot characteristics, separating perhumid and seasonal rainforest riparian ecosystems. Levels of structural variation were consistent with our review of previous work on Sitka spruce floodplain forests in the NPCTR, suggesting consistent approaches to management and conservation of riparian systems may be effective across this latitudinal extent.
AUTHORS: Qun Ma*, Beijing Normal University; Jianguo Wu, Arizona State University & Beijing Normal University; Chunyang He, Beijing Normal University; Xuening Fang, Beijing Normal University
ABSTRACT: The rapid expansion of surface coal mining on the Mongolian Plateau has resulted in a myriad of environmental problems, negatively affecting ecosystem structure and function as well as ecosystem services that are essential to human wellbeing in the region. To effectively copy with the current environmental problems and develop sustainable solutions for the Mongolian Plateau, it is imperative to understand the spatiotemporal patterns of surface coal mining and its impacts on the environment during the past several decades. The objective of this study was, therefore, to use spatially explicit methods to quantify landscape dynamics of surface coal mining on the Mongolian Plateau from the 1970s to 2015, and assess its impacts on land cover and water resources. Our results showed that surface coal mining areas on the Mongolian Plateau expanded extremely fast during the study period, with an annual growth rate of 9. 13% - nearly two times that of population (5. 56%) for the same period. The rapid expansion of surface coal mining destroyed large areas of habitat. Grasslands were the most severely disturbed ecosystem type by the surface coal mining. Surface coal mining also consumed an enormous amount of water, with total water use increasing from 135. 85 million tons to 2315. 76 million tons between 1990 and 2015. Our findings help improve our understanding of how surface coal mining impacts ecosystem structure and function, which is necessary for developing strategies for promoting sustainable development in the Mongolian Plateau.
AUTHORS: Georgia Basso*, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Jamie M.P. Vaudrey, University of Connecticut; Kevin O’Brien, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection; Juliana Barrett, University of Connecticut
ABSTRACT: Coastal areas are among the most biologically rich regions in the world. However, human activity has decreased their ecological value and function, and in many coastal areas, restoration is not as effective as it could be. Limited success is largely attributed to vague goals, disjointed small-scale projects, and a lack of science-informed planning. Quantifying coastal habitat health at a landscape-scale can aid in setting better land use and restoration goals. In this study we developed landscape metrics as a framework and applied this framework to comprehensively assess habitat condition for the first time across multiple priority habitat types in the Long Island Sound National Estuary. The Long Island Sound is one of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 28 estuaries designated as nationally significant through the EPA National Estuary Program. In this study we also review landscape-scale habitat assessment progress within four other EPA designated national estuaries across the country. Results can be applied to establish and track ecosystem-health-oriented goals that improve coastal habitat function and resilience across a mosaic of land covers. Quantitative, landscape-scale frameworks are timely and can be leveraged to improve restoration success throughout coastal ecosystems. Effective protection, particularly in urban coastal areas, is increasingly important as we continue to learn about connections between healthy landscapes, economies, and people.
AUTHORS: Esther Parish,Keith Kline, Latha Baskaran - Center for BioEnergy Sustainability, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Virginia Dale,Emma Tobin - Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department, University of Tennessee; Anna Herzberger,Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University; Colin Phifer,School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University; Bob Abt,Carl Alwin Schenck Professor of Forestry, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: This presentation summarizes recent and ongoing research to evaluate the potential benefits and tradeoffs of producing industrial wood pellets from forests of the Southeastern United States (SE US) for use as a renewable fuel in European electricity generation. Nearly all of the SE US industrial pellets produced since 2009 have been shipped to Europe to serve as a substitute for coal. Although this global exchange has developed in response to European Union goals to mitigate climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, groups on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have expressed concerns that the trade arrangement has led (or will lead) to negative impacts on SE US forests. Concerns include potential loss of old growth and bottomland forests and associated ecosystem services and species as well as the calculated GHG emission levels. We maintain that concerns about impacts need to be analyzed based on best available empirical data associated with environmental, social, and economic indicators of sustainability. We present the results of several quantitative and qualitative analyses related to an accepted set of bioenergy sustainability indicators and discuss next steps.
AUTHORS: Matthew P. Mulligan*, Lincoln Park Zoo; Mason Fidino, Lincoln Park Zoo; Michael J. Yabsley, University of Georgia; Seth B. Magle, Lincoln Park Zoo; Rachel M. Santymire, Lincoln Park Zoo
ABSTRACT: Although small mammals are key prey species and have top-down effects on vegetation, their ecology and health are often underexplored in urban environments. Our study aims to understand small mammal population dynamics along an urban to exurban gradient in the Chicago metropolitan area and evaluate stress levels and disease prevalence to determine how surrounding landscapes can influence small mammal health. The research objectives are to: 1) Determine small mammal presence/absence and relative abundance, 2) Examine population size and community composition, 3) Evaluate small mammal physiological stress in varied urban habitats, 4) Determine the presence of Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) on an urban to exurban gradient. Three sessions of live-trapping occurred at 10 sites from May to August of 2017 for 3 consecutive nights resulting in 729 captures of 478 individual small mammals. Meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) and deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) represented over 80% of individuals captured with meadow voles seemingly the dominant species in suburban sites (68.9%). However, vole and deer mouse abundance were quite similar in more urban regions, albeit at lower overall numbers. Species richness did not significantly vary between regions, but was typically driven by one or two species-rich sites. Tick dragging and gathering ticks from small mammals resulted in 52 ticks in 2017. A subset of these ticks will be submitted for Lyme disease testing along with other potential pathogens. Stress hormones (glucocorticoid metabolites) will be extracted from meadow vole and deer mouse hair samples to characterize chronic (long-term) stress levels at varying habitats. Year two study expansions include on-site vegetation sampling and landscape connectivity measures through surrounding corridor investigation. Long-term wildlife camera data will be paired with trapping data to consider relationships between small mammals and urban mesocarnivores.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:45am - 12:00pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Paul McCord*, Francesco Tonini, Jianguo Liu – Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University.
ABSTRACT: Global challenges, such as chronic hunger in developing and developed regions, loss of wildlife habitat, and the continuing rise of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, can be addressed only through an integrated approach. The telecoupling framework is one such approach: it explores socioeconomic and environmental interactions among coupled human-natural systems over distances. The telecoupling framework is therefore well-positioned to provide new insights to persistent global sustainability challenges. To operationalize the framework, we have developed the Telecoupling GeoApp, a new web-GIS application that provides researchers and practitioners with a useful platform to address globally important issues such as international trade, species invasion, biodiversity conservation, and land-use change. The GeoApp features mapping and geospatial analysis tools to visualize and quantify the five major interrelated components of the telecoupling framework (systems, flows, agents, causes, and effects). In this presentation, we demonstrate the GeoApp’s functionality by applying it to a case study in which distant systems interact across space and time: the Brazil-China soybean telecoupling. Particularly, we investigate land cover change, carbon storage, species habitat quality, and crop production outcomes that are produced by this telecoupling. We also offer a demonstration of several GeoApp tools. It is our hope that this web application will be valuable to a range of users exploring telecouplings and outcomes across distant coupled human-natural systems for achieving sustainable development goals.
AUTHORS: Kurt Riitters, US Department of Agriculture Forest Service
ABSTRACT: Amount and adjacency are the two most fundamental aspects of pattern. The ancient SLOSS debate exemplifies the distinction between the “amount” and the “pattern” of habitat which is often drawn from a wildlife ecology perspective. From a pattern perspective, however, amount is the most fundamental aspect of pattern simply because no other pattern metric can be interpreted independently of amount. The evidence that adjacency is the second most fundamental aspect of pattern comes from empirical tests using categorical maps and from the observation that aggregates of (most) patch-based metrics are predictable from amount and adjacency. Since categorical maps can be represented as networks, it should be no surprise that vertex size (amount) and edge connections (adjacency) are the fundamental metrics in graph theoretical representations of landscape patterns. Fractal dimensions form a third conceptual representation of patterns, but many fractal dimensions simply describe the scaling of sets of locations (amount), or distances (adjacency). The conundrum is this: if amount and adjacency are the most fundamental aspects of pattern, then how can any “new” metric be based on anything else? One possibility is to escape into the temporal dimension of pattern, wherein concepts such as a shifting landscape mosaic can bring new meanings to the same fundamental measurements. Another escape is into the scale dimensions of pattern (again), wherein previous “fractal” and “scale domain” applications have only scratched the surface of what may be possible. Time permitting, this presentation illustrates concepts with examples from recent national assessments of landscape patterns.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:45am - 12:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Laura E. D'Acunto*, Patrick A. Zollner – Purdue University
ABSTRACT: The growing popularity of ecotourism and recreational activities within natural areas has increased the frequency and density of humans using these areas. This disturbance can have cascading effects on animal behaviors such as increased vigilance, avoidance of preferred habitat frequented by humans, and decreases in offspring care. Each of these behaviors can lead to decreased individual fitness or a decrease in fitness at the population level. Simulation of Disturbance Activities (SODA) is an established spatially-explicit, individual-based simulation modelling tool developed to explore the impacts of human recreation on individual animal behavior and fitness and to identify potential management strategies to mitigate these adverse impacts. The tool has been successfully applied to a wide range of taxa that experience human recreational disturbance from endangered butterflies, a passerine bird community, bats, and nesting golden eagles. In its current form, SODA does not explicitly address population-level impacts of human disturbance on simulated wildlife. Here, we present a Python-based tool that works as a wrap-around program to SODA which uses simulation output to generate population level data and generates spatially-explicit inputs for the next simulation in a time-series. Used together with SODA, SODA-POP asks the user to identify how population parameters such as survival, births, immigration, and emigration should be defined and then generates the necessarily data files for assessing population-level impacts of human disturbance in the model. We demonstrate this new tool’s utility with a case study on the potential population-level impacts of human disturbance to bat maternity roosts over a decade within central Indiana forests.
Monday April 9, 2018 11:45am - 12:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: John Vogler*, Ross Meentemeyer, Jelena Vukomanovic – North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Population growth and accelerating urbanization profoundly transform urban and rural landscapes worldwide and represent a major global sustainability challenge of the 21st century. Understanding the co-evolution of people and the built environment is essential for assessing impacts to natural resources, ecosystems, and land availability and for monitoring and identifying places in need of more sustainable patterns of development. This research tracks human footprint across the urban-rural landscape of the conterminous U.S. by quantifying and mapping trends in settlement density, land consumption and use efficiency at the turn of the century (1990-2010). We coupled percent impervious surface cover (developed land) data from the National Land Cover Database with standardized block group population and housing data from Decennial Censuses (1990, 2000, 2010). We analyzed changes in patterns of urban, suburban, exurban, and rural housing densities, and uniquely assessed spatial and temporal variation in total and per capita developed land consumption and use efficiency along this urban-rural gradient. By 2010, proportions of total land area (~7.66M km2) in urban, suburban, exurban, and rural densities were 0.2%, 1.9%, 19.9%, and 80%. Lands under urban, suburban, and exurban densities saw 17.6, 41.3, and 28.5 percent increases. Conversely, rural density areas decreased 6.1% with rural-exurban transitions occurring over 5.1% of the U.S. Despite rural impervious developed land totaling ~25% of the 22 million combined developed acres found in urbanizing areas, less people result in a disproportionate share of higher footprints (averaging 1.8 ac/person) with diminished use efficiencies in rural landscapes, where the environmental impacts of development are perhaps even more significant. Not surprisingly, consumption rates dropped precipitously toward denser urban cores, averaging 0.03 acres/person nationally, where greater city efficiencies can, but do not always, yield more sustainable futures. We conclude by applying these fine scale metrics to case studies comparing and highlighting U.S. megaregions.
AUTHORS: Darin Kopp*, Daniel Allen – University of Oklahoma, Department of Biology
ABSTRACT: The redistribution of materials and energy across ecosystem boundaries suggests ex situ factors contribute to local food webs. The significance of terrestrial inputs to stream and river ecosystems has been well documented but comparatively less attention has been devoted to aquatic inputs in terrestrial ecosystems. Emergent insects, develop in aquatic environments and shuttle resources to terrestrial systems as winged adults dispersing overland. The distance they travel from the stream is contingent the production and composition of the local benthic macroinvertebrate community. Here, we control for these sources of variability to assess the role of stream network geometry in determining the spatial extent of aquatic-derived resources in terrestrial environments. At the watershed scale, the configuration of the entire river network could influence the amount of contact between aquatic and terrestrial systems and create areas of locally intensified aquatic inputs when adjacent tributaries are in close proximity to one another. We estimated the proportion of a watershed receiving aquatic inputs for ~1,300 stream networks across the contiguous US and tested the relative roles of network geometry and several hydroclimate variables in defining these patterns. Given high in-stream productivity, we found up to 36% of the watershed could be subjected to 25% of the insect biomass exported form a stream and that the spatial extent was strongly related to stream network drainage density. Confluence density, effective basin width and channel sinuosity were related to the proportion of the watershed receiving inputs from >2 source streams. Further, these watershed characteristics differed between ecoregions and were potentially related to differences in hydroclimatic variables. This work complements theoretical developments with realistic stream networks sampled across a broad spatial extent and demonstrates the hydrogeomorphic template alone could constrain the spatial extent of aquatic resources in terrestrial ecosystems.
AUTHORS: Karl Gnaedinger*, The Nature Conservancy, Northeastern Illinois University
ABSTRACT: The identification and inventory of remnant-dependent or conservative species is an essential prerequisite to sound reserve selection and management in severely fragmented regions. We expanded an ongoing study of insect conservatism to include approximately 1200 additional species on 50 prairie and savanna remnants in the Chicago Wilderness Region (CW), USA. Approximately 700 surveys were conducted from 1995 to 2012, with special emphasis placed on 15 high quality reserves. Our objectives were to: 1) gauge the prevalence of conservatism among remnant-inhabiting insects; 2) determine the status of each conservative species; and 3) gauge the extent that small, isolated sites contribute to the preservation of biodiversity in this landscape. Seventeen percent of 2424 species considered were determined to be narrowly associated with remnant habitats, suggesting that the overall prevalence of conservatism among CW insects is low. One hundred and seventy nine (44%) of these species were rarely or never encountered and are considered to be of conservation concern. Species richness for 15 high quality sites of 2 to 600 ha in area ranged from 39 to 167 species, demonstrating that small, isolated sites contribute appreciably to the preservation of biodiversity in this fragmented landscape. A comparison of vulnerable insect, plant and vertebrate species richness suggests that conservative insect species far outnumber conservative plant and special-concern vertebrate species, and given their apparent rarity, should play a pivotal role in the establishment of conservation priorities within the CW and probably throughout much of the mid-continental United States.
AUTHORS: Anna Herzberger, Michigan State University; Jing Sun, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Yuxin Tong, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Yue Dou, Michigan State University; Ciara Hovis, Michigan State University; Benli Chai, Michigan State University; Fang Wang, Chinese Academy of Sciences; James Tiedje, Michigan State University; Jianguo (Jack) Liu, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: International food trade and globalized agriculture production have significantly increased over the past several decades resulting in telecouplings where domestic food consumption relies on distant production. For instance, to meet rising demands China imports large amounts of soybeans from Brazil and the United States. The environmental (e.g., deforestation) and socioeconomic effects (e.g., increased GDP) of soybean production have been widely studied in the exporting countries. However, little is known about the environmental effects of soybean trade in importing countries such as how crop conversion patterns affect soil health. Soil health is an indictor of ecosystem function and is determined by analyzing the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. By collecting 250 soil samples and conducting farmer interviews in Heilongjiang, the leading soybean producing area of China, this study examines the influence of soybean imports on farmer decisions and the subsequent impact on soil health. In response to low domestic soybean prices many farmers made telecoupled managed decisions by converting soybean cultivation to corn or rice cultivation. Results show differences in soil health were associated with environmental characteristics, crop choice (e.g., corn, rice, soybeans) and management decisions (e.g., rotation practices, fertilizer inputs, residue management). For example, farmers in the western region mainly converted soybean to corn production, which should increase the amount of organic matter in soil. However, because many farmers removed crop residue for fuel and fodder, organic matter content decreased with conversion to corn cultivation. As international food trade continues to telecouple distant parts of the world, understanding the complex relationships that connect macro-scale and micro-scale processes is necessary to achieve global food security and realize environmental sustainability.
AUTHORS: Brian R. Pickard*, Environmental Defense Fund; Ross K. Meentemeyer, Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: For decades, land change scientists have applied various contingency table-derived measures to quantify the accuracy of simulated landscapes. These measures, primarily adapted from remote sensing, are chiefly concerned with determining if a given pixel is correctly classified in a specific location, and whether the overall mapped proportions are correct. Since the pixel is the fundamental unit of analysis, the accuracy of the configurations of mapped land cover patches is largely ignored. However, landscape ecology is founded on the premise that patch-level patterns influence ecological processes. The challenge remains for the land change profession to therefore reconcile the need to consider spatial patterning with the traditional accuracy methods adapted from remote sensing perspectives. We illustrate a methodology for capturing spatial configuration, termed configuration disagreement, designed to be complimentary to the traditional, widely accepted accuracy measures of quantity and allocation. Using the FUTURES model, we simulate multiple configurations of urban growth for ten counties surrounding the growing megaregion of Charlotte, North Carolina. By holding the proportion of new development consistent and only manipulating the spatial arrangements of simulated pixels, we are able to isolate how pattern influences allocation and configuration accuracy values. Our results demonstrate that by varying the spatial configurations, correctly classifying a pixel in a specific location may improve allocation accuracy but fail to capture the discrete mosaic of patches necessary to represent landscape elements across an entire region. The degree to which simulated and observed spatial configurations of land change match, irrespective of where the specific location of land change category occurs, is likely a more appropriate method for assessing land change model accuracy. This work illustrates the need to move from away from pixel to pixel accuracy classifications, and instead focus on developing accuracy metrics that are appropriate for spatial ecology and land change modeling research.
Monday April 9, 2018 1:30pm - 1:45pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: John Clare*, Nanfeng Liu, Ben Zuckerberg, Phil Townsend – University of Wisconsin
ABSTRACT: Resource-matching, or organismal co-location with specific resources, is a widely observed theoretical phenomena that underpins many efforts to model species occurrence, abundance, or movement. Many resource-matching analyses assume that patterns in occurrence at a location at a specific time relate to optimal behavior at that location, but this is rarely evaluated. We assessed variability in White-tailed deer behaviors (foraging, resting, vigilance) observed using remote cameras across Wisconsin in order to determine the spatial and temporal scales at which these behaviors most strongly varied, and whether deer foraging behavior was linked to spatial and temporal differences in vegetation productivity derived from satellite-based indices. Deer practiced behavioral-resource matching in that they were more likely to forage in times and places where vegetation productivity was greater. Other behaviors were more strongly linked to alternative factors: for example, resting behavior exhibited diel variability but was less likely at sites predators used. Our results suggest that animals may alter and match their behaviors to their surrounding environs, but that the spatiotemporal scale that influences specific behaviors is highly variable.
Monday April 9, 2018 1:30pm - 1:45pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Sarah Gergel, University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT: Participatory mapping is an important method of characterizing landscapes yet it has only recently been embraced by much of the landscape ecology and environmental science communities. Participatory techniques range widely, encompassing “low-tech” pen-and-paper exercises to use of big data and mobile remote sensing units. Most importantly, participatory mapping emphasizes the direct involvement of local people to characterize landscape features, human activities, ecosystem services and/or resource use. Participatory approaches potentially include sites of cultural significance as well as travel routes. Rigorous quantitative methods for evaluating participatory outputs remain elusive, however. Furthermore, comparisons between participatory mapping outputs versus conventionally-produced landscape ecological maps (such as remote sensing products) is a key research need. Here I outline some of the primary contrasts in output from participatory versus remote-sensing approaches, as well as discuss the benefits and limitations of each for assessing landscape heterogeneity and characterizing local ecological knowledge over broad spatio-temporal scales. I aim to provide recommendations for building better conceptual and technical bridges that support incorporation of participatory mapping into landscape ecological assessments in a variety of settings (from terrestrial to aquatic to marine landscapes). Additionally, I aim to set up the over-arching question for our subsequent special session: What is the future of participatory mapping and geospatial citizen science?
AUTHORS: Melissa Lucash, Portland State University; Robert Scheller*, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Forest managers must consider how climate change will alter the resilience and sustainability and use this information to guide their decision-making. We used a state-of-the-art forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) in conjunction with LandViz, a new web-based visualization tool, to project how climate change will affect the spatial patterns of resilience to disturbances (i.e. wind, insects, and fire) and forest management in north-central Minnesota, USA. We explored management options for maximizing resiliency (i.e. current practices, maximizing economic returns, maximizing carbon storage and climate change adaptation). Resilience was significantly lower under climate change, though there was wide variation among climate change scenarios. Only climate-adaptive management had consistently higher resilience under climate change. We demonstrate that only a substantial shift in simulated forest practices was successful in promoting resilience in central MN under climate change. Visualization was key to developing our scenarios and communicating results back to forest managers although substantial resources are required for maintenance of customized visualization applications and long-term storage of data.
AUTHORS: Nathan Gill*, Clark University; Dan Jarvis, Vermont Technical College; Tom Veblen, University of Colorado; John Rogan, Clark University; Dominik Kulakowski, Clark University
ABSTRACT: Understory vegetation and ground cover drive many important ecosystem processes, including tree seedling regeneration. The exact effect of ground cover on tree seedling establishment, survival, and growth is dependent on biophysical context. In subalpine forests, this context is largely determined by disturbances such as beetle outbreak, blow down, and fire. Compounded disturbances that overlap in short succession can alter stand properties and trajectories in ways that are not predictable from the additive impact of individual disturbances. The aim of this study is to examine how compounded Dendroctonus rufipennis (Spruce Beetle) outbreak followed by fire and compounded wind blowdown followed by fire each influence the relationship between post-fire ground cover and conifer regeneration. We measured categorical ground cover percentages and conifer regeneration densities in permanent plots from 2003-2014 after stand-replacing fires of 2002 burned stands that had been blown down in 1997, affected by SB outbreak in the 1940s, or neither. We created mixed-effect models to measure the relationships between stand attributes and post-fire ground cover as well as between post-fire ground cover and conifer regeneration densities. Ground cover patterns were sensitive to compounded disturbances, and the relationships between conifer regeneration and ground cover were fundamentally different when fire was preceded by another disturbance. Conifer regeneration densities increased with increased litter coverage in stands that only burned, but decreased with increased litter coverage in stands that were blown down and then burned. Similarly, herbaceous cover changed from facilitative to competitive when fire was preceded by SB outbreak. These compound effects via ground cover are at play across stands of varying composition and structural stage and potentially across broad spatiotemporal scales.
AUTHORS: Daniel L. Childers, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
ABSTRACT: Homo sapiens is becoming an increasingly urban species, pointing to the profound importance of understanding urban ecosystems. Urban ecology and landscape ecology are coupled through a mutual concern for spatial dynamics and social-ecological interactions, as well as by informing decision making. Many of these dynamics and interactions are manifest in Urban Ecological Infrastructure (UEI), defined as the terrestrial, aquatic, and wetland ecological features that are found throughout all cities. UEI includes everything from urban streams to street trees, from parks to residential yards, and most UEI is designed or managed to some degree. UEI provides a wide assortment of ecosystem services to urban dwellers, and it is often designed and managed to provide those services. The Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Tern Ecological Research Program has been studying a wide assortment of UEI features for 20 years. Examples include a major stormwater management system that doubles as an urban park in Scottsdale AZ, a constructed treatment wetland that is part of the largest wastewater treatment plant in Phoenix, and “accidental” wetlands in the riverbed of the otherwise dry Salt River. In the first two examples, the UEI feature was designed to provide specific ecosystem services, such as stormwater management or surface water filtration, but we have found that other services emerged from these ecosystems. The “accidental” wetlands were neither designed nor are they managed; regardless, we have found a number of ecosystem services that these UEI features are also providing. As we move forward towards more sustainable cities, and the use of strategic UEI increases, its design and management need to be informed by the best principles of urban ecology and landscape science.
AUTHORS: Mayra I. Rodriguez-Gonzalez*, Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University; Brady S. Hardiman, Forestry and Natural Resources & Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Incorporating ecosystem services, the benefits humans obtain from nature, into planning can enable better and more sustainable land management decisions. Large-scale assessments of ecosystem services can vary greatly, especially across urban-to-rural gradients. Areas providing multiple ecosystem services are landscape-specific and subject to current human-to-ecosystem dynamics. In this study, we integrate geospatial data layers, ecosystem services models, and social data to explore the nature and ecology of spatial patterns and arrangements of multi-service providing areas across the urban-to-rural gradient of the Chicago region. We consider that accessibility, or the potential to reach and benefit from service providing areas, must be an active and integral component of management strategies in urban ecosystems. Although desirable, accessibility may not correlate positively with high levels of ecosystem service provisioning. Thus, we explore the social, spatial, and ecological trade-offs necessary to characterize accessibility. This study incorporates multi-scale spatial and sociodemographic analyses of beneficiaries’ perception, understanding, and potential usage of service providing areas as measures of consumption equity and ease of use. Our work advances understanding of the socio-ecological dynamics underlying human interactions within urban-to-rural gradients.
AUTHORS: Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva, State University of Campinas; Mateus Batistella, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation
ABSTRACT: The Paraíba Valley, Southeastern Brazil, has experienced long-term land-use and land-cover changes during the last decades. One of the most recent processes was the expansion of eucalyptus plantations to supply the international demand of cellulose pulp. A multitemporal assessment (1985—2011) based on remote sensing and spatial analyses was developed to understand the patterns of landscape changes. The analyses focused on private properties including eucalyptus plantations and other land covers. The results showed an increase of 160% (144sq.km to 375sq.km) of eucalyptus plantations and 185% (98sq.km to 280sq.km) increase in natural forest cover areas. Using the telecoupling framework, we identified the eucalyptus plantations as sending systems and importing countries (e.g., China, United Stated, etc.) as receiving systems. Interestingly enough, Atlantic forest regeneration areas in private properties producing eucalyptus can be considered as adjacent spillover systems. This positive effect of eucalyptus plantations on natural forests is explained by the international market of cellulose pulp. Therefore, producers and companies seek to follow environmental regulations, which enforce the allocation of at least 20% of the property for native vegetation. On the other hand, certification protocols such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Brazilian Forest Certification Program (Cerflor) require the compliance of such regulations. The outcome of these telecouplings is the forest transition process revealing a positive effect in adjacent spillover systems.
AUTHORS: William Peterman*, The Ohio State University
ABSTRACT: Movement and dispersal are essential to the long term persistence and viability of populations, but habitat loss and fragmentation threaten these processes and present challenges to the management of species on the landscape. Further, movement is often difficult or impossible to directly observe, necessitating indirect measures, such as genetics, to infer successful movement of individuals across the landscape. Although measures of gene flow can provide information about the connectivity or isolation of populations, understanding how habitat and landscape features affect movement is essential for managing spatial population dynamics. Landscape genetics has emerged as a field especially suited to questions related to spatial population genetic processes. From its inception, an allure of landscape genetics was the potential to use spatial genetic data to determine how landscape features affect gene flow. However, it has remained exceedingly challenging for researchers to objectively determine how landscape features affect movement and gene flow across landscapes. To address this issue, I have developed an R package called ResistanceGA, which provides a framework for conducting unbiased analyses of landscape surfaces to determine their effect on gene flow. Using genetic algorithms, ResistanceGA is capable of optimizing the resistance values of categorical (e.g., land cover, roads) and continuous (e.g., temperature, slope) resistance surfaces, as well as multiple surfaces simultaneously. Landscape resistance surfaces can provide novel insights into how landscapes impede, inhibit, or promote movement. Such information is invaluable to the spatial management of populations, including preservation of core habitat, connectivity corridors, or reduction of highly resistant or impermeable habitat. This talk will overview the existing challenges to resistance surface optimization, and will present ResistanceGA as viable solution to overcoming these challenges.
Monday April 9, 2018 1:45pm - 2:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: John Orrock*, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin
ABSTRACT: Invasive plants are widespread in many terrestrial ecosystems. In addition to their often-deleterious effects on native plants, invasive plants may also alter the behavior of native animals in ways that lead to changes in landscape-level patterns of animal distribution and abundance, as well as shifts in animal-mediated interactions. For example, invasive woody shrubs in the Midwestern U.S. cause dramatic changes in forest understory structure that likely change the costs of animal movement and the likelihood of predation risk. The dense structure provided by woody invasive shrubs can also lead to changes in microclimate and food resources, potentially generating changes in habitat-selection decisions by animals. I present data from several different studies that evaluate the effects of invasive woody shrubs on the behavior of native animals. Collectively, these studies illustrate that novel habitats provided by invasive shrubs can have significant effects on the decisions animals make: invasive shrubs alter rodent anti-predator behavior, spatial patterns habitat use by deer and rodents, as well as habitat selection by mosquitos and amphibians. These changes in animal behavior have consequences for animal-mediated interactions, such as seed predation and transmission of zoonotic disease. In finding that invasive woody plants alter the behavior of several animal taxa, this body of work suggests that understanding how invasive plants alter animal behavior may be an increasingly important component of predicting how animals use landscapes.
Monday April 9, 2018 1:45pm - 2:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Stephanie Tomscha, Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology, Victoria University of Wellington*, Sarah Gergel, Department of Forest and Conservation Science, University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT: Trade-offs among ecosystem services result from both the biophysical and social components of landscapes. While most research on ecosystem service trade-offs has focused on their biophysical locations, the spatial dynamics of people and their use of ecosystem services use can provide important insights into the causes and consequences of ecosystem service trade-offs. Participatory mapping is particularly key for understanding trade-offs at the terrestrial-aquatic interface as many ecological characteristics are less detectible using terrestrial mapping techniques. Exploring wetland, floodplain, and riverine ecosystem services in case studies in New Zealand and Canada, we ask three main questions to better understand the biophysical and social facets of ecosystem service trade-offs: (1) Where are important locations of biophysical trade-offs among ecosystem services? (2) Where do activities of different user groups, such as restoration and recreation, overlap across the landscape? and (3) How can this information be linked to biophysical models to inform our understanding of ecosystem service dynamics? We demonstrate the importance of paired biophysical and participatory mapping approaches in two distinct case study sites by tracking gains in ecosystem services and positive relationships among stakeholders, as well as by exploring the consequences of problematic ecosystem services trade-offs and their links to user-group conflict. We aim to produce management strategies that build social capital and encourage win-win strategies for ecosystem service restoration.
AUTHORS: Garrett C. Millar*, Payam Tabrizian, Anna Petrasova, Vaclav Petras – Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University; Brendan Harmon, Department of Landscape Architecture, Louisiana State University; Helena Mitasova, Ross K. Meentemeyer – Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Education curricula are more frequently incorporating spatial thinking techniques to improve students’ problem-solving skills. However, students may still struggle to visualize complex landscape processes, such as object shapes, surface gradients, relative locations, and their changes through time. To help students better explore, model, visualize, and think about complex landscape processes, we developed an interactive, open-source method for teaching landscape form and processes using Tangible Landscape, a tangible interface for geospatial modeling. We will demo multiple hands-on tangible teaching lessons focused on concepts of waterflow, landform development, and grading. Participants will engage in learning how tangible interaction methods for teaching are developed and how they can be implemented and assessed. Results from previous experimental implementation will also be shared, highlighting student ratings of their user experience, including acquisition of spatial thinking skills such as reading and interpreting topography. The presentation will conclude with audience discussion of tangible interfaces’ ability to teach spatial constructs, psychometric properties of examining tangible (3D) teaching methods, and educational opportunities for the field of Landscape Ecology.
AUTHORS: Jeremy Larroque, Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal; Simon Legault, Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal; Rob Johns, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada; Lisa Lumley, Royal Alberta Museum; Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada; Michel Cusson, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Laurentian Forestry Centre; Patrick M. A. James, Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal
ABSTRACT: High periodic variations in population size are common across natural populations. In some cases, preventive management strategies could reduce economic losses associated with population outbreaks, requiring a clear understanding of the spatial population dynamics of irruptive species. However, factors governing their spatial dynamics are still not fully understood. It is generally considered that dispersal (“epicenter hypothesis”) and spatial correlation in environmental stochasticity (“oscillatory hypothesis” or Moran effect) can synchronize populations over wide areas. Our objective was to identify the relative support of these two mechanisms in the outbreaks of an economically important irruptive forest insect, the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) in the province of Quebec (Canada). AMOVA, cluster analysis, isolation by distance and sPCA were used to characterize spatial and temporal genomic variation using 1370 SBW larvae sampled over four years (2012-2015) and genotyped at more than 190,000 SNP loci. We found evidence of weak spatial genetic structure at the scale of Quebec. The little structure that did exist decreased between 2012 and 2015. We also found genetic evidence of a long-distance dispersal event over > 140 km. Results thus suggest that dispersal is the key mechanism involved in driving population synchrony at this stage of the outbreak. Early intervention management strategies that aim to control source populations have the potential to be effective through limiting dispersal. However, the timing of such interventions relative to the outbreak cycles and local dynamics will greatly influence their probability of success.
AUTHORS: Christine Daley*, Amelie Davis – Miami University
ABSTRACT: Urban growth at the urban-rural fringe, i.e. exurbanization, has become a dominant residential land use in the last several decades. This type of growth is thought to have deleterious environmental implications especially in terms of landscape fragmentation and loss of farmland. In order to better understand these effects, we examine the process of parcelization in Butler County, OH which sits between two regions undergoing rural sprawl (Dayton, OH and Cincinnati, OH). Using Butler County, Ohio parcel data from 2004 and 2014, we examine which parcels have been subdivided in the past decade, i.e. the process of parcelization. We then look at a) the size distribution of the new parcels, and b) their spatial distribution relative to their size and distance from urban centers. Next, we evaluate the land cover changes associated with this changing land use, using a 6 class, 1-meter spatial resolution land cover data. All these data are then input into a clustering algorithm to assess patterns in parcelization, size, and land cover change.
AUTHORS: Noel Pavlovic*, U.S. Geological Survey; Marlin Bowles, The Morton Arboretum; Samniqueka J. Halsey, University of Illinois; Jennifer McBride, The Morton Arboretum
ABSTRACT: Understanding how landscape processes shaped North American vegetation prior to European settlement is critical for restoring biological diversity and understanding how shifting climate will alter biome transitions. Climate, soil characteristics, and fire are thought to have shaped local and regional vegetation pattern and oak dominance in the Prairie Peninsula. Quantitative geographical analysis of 1830’s Government Land Office (GLO) Public Land Survey data along the south coast of Lake Michigan, from southeast Wisconsin to southwest Michigan, has been limited due to the lack of analytical datasets.GLO vegetation pattern and structure was compared against a fire model, in which we expected a non-random vegetation pattern, with regional oak dominance and a greater abundance of shade-tolerant fire-intolerant woody vegetation associated with landscape fire breaks. Tree cover and composition were compared among physiographic regions and in relation to gradients in soil types, precipitation, evapo-transpiration, fire proxies, and soil moisture.The landscape was dominated by prairie in the southwest, with increasing tree cover to the north and east. Greater extent of tree cover, as well as forest tree density (> 100 trees/ha), occurred on the lee side of major water courses. Savanna (< 50 trees/ha) tended to be less restricted and became dominant along the northern and eastern Prairie Peninsula border. Oaks dominated all woody vegetation, with greater sub-dominance of maple-basswood-ash vegetation at higher tree densities. Correlates of individual tree distribution included distance from water courses, slope and elevation. High abundance of barrens in the eastern portions of Indiana are notable. These results support regional models of fire-caused and soil moisture-controlled local vegetation patterns, and the need for incorporating fire into management planning as well as recognizing fire as a factor in climate change modeling. We will discuss these transitions in relation to fire breaks, climatic gradients, and conservation.
AUTHORS: Yue Dou *, Anna Herzberger, Ciara Hovis – Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University; Wenbin Wu, Key Laboratory of Agri-Informatics, Ministry of Agriculture/Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Jianguo Liu, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Agriculture is one of the main forces driving land use changes that result in profound global environmental and socio-economic consequences. There is a growing understanding of the complex drivers and mechanisms affecting farmers’ land use behaviors, which is important for efficient implementation of policies promoting environmental regulations, climate adaptation, and poverty alleviation. However, these studies are often conducted in a local context, overlooking an important driver of farmers’ land use decisions, namely global agricultural trade. With the growing magnitude, frequency, and intensity of agricultural trade, its impact on farmers’ local activities must be understood. This research investigates how farmers’ behaviors (e.g., crop choice, farm consolidation, and agrichemical utilization) in the receiving system (i.e., Heilongjiang province, China) are affected by the telecoupled soybean trade. Flows of information (e.g., the price of soybean in the receiving system and farmers’ perception and knowledge of international trade) are used in this analysis. Preliminary results from our survey in 2016 show that despite the drastic soybean price change in the past decade, less than half of the households (out of 942) were aware of the soybean import, among which less than 10% knew of Brazil (the top soybean importer to China) exporting soybeans to China. Generally, fewer farmers tended to cultivate soybeans and more farmers cultivate corn and rice recently than before. However, farmers who were aware of the telecoupling had a higher probability of converting soybean land to other crops. The findings from this research may be used to inform policymakers and other relevant stakeholders, to achieve sustainable land use locally in a global context.
AUTHORS: Robert Gillies, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
ABSTRACT: Cells in solid tumors are heterogeneous in mutational load, gene expression, and phenotype. This heterogeneity is a key driver in the emergence of resistance to therapy. Evolutionary dynamical models predict that microenvironment differences in acid-base balance and oxygen levels drive somatic evolution and genetic heterogeneity. Importantly, tools exist that can quantitatively image solid tumors and map the extent and types of microenvironments (“habitats”). An emerging analytical tool uses multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) to identify and classify physiologically distinct habitats in solid tumors. In general, these approaches require the co-registration of images acquired from different pulse sequences that interrogate different physiological parameters, such as blood flow, cell packing density, infrastructural organization, etc.. Overlaying these data sets creates “hyper-voxels” that contain specific combinations of normalized data from multiple inputs. Clustering algorithms identify hyper-voxels with similar features, and these are used to generate spatial maps of similar clusters. Notably, this procedure yields clusters that are spatially distinct, leading us to see them as “habitats”. An example is the combination of Apparent Diffusion coefficient (ADC), related to tissue density, with post-pre contrast T1 images, related to tumor blood flow. By combining these, four different habitats are observable with high or low cellularity and/or flow, respectively. In animal models of cancers, these imaged habitats can be co-registered with microscopic analyses to identify the underling physiologic properties of the individual cancer cells and their environment. The cores of tumors and their invasive edges differ in cell composition and protein expression patterns. The magnitude of these differences are prognostic. Larger differences portend poorer outcomes. One protein of interest is carbonic anhydrase 9, CA-IX. It may acidify the local extracellular microenvironment and promote invasion into the surrounding stroma. Therapies to reduce tumor acidity reduce this invasion, and can lead to improved tumor control.
Monday April 9, 2018 2:00pm - 2:15pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Benjamin P. Pauli, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota; Robert J. Spaul, Boise State University; Julie A. Heath, Boise State University
ABSTRACT: There is widespread evidence that human disturbance affects wildlife behavior, but long-term population effects can be difficult to quantify. Individual-based models (IBMs) offer a way to assess population-level, aggregate effects of disturbance on wildlife. We created Tolerance in Raptors and the Associated Impacts of Leisure Sports (TRAILS), an IBM that simulates interactions between recreationists and nesting raptors, to assess the effect of human disturbance on raptor populations and test if changes in tolerance to disturbance could mitigate negative consequences. We used behavioral and demographic data from golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and recreation activity data to parameterize TRAILS and simulate the effects of pedestrian and off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation on the likelihood of territory occupancy, egg-laying and nest survival of eagles over 100 years. We modeled eagle populations in the absence of recreation, with stationary 2014 levels of recreation, and with annual increases in recreation. Furthermore, we simulated eagles that developed tolerance to disturbance randomly, through natural selection, natal-habitat imprinting, or habituation. In the presence of recreation, simulated eagle populations had significantly lower and more variable growth rates, population sizes and territory occupancy. Annual increases in recreation of 1–2% greatly exacerbated population declines. Though both habituation and natural selection lead to more tolerant eagle populations, neither buffered eagle populations from detrimental effects of recreation. These results suggest that long-lived species that experience encroachment from human activities may not adapt to human disturbance at a rate that compensates for changes in disturbance. This project illustrates the usefulness of IBMs for evaluating non-lethal threats, forecasting population changes and testing theoretical feedbacks in system processes.
Monday April 9, 2018 2:00pm - 2:15pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Jennifer C. Selgrath, Sarah Gergel – University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT: Participatory mapping provides a unique opportunity to document the influence of humans on species and ecosystems, and the variability of human activities over space and time. This method is particularly valuable in data-poor systems. Methods for participatory mapping can involve individual interviews or group interviews, with distinct benefits for both methods. For example, individual interviews have greater potential to identify sensitive information such as illegal practices. For individual interviews however, there has not been a systematic method for identifying the number of respondents that are necessary to accurately map the extent of human activities. Here we discuss the importance of random sampling and present a technique for identifying sufficient sample sizes. We introduce area accumulation curves – adapted from species accumulation curves – to identify sufficient number of respondents. Using an example from a heavily fished ecosystem in the central Philippines, we identified that 125 fishers were necessary to map the spatial extent of fishing practices. Such maps of resource use patterns can provide context for current ecosystem conditions and can be used to develop informed guidelines for management and conservation.
AUTHORS: Erica Smithwick *, Stephanie Edel-Malizia, Alex Klippel – The Pennsylvania State University
ABSTRACT: We assessed two forms of interactive video in an online course focused on landscape conservation. We hypothesized that interactive video enhances student perceptions about learning and improves mental models of socio-ecological systems. Results showed that students reported greater learning and attitudes toward the subject following interactive video. Moreover, metrics of network complexity applied to students’ concept maps of socio-ecological systems increased longitudinally through the course highlighting greater awareness of socio-ecological linkages. We conclude that interactive video can increase awareness of interdisciplinary connections in socio-ecological systems. Using a live demonstration of interactive video as part of an online course in global sustainability, we explore how immersive experience can aid pedagogy around environmental systems thinking and discuss challenges with its integration in an educational setting.The content of the course, global parks and sustainability, allows for further advancements of its pedagogy to include immersive learning approaches that facilitate place-based, experiential learning. Ultimately these approach will allow for a discovery-based approach that stresses the local immediacy of socio-ecological systems and engages students in discovery and decision making. The technological basis for such an approach exist in both online and residential settings and will transform education in ecology/earth sciences within this decade.
AUTHORS: Brian R. Sturtevant*, USDA Forest Service; Matthew Garcia, University of Wisconsin; Jacques Régnière, Yan Boulanger, Barry J. Cooke – Natural Resources Canada; Joseph J. Charney, Gary L. Achtemeier – USDA Forest Service; Johanne Delisle, Marc Rhainds, Rémi Saint-Amant – Natural Resources Canada
ABSTRACT: The spatiotemporal dynamics of eastern spruce budworm outbreaks in North American boreal and sub-boreal forests may be sensitive to long-distance dispersal patterns that are assisted by meteorological processes. We provide an overview of temperature-constrained functional relationships between insect mass, wing area, and wingbeat frequencies, and employ these relationships to simulate realistic flight altitude distributions. An agent-based model of budworm flight, conditioned on mesoscale numerical weather simulations of temperature and wind fields, produces vertical flight density distributions that arise in combination with atmospheric boundary layer thermal profiles. We confronted our simulated moth density distributions with observed vertical profiles of moth density inferred from weather surveillance radar during budworm 2013 and 2017 outbreak events across the Gulf of St. Lawrence River in southeastern Canada. These data were used to iteratively refine the most uncertain flight parameters. Consequent dispersal patterns from broader-scaled budworm flight simulations were consistent with observations of long-distance migration events at sites in southern Quebec and New Brunswick (Canada) and in northern Maine (USA). We were able to validate outbreak source populations using a distinct indicator in differential loadings of parasitic mites. The biologically-based and meteorologically-conditioned budworm flight model holds promise as an operational tool for assessing budworm outbreak events, with the potential to inform both land management agencies and a concerned public as the eastern North American outbreak shifts into more human-dominated regions of the southeastern boreal and Acadian forests.
AUTHORS: Yin Ren*, Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Key Laboratory of Urban Metabolism of Xiamen, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
ABSTRACT: Identifying factors that influence the land surface temperature (LST) of urban forests can help improve simulations and predictions of spatial patterns of urban cool islands. This requires a quantitative analytical method that combines spatial statistical analysis with multi-source observational data. The purpose of this study was to reveal how human activities and ecological factors jointly influence LST in clustering regions (hot or cool spots) of urban forests. Using Xiamen City, China from 1996 to 2006 as a case study, we explored the interactions between human activities and ecological factors, as well as their influences on urban forest LST. Population density was selected as a proxy for human activity. We integrated multi-source data (forest inventory, digital elevation models (DEM), population, and remote sensing imagery) to develop a database on a unified urban scale. The driving mechanism of urban forest LST was revealed through a combination of multi-source spatial data and spatial statistical analysis of clustering regions. The results showed that the main factors contributing to urban forest LST were dominant tree species and elevation. The interactions between human activity and specific ecological factors linearly or nonlinearly increased LST in urban forests. Strong interactions between elevation and dominant species were generally observed and were prevalent in either hot or cold spots areas in different years. In conclusion, quantitative studies based on spatial statistics and GeogDetector models should be conducted in urban areas to reveal interactions between human activities, ecological factors, and LST.
AUTHORS: Roy Plotnick, Anthony Bellagamba, Stephanie Chancellor, Alister Cunje, Emily Dodd, Kerri Gefeke, Shannon Hsieh, M. Joseph Pasterski, Alec Schassburger, Alexis Smith, Wesley Tucker – University of Illinois at Chicago
ABSTRACT: Prior to European settlement, wetlands, lakes, and streams were the major topographic feature of the Chicago region. Much of this have been altered or lost in the past one-hundred-and-fifty years. In 1848 a canal was dug across the portage between the Great Lakes and Mississippi basins and in 1900 the Chicago River was reversed to connect it to the Mississippi drainage. We have examined the changes in wetland, riparian, and lacustrine environments and fauna in Cook County since the time of the river reversal, using 1890-1910 and 1997-2017 as our focus intervals. Historical topographic maps were imported into a GIS database and locations and extents of lakes, ponds, swamps, marshes and river features were digitized. These were compared with the modern USGS National Hydrography Dataset. Overall, the total area of wetlands and water bodies has decreased by about a third, while swamps and marshes have been drained or converted into lakes or rivers. Historical and modern spatial data on animals considered obligate on wetlands, lakes, and rivers were collected from digitized museum collections, in particular that of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and various natural history surveys of the region. Target groups included mammals, birds, mollusks, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. We included invasive and reintroduced species. Beavers have been reintroduced after extirpation in the 1850’s. Of 55 fish species in the historic data, 24 are no longer present; about 50% of the remaining species have undergone range reductions. Fifty-three of 78 historic molluscan species are not recently recorded, however there are 26 current species not recorded in the historical data, including 6 considered invasive. Three out of 10 species of reptiles have disappeared. Among the birds, of 122 species detected in the 1890-1910 period, 13 were extirpated from Cook County or are extinct.
AUTHORS: MD Petrie, Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University; DPC Peters, ND Burruss – USDA Agricultural Research Service, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces NM; W Ji, NP Hanan – Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University; H Savoy, USDA- Agricultural Research Service, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces NM
ABSTRACT: Telecoupling in aridlands is influenced by environmental and ecological conditions associated with the Land Surface Template (LST) and precipitation patterns, such that variation in telecoupling may be shaped by multiple factors. For example, extreme drought events in the American southwest influences vegetation over large regions, and overwhelms the effects of many LST factors. Multi-year wet periods that can restore services provided by managed rangelands have received less attention. In the northern Chihuahuan Desert, rainfall events are stochastic and single high rainfall years are localized, suggesting that widespread positive telecoupling is improbable. Yet, multi-year wet periods may homogenize stochastic rainfall patterns through time and across space, interact with favorable local LST conditions, and in this way promote positive telecoupling that is not possible in single years.Using remote sensing data from 1983-present and a suite of harmonized LST datasets, we sought to quantify telecoupling during multi-year wet periods in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, and to discern how landscape coupling was influenced by patterns in LST and regional forcing events. We hypothesized that high precipitation would aggregate through time, and that the magnitude and duration of the forcing event would dictate its regional extent. We also hypothesized that the pattern and persistence of telecoupling would be best predicted by specific LST factors including soil type and prior-year vegetation NDVI. That is, telecoupling in this region is instigated by the aggregation of high precipitation, but its pattern within the rainfall area is contingent on local factors. Wet periods are changing, and it is clear that they will play an important role in shaping the future quality of managed rangelands. By identifying and quantifying telecoupling during wet periods, we develop new insight on how climate and landscapes interact, and define the specific conditions that support the sustainability of ecosystem services in aridlands.
AUTHORS: Jonathan Eiseman*, Western Michigan University; Maarten Vonhof, Western Michigan University; Sharon Gill, Western Michigan University
ABSTRACT: Soundscapes vary over time and space reflecting dynamic inputs from biological, geophysical and anthropogenic activity. For example, the early morning peak of singing by birds or the rush hour traffic of humans change the composition of soundscapes from those experienced at other times of day. To characterize temporal complexity of soundscapes, researchers may record them over the course of a 24-hour cycle, and when they do so over a season will end up with large datasets that demand considerable storage capacity as well as processing time for analysis. Given these constraints, we investigated how to sample soundscapes, asking two questions: with what frequency should researchers record soundscapes to capture their overall variation? And does an optimal sampling schedule exist for different habitats across different locations? We conducted two tests in forest and grassland habitats at nature preserves in southwest Michigan by recording soundscapes continuously over two 24-hour periods in the spring and summer of 2015. From these recordings, we calculated three acoustic indices for every minute of the 24-hour period to document the actual pattern of soundscape variation over space and time. We then simulated different recording schedules by subsampling the complete dataset (e.g. 1 min every 5, 1 min every 10, up to 1 min every 60). We compared hourly means from continuous sampling versus simulated schemes to assess which recording schedules best reflected overall soundscape variation. Preliminary analyses showed that hourly means from infrequent sampling (1 min every 30, 1 min every 60) were weakly correlated when compared to hourly means from more frequent sampling schemes (1 min every 5) in forests and grasslands. However, subsampled forest recordings generated substantially lower correlations with continuous data than did the subsampled grassland recordings. Expanding analysis to other preserves will inform strategies for capturing temporal complexity of grassland and forest soundscapes.
Monday April 9, 2018 2:15pm - 2:30pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Michael Egan*, Purdue University; Casey Day, Purdue University; Todd Katzner, U.S. Geological Survey; Patrick Zollner, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Gray fox populations have experienced declines in parts of the eastern United States that differ from the typical pattern of mesopredator release. One hypothesis to explain these population trends is that they have had a negative response to urbanization relative to other mesocarnivores. Alternatively, gray fox declines may be the result of interspecific interactions, particularly competition with abundant coyotes throughout their range. Evidence for both these alternatives have been documented at some spatial scales, however landscape scale studies have only occasionally been used to study how these two factors affect gray fox distributions. To test these hypotheses throughout the gray fox’s range, we used single and two species occupancy models across multiple landscapes to evaluate the effects of habitat covariates and interspecific interactions on gray fox occupancy. Model results indicate that both coyote and gray fox occupancy was positively related to the amount of forest present but these same models provided no evidence that gray foxes were impacted by urban cover. Additionally, model results indicate that, while coyote presence did not impact gray fox occupancy, gray fox occupancy was negatively related to coyote abundance. Based on these results, we concluded that coyote abundance is a stronger driver of low gray fox occupancy in the eastern U.S. than urbanization.
Monday April 9, 2018 2:15pm - 2:30pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Rebecca McLain*, Portland State University; Lee Cerveny, US Forest Service PNW Research Station; David Banis, Portland State University
ABSTRACT: The 2012 Forest Planning Rule that governs the development of national forest plans in the US specifies the use of ecosystem services as a guiding framework and calls for greater integration of human values and uses into forest planning. Public participation GIS (PPGIS), which facilitates the collection of socio-spatial data from the public, has the potential to address these mandates by enabling the collection of cultural services data about forested landscapes while expanding public engagement opportunities. Our presentation reports the findings from a pilot project conducted during 2016-2017 in which an interactive web-mapping application was used to collect cultural services data from users of the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests in Oregon. We use spatial analysis techniques, including density and diversity analyses, to describe how the two forests differ in terms of the cultural services mapped by forest users and the range of cultural services each forest provides. Disaggregating the data along socio-demographic dimensions enables us to identify distinct differences in the cultural services associated with each forest according to the age, length of residency, income, and gender of forest users. We examine cultural services “hotspots” in greater detail to determine whether specific types of services are associated with particular ecological contexts. Our analyses indicate that the cultural services associated with the two forests differ significantly despite their close proximity to each other. The Deschutes National Forest PPGIS data reflect a landscape dominated by recreationists whereas the Ochoco National Forest data reflect a landscape in the midst of transitioning from a production-oriented landscape toward one that is increasingly recreation-oriented. Our study offers insights on the usefulness of PPGIS as a tool for integrating spatialized cultural services data into environmental planning processes; however, it also identifies some of the limitations of web-based applications for collecting such data.
AUTHORS: Devon Gaydos*, Anna Petrasova, Vaclav Petras – Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University; Richard Cobb, California Polytechnic University; Ross Meentemeyer, Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Geospatial models allow users to explore the dynamics of complex socio-ecological processes occurring over large spatial and temporal scales, making them uniquely suited for ecological management applications. In many cases, however, models are developed without consideration of local stakeholder motivations or compelling user-friendly interfaces, fueling a knowledge-practice gap where better science has not necessarily lead to better management. Tangible Landscape, an open-source participatory modeling tool, has been designed to address this challenge by coupling a physical model of the landscape with a geographic information system. Tangible Landscape allows stakeholders to alter the landscape and instantly visualize the resulting ecological effects. As a team of interdisciplinary researchers, we are leveraging this novel modeling platform to engage stakeholders involved in sudden oak death management in southwest Oregon. Sudden oak death (SOD) is an extremely destructive plant disease which has killed millions of oaks and tanoaks along the Pacific coast. This area of Oregon faces an additional management challenge from a newly introduced strain of the pathogen. This new strain has been shown to be more aggressive, and further disease spread will put significant cultural, environmental and economic resources at risk. To address this issue, we are holding a series of participatory modeling workshops with Oregon stakeholders to evaluate potential management scenarios. We will be discussing results from the first of these workshops, and demonstrating the Tangible Landscape model in action.
AUTHORS: Marion Germain*, University of Quebec in Montreal; Marc-André Villard, University of Quebec in Rimouski; Louis de Grandpré, Service Canadien des Forêts; Patrick James, University of Montreal; Dan Kneeshaw, University of Quebec in Montreal; Udaya Vepakomma, FPInnovations; Jean-François Poulin, WSP
ABSTRACT: Spruce budworm outbreaks are the most significant disturbance in North American boreal forests. Large-scale, spatially synchronous outbreaks occur periodically, causing significant mortality or growth reduction in spruce and fir over large areas. The current outbreak was first detected in 2006 on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River and has affected >7 million ha so far. Efficient forest protection against defoliation requires early intervention, but early detection of outbreaks remains challenging. Ground-based surveys cannot be applied over large areas and aerial surveys of current defoliation cannot be used to guide early intervention. In this context, we investigated whether bird population densities can be used as indicators of future defoliation to guide early intervention. Specifically, we modelled the relationships between the occurrence of Tennessee Warbler, Cape May Warbler, and Bay-breasted Warbler and cumulative spruce budworm defoliation at different temporal lags. Using data from a large-scale (>174 000 km²) bird survey conducted between 2006 and 2016 (>1500 point counts) and annual defoliation data in Québec’s North Shore region, we explored the numerical response of each focal bird species to defoliation from 3 years before the count to 6 years after while accounting for spatial variation. Preliminary results confirm the numerical increase of each “budworm warbler” species with increasing defoliation. We also expect species-specific patterns in numerical response, with Cape May Warbler increasing earlier than Bay-breasted and Tennessee Warblers due to the different ways that each of these species use different levels of the tree crown. We expect that our landscape-level models of how warblers respond to defoliation will serve as an effective tool for forest protection by helping to identify outbreaks and to guide early intervention strategies.
AUTHORS: Carly Ziter*, Christopher J. Kucharik, Monica G. Turner – University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Mitigation of the urban heat island (hotter temperatures in cities) is an important ecosystem service provided by urban greenspace. Yet while broad-scale causes, magnitude, and spatial extent of urban heat islands are frequently studied, little is known about drivers of temperature variation within cities. Improving climate adaptation strategies in cities is increasingly important as climate warms, and understanding how spatial variation in temperature aligns with residents’ lived experience, especially during the hottest portions of the day, is required. We asked how impervious surfaces and canopy cover interact to influence urban air temperature at fine scales (e.g. 10s to 100s of meters) in Madison, Wisconsin. A custom-developed mobile temperature sensor mounted on a bicycle was used to complement a fixed in situ network of 150 temperature sensors. Throughout summer 2016, we conducted repeated sampling along 10 urban transects (mean length 7 km) that spanned a wide range of impervious and canopy cover – collecting observations of air temperature approximately every 5 meters. Maximum daily temperature for Madison averaged 29°C on sampling days (range: 22 – 34°C). Intra-urban air temperature varied significantly with fine-scale variation in land cover and was coolest where canopy cover was high. Air temperature increased with impervious cover, but canopy cover moderated this effect. Mean daytime air temperature differed by 3.5°C between the hottest and coolest parts of the city (range: 1.1 - 5.7°C), whereas temperature differed by only 0.3°C on fixed sensors during the same measurement periods. The temperature difference within the city was comparable to the broad-scale temperature difference between Madison and its surrounding rural areas, suggesting that urban forestry can enhance temperature regulation services within cities. Our results offer guidance for using land cover within urban landscapes to reduce energy use impacts, and enhance the health and wellbeing of urban residents.
AUTHORS: Maryam Gharehaghaji *, Emily Minor – University of Illinois at Chicago; Scott Kobal, Wayne Lampa – Forest Preserve District of Dupage County
ABSTRACT: Evaluating long-term dynamics of urban forests helps determine whether temperate forests are resilient to disturbances and informs choices of proper management techniques. We studied plant community composition change within 35 urban forest plots throughout 35 years (1979-2014) in Dupage county, Illinois. Field data were collected every 5 years by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. In this study, we explored the invasion by nonnative plants over time, the possibility of biotic homogenization, and the potential environmental, landscape and management drivers. In addition, we studied the change in occurrence of individual woody species over time. Our results showed that the woody species community has changed over time but has not become homogenized. Invasive species richness has increased over time. We found that management intensity has a significant role in driving community change and invasive species abundance and richness. In particular, increased deer control was linked to lower abundance and richness of invasive species. Additionally, lower abundance of invasive species was found in sites that were farther from agriculture, and lower richness of invasive species was found in sites with medium intensity management. Our analysis of individual species occupancy change showed that most nonnative species like Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) have increased over time whereas some native species such as Scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) and Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) have decreased. Our work contributes unique insight into long-term forest management and plant invasions in an urban landscape. Management procedures should target invasive species by promoting medium intensity disturbance.
AUTHORS: J. Cristobal Pizarro*, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Universidad de Concepcion, Chile; Andrea Raya Rey, Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC-CONICET), Ushuaia, Argentina; Courtney Charter, Patagonia Research Experiences for Students in Sustainability Project, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, USA
ABSTRACT: Today’s local-global sustainability challenges require researchers, managers, and decision-makers to develop a "frame of mind" or "way of thinking" that fully considers telecouplings. This mentality not only considers collecting data on fluxes, systems, and agents between natural and social systems over distances for research but also incorporates the creation of solutions based on the opportunities that these connections provide. We argue this approach could be particularly useful for sustainability based on wildlife tourism, particularly when receiver systems are remote areas with an increasing influx of international tourists. In Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city on the shores of the Beagle Channel in Argentine, we used a “telecoupling mentality” to collect sustainability measures that were recommended by tourists based on their previous experiences visiting similar systems to observe marine wildlife. We collected this information using on-site surveys of 152 tourists from 27 countries during boat tour operations in the Beagle Channel. We found that these tourists connected the Beagle Channel with 34 other marine wildlife destinations distributed around the world, including the viewing of walruses (Arctic), penguin and seabird colonies (Antarctica, Chile) and whale watching (Sri Lanka, UK, and Canada). The most frequent long-distance connections to marine wildlife-viewing destinations were to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and Puerto Madryn in Argentina, where we found similar threats and opportunities. We found 8 types of sustainability recommendations, including operational, infrastructural and financial measures. Using the tourists’ previous experiences in similar destinations to the Beagle Channel, we show that not only are people, biodiversity, and ecosystems connected over distances, but also ideas that can flow from international tourists to business owners, improving tourism services and facilities, and help local authorities to confront sustainability challenges across continents. Using this Beagle Channel pilot program, we aim to apply this approach to Antarctica and adjacent sub-Antarctic islands.
AUTHORS: Peichao GAO, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
ABSTRACT: Entropy is the core of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which plays a fundamental role in understanding nature and is central to studying landscape ecology. For a long time, the entropy used in landscape ecology has been computed using the equation by Shannon (1948), an early pioneer of information theory. And a number of landscape ecology studies have been conducted accordingly in order to interpret landscape/geographic dynamics based on thermodynamic insights. However, the thermodynamic basis of Shannon’s entropy has been critically questioned (Vranken et al. 2015), as well as the thermodynamic interpretations achieved by using Shannon’s entropy. This finding was described as “astounding for a field that has been so obsessed with measuring and interpreting landscape patterns” (Cushman 2015). As a result, scholars (Cushman 2015, Vranken et al. 2015, Cushman 2016) in landscape ecology suggested to revisit Boltzmann’s entropy and using Boltzmann’s entropy as an alternative to Shannon entropy, but it remains largely at a conceptual level in physics and becomes “quite problematic when the notion of entropy is extended beyond physics” (Bailey 2009). Fortunately, there have been recently some progress in computing the Boltzmann entropy of a landscape pattern represented by using either a gradient model (i.e., a landscape gradient) or a mosaic model (i.e., a landscape mosaic). In particular, a feasible computation method for the Boltzmann entropy of a landscape gradient has been successfully proposed by the presenter and his collaborators (Gao et al. 2017). All of the latest progress will be introduced and discussed in this presentation.
Monday April 9, 2018 2:30pm - 2:45pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Cheyenne Gerdes*, Laura D’Acunto, Patrick Zollner – Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: North American bats are suffering major population declines due to the the continuing spread of White-nose Syndrome. The disease has especially impacted species such as the threatened Northern long-eared bat as well as the endangered Indiana bat. Addressing the resource needs of these species during the summer when offspring care occurs is an important part of species preservation. Most studies on summer roosting needs of these species focus on site and roost tree characteristics. Because Northern long-eared bats are highly plastic in maternity roost selection, using landscape level characteristics to define critical habitat may be a more feasible approach for generating management tools. While landscape-level habitat suitability data exists for the highly forested areas, less work has been done to determine habitat suitability for more agriculturally fragmented areas of the Midwest. This study compares habitat suitability of forest-dominated and agriculture-dominated landscapes for northern long-eared and Indiana bat roosts. We delineated forest-dominated and agriculture-dominated landscapes using a 25 km moving window analysis on a raster dataset of forested and non-forested cells. A 22% forested area breakpoint was classified as forest-dominated, while the remainder of the study area was considered agriculture-dominated. We used MaxEnt to create a habitat suitability maps for these two species based upon historical roost records from Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Landscape-level environmental features such as local and nearby forest habitat, water resources, and the presence of nearby roads were used as predictor variables of bat roosting habitat suitability. Preliminary models reported that forested area within 90 m was the highest contributing predictor value (95%) for agriculturally dominated areas, while roost suitability in forest-dominated areas was mostly predicted by forested area within 1 km (77%). This suggests that more local landscape variables could have stronger influence on bat roosting habitat suitability in areas that are fragmented by agriculture.
Monday April 9, 2018 2:30pm - 2:45pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Jelena Vukomanovic*, Lindsey S. Smart, Georgina M. Sanchez, Zeynab S. Jouzi, Erin O. Sills – North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Over the last decade, Johns Island, SC has experienced unprecedented growth, threatening a set of unique natural and cultural resources that reflect the Island’s rich civil rights era history and a near-contiguous landscape of mixed forest types, wetlands, agricultural operations and marine waterways. City, county and state government, along with NGO partners, have recognized these threats and implemented planning strategies for both urban growth and conservation. These partners also recognize the importance of including local stakeholder perspectives along with expert knowledge. Failure to include these perspectives can lead to ineffective and unpopular initiatives, neglect of cultural ecosystem services, and missed opportunities to conserve natural and cultural values. Through a series of workshops, we elicited these perspectives by asking long-term residents to identify, describe and map the natural and cultural resources of Johns Island. For example, residents mapped fishing, shrimping and crabbing spots, sites of historic and/or cultural importance, locations of community events, and recreational spaces. The spatial distribution of these resources suggested that they could be conserved by a shift towards in-fill development. We used the FUTure Urban-Regional Environment Simulation (FUTURES) model to simulate development patterns from 2010-2060 for business-as-usual, moderate in-fill, and ambitious in-fill scenarios. The two in-fill scenarios correspond to a gradient of possible regulatory changes that influence zoning and permitted land use. This framework simulates the emergence of land change patterns using three sub-models that project the location, the quantity, and the spatial pattern of change. We examined how the important natural and cultural resources identified by long-term residents fared under the three different development scenarios. Results point to trade-offs between development and conservation of locally valued cultural and natural resources. Resources that are lost even under ambitious in-fill policies may be prime candidates for other conservation strategies, such as conservation easements, deed restrictions, or fee purchase.
AUTHORS: Dr. Dennis Vickers, Collage of Menominee Nation; Chris Caldwell, Sustainable Development Institute
ABSTRACT: The concept of resilience is embedded in the lifeways of Indigenous Peoples who have existed for millennia in what is now known as the United States of America. This is best understood when considering the numerous languages, cultural values, traditions that have developed and been passed down for countless generations. Each generation a slight variation and adjustment, which took into account social, ecological, and environmental factors. During the European colonial period and American settler expansion period, these impacts were introduced at a rate and intensity not experienced before. Despite this, many Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Communities have retained their teachings and traditions to varying degrees, including their application as the basis for contemporary planning and management activities. The Menominee Nation located in northern Wisconsin, USA is one example of hundreds of Tribal nations in the USA that have shown resilience. Yet, the immense impact of Menominee decision-making in regards to the forest was not fully visualized until the use of satellite imagery in the 1980’s helped illustrate the stark contrast between a heavily forested Menominee reservation and a cut-over landscape of farmland in surrounding counties. College of Menominee Nation through its Sustainable Development Institute is working with external collaborators as part of an NSF funded project to explore opportunities to use visualization tools and resources to better communicate current forest conditions, and future forest conditions, and examine how this might impact community decision-making as well as the generational transition of knowledge. This transition of knowledge will be facilitated through student internships and existing CMN classes to refine a visualized story based on a theoretical model of sustainability which focuses on the Menominee’s history of forest sustainability.
AUTHORS: Barry J. Cooke*, Canadian Forestry Service; Brian R. Sturtevant, USDA Forest Service; Louis-Etienne Robert, University of Montreal; Daniel Kneeshaw, University of Quebec at Montreal
ABSTRACT: The spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clem.) and forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria Hbn.) are early-season defoliators of spruce/fir trees and aspen/maple trees, respectively. Both exhibit periodic outbreaks – albeit at different time scales – so they are often perceived as stereotypical “cyclic” forest defoliator species. We contrasted the outbreak dynamics of these two defoliators as they related to forest landscape structure via tree-ring studies within a common landscape. The Border Lakes landscape is a large (20,000 km2) ecoregion containing contrasting land management zones with clear differences in forest landscape structure (i.e., concentration and spatial configuration of host species for each defoliator) while minimizing the confounding influence of climate. We found that outbreaks spruce budworm were more strongly periodic, more synchronous, and more severe in regions with higher concentrations of its host trees, with analogous results for forest tent caterpillar related more strongly to forest fragmentation metrics. However, we were surprised to find each species exhibited complex patterns of spatio-temporal autocovariance that led to a significant departure from purely cyclic, synchronous behaviour. Temporally, cycle peaks were distributed tri-modally, not uni-modally, as predator-prey theory would predict. Spatially, successive outbreak cycles tended to occur in disparate parts of the study area, which is not consistent with Moran’s theorem of cycle synchronization. The net emergent effect was a breakdown in cycle synchrony in those parts of the landscape where host trees were sparse. Spruce budworm tended cycle synchronously where forest tent caterpillar did not, and vice versa. Taken together, this suggests that forest landscape structure modulates cycle amplitude and synchrony, regardless of the herbivore-plant species association. It further suggests a homeostatic mechanism whereby severe outbreaks associated with high abundances of host-tree species tend to be followed by less severe outbreaks occurring in more diverse residual forests.
AUTHORS: Jing Wang*, Weiqi Zhou, Yuguo Qian – Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
ABSTRACT: Accurate and quantitative description of spatial pattern of urban greenspace and its change over time is crucial for understanding ecosystem service provision and urban sustainability. Patches are the basic management and planning units in urban landscapes, and urban designers and planners and natural resource managers frequently seek tools to understand changes at the patch level. High spatial resolution imagery has been increasingly used to measure fine-scale changes of percent cover of urban greenspace. However, few studies have investigated the dynamics of urban greenspace at the patch level, to quantify the process of growth, shrinking, or disappearance of patches. Here, we developed a new approach to quantify and characterize urban greenspace change at the patch level, by implementing object-based image analysis. We used 2.5 m resolution ALOS and SPOT image data captured in 2005 and 2009, and tested the new approach in Beijing, China. With this approach, we identify different types of change in patches of urban greenspace, such as expansion and shrinking, newly created, and totally lost, in addition to gain and loss information. The results show: 1) 9.25% of the total area (6179 ha) was generated from expansion of extant patches, while 5.36% (3582 ha) was lost due to shrinking of patches; 2) 0.91% (607 ha) of urban greenspace was totally removed, and 1.23% (821 ha) was newly created; and 3) Urban greenspace with different ranges of patch size, from 0.01 to 1000 ha, all experienced large changes, with a tendency for small-sized patches (< 1 ha) to be totally removed. This new approach provides an effective tool for better understanding changes of urban greenspace, and results from this study provide important insights for planners and managers to devise target-specific measures and plans to more effectively protect urban greenspace.
AUTHORS: Ralph Grundel, Noel B. Pavlovic – U.S. Geological Survey
ABSTRACT: How do we set habitat composition goals for landscapes of multiple habitats, especially when some habitats might be of great concern? Should maximizing diversity be the primary goal in prioritizing landscape compositions for conservation? We examined biodiversity patterns for a variety of taxa across part of the Greater Chicago area to understand whether similar landscapes promoted maximization of species richness across taxa. Birds, bees, butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, and plants were assessed. Although there is often an assumption that animal diversity will follow plant diversity, this was not the case. Neither was it true that species diversity was positively correlated among taxa across sites. In part this lack of concordance of species richness among taxa across sites was due to differences in how the taxa responded to their physical environment. Different taxa also expressed varying levels of habitat specialization, contributing to the differences in response to the landscape gradients we examined. We ask to what degree a single landscape can satisfy the needs of multiple taxa and what landscape preference differences might mean for conservation goal setting.
AUTHORS: Kelly Kapsar*, Jianguo (Jack) Liu – Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: The international shipping industry is the primary means of transportation for flows of material between nations. Bulk carriers, oil tankers, and container ships are the physical entities that carry flows between these telecoupled sending and receiving systems. However, the spillover effects on other systems impacted by these flows remains understudied. By examining the spatial distribution and intensity of marine vessel traffic in a heavily utilized shipping corridor, the North Pacific Great Circle Route, these knowledge gaps of the spillover effects of telecoupled systems are addressed. Specifically, automatic identification system tracking data are used to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of marine vessels in the Bering Sea with an emphasis on the seasonal diversion of traffic through the Bering Strait and into the Arctic during the ice-free summer months. By developing intensity surface maps for each major class of vessels (bulk carriers, oil tankers, container ships, etc.), the relative distributions of vessel types in the landscape are analyzed. These maps will be used to better understand the spatial and temporal distribution of spillover effects (e.g. vessel noise, risk of oil spills) across the Bering Sea landscape. Furthermore, emphasis on the Bering Strait region will illuminate possible spatio-temporal overlaps between seasonal marine vessel traffic and migratory marine mammals in the region, such as Bowhead Whales (Balaena mysticetus). Results of this analysis will help researchers and stakeholders better understand and mitigate the spillover effects of marine vessel traffic and foster the sustainable development of marine systems.
AUTHORS: Laura E. D’Acunto, Karly A. Rushmore*, Patrick A. Zollner – Purdue University; Benjamin Pauli, St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
ABSTRACT: Species-specific responses to landscape modification are dependent on where a species falls on the habitat specialist-generalist continuum. Some species are designated as specialists or generalists without sufficient evidence, which can then provide faulty predictions of a species’ response to fragmentation. In North America, population declines of bats have triggered a need to understand the habitat associations of species of concern. We compared an established landscape-scale hierarchical occupancy model built within a contiguous forest landscape for three bat species (the northern long-eared bat, Myotis septentrionalis, the Indiana bat, Myotis sodalis, and the little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus). These species fell along the specialist-generalist continuum (in regards to forest needs) in a previous model constructed with data from a human-modified landscapes. We hypothesized that species considered contiguous forest specialists would show more plasticity in habitats selected for than more generalist species. We used single-species hierarchical Bayesian occupancy modeling with and without informative priors, and multi-species occupancy models, to test this hypothesis. Our study provided several important insights for bat research and occupancy modeling in general. We found that multi-species models may perform better than single-species models in the case of declining species and that the use of informative priors for a declining species can reduce model fit and influence the outcome of model predictions. We demonstrated that forest-specialist northern long-eared bat and the slightly less forest-specialized Indiana bat exhibited plasticity of habitat selection in human-modified landscapes compared to a contiguous forest landscape. This plasticity could be due to an inherent ability of these species to utilize modified landscapes or a competitive release phenomenon from severe population declines due to disease.
Monday April 9, 2018 2:45pm - 3:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Cristina Quintas-Soriano*, Idaho State University & Boise State University; Jodi Brandt, Boise State University; Antonio J. Castro, Idaho State University
ABSTRACT: Despite widespread recognition that stakeholders’ social values should guide environmental decision-making, it too often remains absent from ecosystem service (ES) assessments. Spatially explicit information that incorporates the perceptions of different stakeholders would provide a rich basis for the development of sustainable and equitable land management strategies. In this study, we engage the general public to identify and map a range of ES, and we spatially explore social perceptions towards those services. Based on over 1,000 face-to-face surveys, we analyze the spatial distribution of ES social values and determine the relationship between social values and stakeholder groups. Our study includes two watersheds in Idaho (US), which have similar biophysical characteristics but whose social-ecological dynamics have diverged over the past 100 years. To achieve our goal, we (1) explore social perceptions for ES, (2) identify spatial patterns in the perceptions of ES for stakeholder groups with different socio-demographic backgrounds, and (3) compare how stakeholders from two divergent social-ecological systems perceive ES. The results reveal overlapping hotspots for the ES valuation, as well as particular patterns in the perceptions of these ES depending of the social-ecological characteristics. Finally, we argue that exploring social values of ES can complement more traditional ES mapping approaches, and helps to incorporate public participatory process in decision-making.
AUTHORS: Payam Tabrizian, Anna Petrasova, Vaclav Petras, Helena Mitasova, Ross K. Meentemeyer – Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Integrating human perception and preferences in models of landscape change enables exploration of scenarios with meaningful social dimensions. But, little progress has been made to develop decision support systems that allow experts and non-experts to collaboratively model landscape change and explore “what if” scenarios across both geospatial and experiential dimensions, such as aesthetic preferences.We developed an open-source interface that creates intuitive interaction by combining Tangible User Interfaces with realistic representations of immersive virtual environments. Our approach combines Tangible Landscape — a tangible user interface for GIS that enables multiple users to reshape physical models with real-time, feedback of a geospatial simulation — with 3D modeling software that simultaneously renders photorealistic representations of landscape change on a screen or a head-mounted display. In this presentation we demo the application’s functionality using two interactive case-studies. The first example considers a landscape design case-study wherein participants collaboratively manipulate a physical model of the terrain with their hands, and create landscape designs of vegetation plantings . Throughout interaction participants will explore feedbacks between landscape patterns of vegetation and from hydrological processes , while the 3D immersive model simultaneously simulates human-centered viewscapes of design scenarios. Our second demo explores scenarios of urbanization using the dynamic land-change model,FUTURES. Through tangible interaction, participants will prioritize locations for habitat conservation and visualize spatio-temporal projections of urban growth on the physical model, along with simultaneous 3D visualizations of human-centered viewscapes including flythrough animations of urban ecology dynamics.
AUTHORS: Chris Jones, Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University; Aaron Moody, Geography, UNC-Chapel Hill; Ross Meentemeyer, Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Forest pathogens can have large-scale impacts on forest composition and can interact with natural disturbance regimes to dramatically change forest composition. But the long-term impacts of and interactions with natural disturbance regimes for newly introduced pests and pathogens are not well understood because current disease models don’t account for disease-related mortality or interactions with other disturbances. Many models of forest growth and succession work ignore the spatial distribution of species across a landscape. Therefore, we have combined a dynamic epidemiological model, a fire-behavior model, and a forest landscape simulation model (LANDIS-II) to understand how these disturbances interact and change forest composition over the course of a century using Phytophthora ramorum as our case study invasive pathogen. Three disturbance scenarios (fire, disease, and fire and disease) were used in order to understand the interacting effects of fire and disease on forest composition. The model scenarios were simulated from 1990 to 2090 using projected daily climate data. Data from these scenarios were aggregated to the entire study area and to ecoregion levels for analysis purposes. Biomass for four key species (tanoak, coast live oak, California bay laurel, and California black oak) affected by P. ramorum was analyzed over the 100-year simulation for the 3 disturbance scenarios. Our results suggest that changes in species composition are driven by asymmetries in host competency and species-specific response to fire across the study system. Additionally, initial species composition serves to either magnify or mitigate the effects of P. ramorum in the study system.
AUTHORS: Michael L. Treglia, New York City Program, The Nature Conservancy; Timon McPhearson, Urban Systems Lab, The New School; Eric W. Sanderson, Global Conservation Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society; Greg Yetman, Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University; Emily Nobel Maxwell, New York City Program, The Nature Conservancy
ABSTRACT: Cities globally face numerous challenges in maintaining a healthy and safe environment for people who live and work in them, and for biodiversity. Greenspaces are often lacking in densely populated urban areas, but can help alleviate problems related to air and water pollution and the urban heat island effect while provisioning habitat for myriad species. Urban greenspaces have historically included formal parkland, recreation fields, street trees, backyards, vacant land, and urban agriculture sites (e.g., community gardens). However, green infrastructure such as bioswales and green roofs are rapidly becoming part of this fabric, with the latter providing the additional benefit of increased energy efficiency for buildings they are installed on. However, green roofs are often installed on private land, simply categorized as “building” in land cover datasets, and thus ultimately difficult to track, along with the benefits they provide. Here we present results of our effort in New York City to map existing green roofs by querying publicly available datasets, manually digitizing green roof surfaces, and classifying high resolution aerial imagery. We are comparing the spatial distribution of green roofs to the spatial distribution of key environmental concerns, particularly related to combined stormwater sewer systems and the urban heat island effect, to evaluate whether green roofs are being installed in areas of greatest need. To date we have identified 163 buildings with green roofs, of approximately one million buildings in New York City, covering approximately 26 acres of nearly 40,000 in building footprints, largely focused in a handful of geographies. Results of this work can help inform future efforts and to geographically focus future green roof installations in areas of greatest benefit while adding to our understanding of greenspace in New York City. Finally, we highlight how our methodology can be applied to other cities with high resolution aerial imagery.
AUTHORS: Rachael Garrett, Kimberly Carlson, Nelson Villoria, Samuel Levy, Rodrigo Rivera, Toby Gardner, Javier Godar – Boston University
ABSTRACT: Expansion of globally traded food commodities is the leading cause of tropical forest loss. Recent campaigns by NGOs have incentivized major food retailers, processors, and traders to make commitments to exclude products associated with deforestation from their supply chains. These commitments take myriad forms and the impacts of small changes in commitment design (e.g. deforestation cut off dates, implementation timelines, and monitoring and reporting mechanisms) remain unclear. Our research examines how differences in the design of zero-deforestation commitments influences their potential impact on tropical land cover. First, we develop a new conceptual framework for understanding which design factors are likely to be critical for effectively protecting forests from agricultural expansion. We then explore these hypotheses relative to a business as usual scenario using a transformative modeling framework that captures both global governance and market telecouplings. Specifically, we soft-couple a high resolution land use and land cover change model (built in Dinamica) that integrates regional supply chain and zero-deforestation commitment data to a global equilibrium model (GTAP) to assess spillovers from adoption of zero-deforestation commitments in South America throughout the global food system.
AUTHORS: Casey C. Day, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Purdue University; Patrick A. Zollner*, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Purdue University; Jonathan H. Gilbert, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission; Nicholas P. McCann, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology University of Minnesota
ABSTRACT: It is generally accepted that evaluations of functional landscape connectivity should go beyond structural landscape configuration to account for factors such as animal behavior and dispersal costs. Individual-based models of animal movement that incorporate animal behavior and adaptive decision-making in real time can facilitate our understanding of such integration. We used the individual-based model (IBM) framework SEARCH to simulate the dispersal of translocated American martens (Martes americana). The hypothesis that a time-limited disperser should be willing to accept lower quality habitat over time was tested using a pattern-oriented modeling approach to compare how well several model formulations matched observed empirical patterns of dispersal. Our best model matched all dispersal patterns except for time spent dispersing. We found support for the hypothesis of declining habitat selectivity over time as well as for an initial 2-week exploratory phase prior to home range establishment. Next, we applied this calibrated and validated simulation to a new landscape where we evaluated how mortality, land use change, and asymmetrical landscape configuration affected the ability of martens to disperse approximately 60 km between reintroduced populations. Results indicated that mortality due to predation and starvation had the greatest impact on the ability of martens to successfully traverse the landscape and establish a home range. Land use change and landscape configuration also affected functional landscape connectivity, primarily when mortality probability was set to zero and only for the subset of individuals that traveled furthest. Interestingly, dispersal metrics displayed different relationships with these factors than did functional landscape connectivity. Ultimately, our IBM was both “pragmatic” in addressing management needs for a species of conservation concern and “paradigmatic” by explicitly testing theories of dispersal behavior. Linking these two conceptual levels furthers the utility of IBMs and provides direction for theoretical and empirical work on animal behavior.
Monday April 9, 2018 3:30pm - 3:45pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Di Yang, Chiung-Shiuan Fu, Michael Binford – Department of Geography, University of Florida
ABSTRACT: Citizen science opens a new era in mapping and visualizing the physical world by providing an open-access database of valuable georeferenced information collected by volunteer citizens. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey caused widespread devastation resulting in significant need of rapid mapping support in response to the destructive weather events. Citizens made great contributions to the real-time mapping of Hurricane Harvey flooded areas. As one of the most well known Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) initiatives, OpenStreetMap (OSM) contributes not only to road network distribution information but also to the potential for using these data to justify and delineate land patterns. In this study, mapping land-use pattern changes, we provide a novel and detailed regional land-use mapping strategy that incorporates OpenStreetMap with Earth observations. For Earth observation data-sets, we use Google Earth Engine (GEE) as GEE is a newly developed mapping and analysis platform that enables large-scale spatial analysis by its special infrastructure and automatic parallelized computation techniques. We use citizen science mapping in virtualizing Hurricane Harvey affected areas and examine them under the lens of landscape ecology analysis. We use our mapping strategy and results to not only further landscape ecology but to also bring researcher and citizen closer together.
AUTHORS: Alan H. Taylor, Arif Massur, Mike Nassry, Jan Wallgrün, Alex Klippel – Department of Geography, Penn State University
ABSTRACT: A century of fire exclusion has increased forest density and fire hazard in western ponderosa pine forests that historically burned every 5-15 years. Under favorable conditions, wildfire has the potential to restore forest conditions similar to those with an intact fire regime and this will increase forest resilience to subsequent wildfire. Four wildfires in the 20th century burned ponderosa pine forests in a remote site in the Ishi Wilderness creating a unique forest with the group and gap forest structure thought to be characteristic of pre-fire suppression forests. Here we describe how we developed immersive VR (iVR) applications for this unique and remote location to educate and communicate how wildland fire can be used effectively for ecological restoration. The iVR applications we developed are accessible through websites, HTC Vive, and mobile applications. The general framework for the development of these iVR applications primarily includes two-step workflow: data capture and content creation. For data capture we acquired high-resolution 360° (i.e. photography and videography) of forest conditions in the restored ponderosa pine forest and collected forest structure data in 1998, 2000, and 2016 in permanent plots. Then using Unity3D, we created both HTC Vive and mobile VR applications. The HTC Vive version allows immersion in georeferenced 360° scenes, controller-based and georeferenced map-guided navigation between these scenes, and a perception of the surrounding space of forest conditions using 1:1 body scale. The mobile iVR allows gaze-controlled and map-guided, interactive navigation between 360° scenes. Through a smooth virtual navigation and interactivity our developed Ishi iVR applications provide an excellent platform for 360° immersive tours, skywalks, and self-guided explorations of natural environments. We plan to determine if and how iVR experiences contribute to new or improved understanding of wildfire influenced pattern and processes for resource managers, educators, scientists, and the public.
AUTHORS: Jeffrey W. Matthews*, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT: Wetland restoration outcomes have been difficult to predict due to the erratic and context-dependent nature of restoration trajectories. As a consequence, restored wetlands often fail to meet expectations. This is especially problematic when wetlands are restored as legally mandated compensation to offset permitted impacts to natural wetlands. We have conducted long-term monitoring of several compensation wetlands in Illinois to evaluate compliance with required performance standards and to compare plant communities between natural and compensation wetlands. Standardized restoration monitoring and comparative analyses have allowed us to generalize common restoration trajectories and link those trajectories to features of the landscape. The results of restoration are seemingly idiosyncratic if we follow a single site for a few years, but not at all surprising if we consider the broader context within which restoration is taking place. Our results suggest that plant communities in compensation sites tend to converge upon those of natural wetlands within the surrounding landscape. For example, in Illinois, restoration of wetlands is plagued by reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) invasion. This undesirable trajectory, common to many restorations, mirrors broader trends in Illinois and across the temperate United States: based on large-scale, standardized monitoring of wetlands, we have observed a nationwide pattern of biotic homogenization as reed canarygrass invades naturally occurring wetlands. Despite restoration efforts, condition or quality of restorations tracks and is constrained by the condition of the landscape. Therefore, even assuming successful on-site restoration and short-term compliance, a degraded landscape eventually may drag a wetland compensation project into a state of non-compliance. To predict restoration outcomes, restoration practitioners must first identify the undesirable states that are most likely in a given landscape and recognize the landscape-level factors that channelize succession toward these undesirable states. Large-scale, long-term, standardized approaches to site monitoring are essential for this effort.
AUTHORS: Travis Gallo*, Elizabeth W. Lehrer, Mason Fidino – Urban Wildlife Institute, Lincoln Park Zoo; R. Julia Kilgour, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph; Patrick J. Wolff, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, CERL; Seth Magle, Urban Wildlife Institute, Lincoln Park Zoo
ABSTRACT: For over a century there have been continual efforts to incorporate nature into urban planning. These efforts – known as urban reconciliation – aim to manage and create habitats that support biodiversity within cities. Given that species select habitat at different spatial scales, understanding the scale at which urban species respond to their environment is critical to the success of urban reconciliation efforts. We assessed species-habitat relationships for common bat species at local (50-m), medium (500-m), and broad (1-km) spatial scales in the Chicago metropolitan area and predicted bat activity across the greater Chicago region. We found that habitat characteristics across all measured scales were important predictors of silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) and eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) activity, and big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) activity was significantly lower at urban sites compared to rural sites. We also found that open vegetation had a negative effect on silver-haired bat activity at the local scale but a positive effect at the medium-sized scale, indicating potential shifts in the relative importance of some habitat characteristics at varying scales. These results demonstrate that local-scale effects may be constrained by broader spatial patterns. Our findings highlight the importance of considering scale in urban reconciliation efforts and our landscape predictions provide information that can help prioritize urban conservation work.
AUTHORS: Monika Shea*, David Mladenoff, Murray Clayton, Stephen Berg, Hayden Elza – University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Ecotones are transitional areas between adjacent ecological systems where species from each system occur. Co-occurrence of species from different systems may follow different patterns: intermingling, where species from opposing systems occur near each other on the same sites, and interdigitation, where species from opposing systems occur in separate patches. If interdigitation occurs, patch size might vary across the ecotone, depending on the strength of controlling factors. The pattern of co-occurrence in ecotones reflects the processes driving species occurrence, which can be complex in ecotones as species approach conditions that limit their existence in the opposing system. Here we examine a regional ecotone, Wisconsin’s Tension Zone, and ask: do northern and southern trees follow a pattern of intermingling or interdigitation? We used witness tree records from the pre-Euro-American settlement (mid-1800s) Public Land Survey; this dataset spans the entire state and contains fine-scale spatial information on tree species occurrence. To detect whether patterns vary spatially, we divided the Tension Zone into 18 km grid cells (known as regions). Within each region, we examined spatial pattern by further dividing the region into smaller grid cells and calculating the proportion of northern trees versus southern trees in each grid cell. For each region, we compared the distribution of observed north/south proportion to a distribution of expected north/south proportion based on 1000 random permutations. We repeated this process for multiple grid sizes within each region to measure the scale of the pattern. We found that interdigitation is the primary pattern within the Tension Zone, and that the scale of interdigitation varies across the region. We examine how variable patterns are influenced by species composition and environmental factors. We infer that multiple processes drive vegetation patterns in the Tension Zone, and that these processes vary along and across the ecotone.
Monday April 9, 2018 3:30pm - 3:45pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Hannah J. Penn, Michael B. Mahon*, Thomas O. Crist – Miami University
ABSTRACT: Over the last two decades, ecologists have focused on how patterns of species diversity vary across spatial scales. However, the relative contribution of local, landscape, and regional factors influencing species diversity are unknown for most taxa, particularly invertebrates. We studied how the diversity and composition of forest-canopy spiders (Araneae) vary across nested spatial scales, ranging from individual trees to ecoregions. To address this question, we used a hierarchically scaled design to sample spiders in tree crowns in forests in southern Ohio and Indiana, USA. Four hierarchical levels comprised the nested design: individual tree, forest stand, site, and ecoregion. Spiders were knocked down with insecticidal fogging and collected using 12 funnels below trees. A total of 96 trees were sampled in June and August 2000. We used hierarchical diversity partitioning to understand the distribution of spider diversity across spatial scales. We used randomization procedures to test the significance of alpha and beta diversity against null distributions at each spatial scale. These randomization procedures were based on the PARTITION software developed by Crist et al. 2003 using a newly developed R package: PARTITION. Additionally, we used PERMANOVA and NMDS ordination to examine community composition at each spatial scale. Within tree (alpha) accounted for 9% of gamma (total regional) diversity, while between trees, forest stand, site, and ecoregion accounted for 21%, 15%, 32%, and 23%, respectively, of gamma diversity. Diversity is driven by both local (individual tree) and larger spatial scales (site and ecoregion), as revealed by partitioning of diversity. Conversely, ordination indicated stand-level characteristics appear to be the most important source of variation in species composition across scales. Our results indicate that both local and regional factors are important in determining the species diversity and composition of forest-canopy spiders across spatial scales.
AUTHORS: Paul Furumo*, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras; Ximena Rueda, Universidad de Los Andes
ABSTRACT: Socio-ecological outcomes of globalization are increasingly embedded in complex, distal flows of matter, technology, and information, often resulting in adverse effects. Nonetheless, while socio-ecological impacts are less tractable and extend beyond traditional boundaries of governance, new opportunities for sustainability are emerging in this telecoupled world. Voluntary certification schemes (VCS)—such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)—have emerged as market-based tools for conservation in commodity crop production. These new governance mechanisms are designed to enhance shared-value creation along the supply chain by involving more stakeholders. We observed adoption of RSPO certification in the Colombian oil palm sector to examine how VCS governance becomes implemented from consumers to producers, and particularly how these telecoupled forces respond under different local conditions. We explore RSPO adoption in the two primary oil palm production zones of Colombia, offering distinct ecosystems, markets, and infrastructure: 1) the northern Caribbean coast—international export market, high RSPO adoption, and 2) the eastern lowlands—national market, low RSPO adoption. We interviewed six certified and non-certified producers from each zone to understand barriers and motivations to certification. We supplement our field data with other stakeholder perspectives including the national growers association and commercial traders. We found that oil palm companies are expanding their business models through certification to include more stakeholders—reflected in triple bottom line value proposition (economic, social, and environmental). Certified companies exported more of their production than non-certified companies, and the primary motivation for certifying in the coast was gaining access to international markets (i.e. Europe). Isolation from points of export was the main barrier to certification in the landlocked eastern lowlands, coupled with strong domestic demand for palm oil as a feedstock in biodiesel production. Our analysis highlights that local conditions such as market access and economic geography can be strong predictors of sustainability adoption in telecoupled systems.
AUTHORS: Cintia Cornelius*, Universidade Federal do Amazonas; Marcelo Awade, Universidade de São Paulo; Carlos Candia-Gallardo, Universidade de São Paulo; Mariane Biz, Universidade de São Paulo; Kathryn E. Sieving, University of Florida; Jean Paul Metzger, Universidade de São Paulo.
ABSTRACT: Species-specific fixed traits are often assumed in ecology and conservation research ignoring intraspecific or even interpopulation variation. Dispersal is a heritable trait that develops by interactions between landscape and behavioral processes, and thus interpopulation variation should be frequently observed. In this talk I will address how changes in landscapes configuration lead to inter population variation in traits that are related to dispersal. We conducted translocation-radio-tracking experiments and novel-environment tests to assess weather movement, exploratory behavior, and dispersal success differ among individuals from fragmented and continuous forest populations. As model system we used a tropical rainforest bird (Pyriglena leucoptera, Thamnophillidae), that is an understory army-ant follower of the Atlantic Forest in north- and south-eastern Brazil. We based our predictions on the hypothesis of non-optimal movement in human-modified landscapes that states that individuals that evolve in fragmented landscapes with a risky matrix, have higher resistance to cross boundaries than individuals from continuous habitats. We show that birds from the fragmented landscape population were indeed more resistant to cross boundaries, as predicted by the model, but they were more successful when compared to birds from the continuous forest dispersing through the fragmented landscape. We also found evidence in favor of a reduced exploratory score for birds from the fragmented landscape indicating that they were slow-explorers, possibly allowing them to explore their environment more thoroughly and enabling them to cross the matrix more successfully. Observed behavioral differences may emerge by either genetic adaptation, if selection pressure is strong, or behavioral plasticity. In any case, because sudden landscape changes may result in non-optimal behaviors, we suggest that, if landscape-change is inevitable, gradual transformations should be preferred to increase the chances of individuals to adjust their behavior (or populations to adapt) to the new environment.
Monday April 9, 2018 3:45pm - 4:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Alexander Klippel, The Pennsylvania State University; Jiawei Huang, The Pennsylvania State University; Melissa Lucash, Portland State University; Robert Scheller, North Carolina State University; Erica Smithwick, The Pennsylvania State University
ABSTRACT: Decision makers in environmental sciences around the world face the dilemma that planning for the future often requires abstract data as the primary basis for selecting a certain solution. The problem of abstract information is even more pronounced when the general public or lay people are part of the process as for them putting an environment they are used to interact with naturally into numeric (and at best graph-like) form is challenging. What does it actually mean that the biomass of tree species X is 16K cbm according to, for example, using climate change data from X to run a model on LANDIS II? We are in the position to offer decision-makers access to such an empirical experience based on recent development in 3D and immersive technologies. We modeled the composition of species in Wisconsin. The climate models used as input were made available through ## and taken as input for ecological modeling using LANDIS – II. Landings output was amended by ecological rules that allowed for deriving procedural rules necessary to guide, for example, the transformation of biomass into a distribution of trees in a specific area including assumptions about age distribution and spatial contagion. Using CityEngine as a bases for this modeling the resulting information and 3D models can be accessed through game engines such as Unity or rendered further using tools such as Lumion to increase the realism of the 3D model. We will discuss the overall approach, will offer insights into challenges such as how to address uncertainty in a 3D representation of the future of a natural environment, will showcase access modalities such as mobile phone based applications for head-mounted immersive experiences, and will discuss evaluation plans for assessing the value of immersive, embodied experiences for environmental decision making.
AUTHORS: Sara G. Baer, Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
ABSTRACT: A major limitation to advancing ecological theory and its application to ecological restoration is the existence of landscape-scale experimental frameworks designed to capture community and ecosystem responses to manipulated, natural, and anthropogenic changes in ecological drivers. The power to predict ecological responses to restoration and plan conservation strategies for the future ultimately depends on developing restoration designs with adequate statistical rigor to generate a degree of certainty about responses and ability to forecast change. To build such understanding, ecological drivers can be manipulated simultaneously in time and space. Long-term studies in native and restored prairie demonstrate dynamic and unexpected community responses to field-scale management (i.e., fire and grazing) and small-scale variation in soil resources. When manipulating ecological drivers, sampling needs to be scaled to account for functionally different species. Assessing community response to variation in regional ecological drivers can be addressed by restoring vegetation at the same time in different places. These studies offer insights into ecological-evolutionary relationships, but are complicated by uncontrolled variation in multiple environmental conditions. Community responses to environmental variation can also be tested by using comparable restoration methods in the same place at different times. This approach is being used to reveal the role of interannual variation in climate and other stochastic factors on the development of grassland states. A drawback to this approach is reliance on nature to provide temporal variability in environmental conditions. Lastly, restorations conducted using comparable methods at different times and different places with similar conditions enables space-for-time substitutions that can be used to model and predict long-term changes from a one-time sampling. In sum, for restorations to inform practice and advance ecological knowledge, they need to be designed for short- and long-term hypothesis testing.
AUTHORS: Maureen H. Murray*, Urban Wildlife Institute and Davee Center for Endocrinology and Epidemiology, Lincoln Park Zoo; Mason Fidino, Travis Gallo, Liza Lehrer, Seth Magle – Urban Wildlife Institute, Lincoln Park Zoo.
ABSTRACT: Landscape composition and configuration can influence the prevalence of wildlife disease through their effects on host movement and abundance. For example, urbanization can influence host abundance and community structure by fragmenting habitat patches, which could simultaneously limit host movement and impact habitat quality. The coyote (Canis latrans) is abundant in cities across North America and a host for the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, a common parasite of canids that causes lesions and hair loss known as sarcoptic mange. Because S. scabiei causes visible signs, wildlife cameras can be used to monitor its occurrence non-invasively across large spatial and temporal scales. We used seven years of camera trapping data from the Chicago urban wildlife biodiversity monitoring program to test whether the occurrence of sarcoptic mange increases 1) along an urban gradient, 2) during the fall when young disperse, and 3) in patches where the occurrence of canid hosts (i.e. coyotes, foxes, and domestic dogs) is higher. We deployed camera traps (n = 120) along three 50 km transects radiating out from Chicago’s urban center and cameras were active seasonally. From photographs, we recorded whether a canid was present and whether hair loss or lesions consistent with sarcoptic mange were visible. We then used a mixed modeling framework to quantify the influence of urban cover, season, canid occurrences, and year on the proportion of coyote occurrences with signs of mange and included site as a random effect. We found high variation in the occurrence of mange across sites and higher occurrence in the fall and winter. Our results will help clarify the role of landscape factors that influence parasite prevalence in urban wildlife populations. These advances can help mitigate health risks for urban wildlife and the transmission of parasites between wildlife, pets, and people.
AUTHORS: Yi Li, Bingchao Yin, Yangfan Li* – Xiamen University
ABSTRACT: The ever-increasing and unprecedented impacts of human activities on natural landscape are dramatically altering heterogeneous of habitats and biodiversity globally. In this study, we modeled the climate connectivity in China’s coastal provinces referring to three aspects of human influence (HI). The climate-gradient oriented landscape connectivity offers the first map capable of informing landscape connectivity in China’s coastal area. We demonstrate that more than 50% of coastal areas was challenged by vast influences above the average value of HI, especially in the coastal metropolitan cities. Only 24% of natural lands retained enough connectivity in 2010 to allow animals to move through temperature gradient corridors as the climate warms. Moreover, the critical junctions of pinch points and early warning points, as the stepping stones to landscape connectivity, were mainly detected in semi-natural lands (forest and grassland). Our research found that these points constrained climate connectivity; however, facilitating connections in the semi-natural lands initiates the permeability of landscape connectivity to track suitable climates. By connecting fragmented patches into a landscape network as the natural climate solution, the transition zones highlight priority locations for ecologists and conservation managers to configure the most effective areas for enhancing landscape connectivity.
Monday April 9, 2018 3:45pm - 4:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Vera Pfeiffer*, Janet Silbernagel, Christelle Guedot, Juan Zalapa – University of Wisconsin- Madison
ABSTRACT: Native pollinators provide an important ecosystem service for many pollination-dependent fruit crops and wild bees require nesting and foraging resources in proximity to target crop plants. Consequently, landscape resources influence the distribution of pollination services, which may fluctuate temporally through the season due to pollinators’ foraging preferences. This study investigates how floral resources and landscape context influence bumble bee colony density and fluctuation between the growing season and the target crop pulse. We sampled bumble bees at fourteen cranberry marshes before, during, and after the cranberry bloom in central Wisconsin. Two sites supplemented wild bumble bees with commercial colonies, which were separately analyzed. Floral richness and surrounding land cover were quantified and their effects on individual and colony density were assessed using linear regression models and variance partitioning. The percentage of forest or cultivated land best predicted individual and colony density during almost all temporal extents. The interspersion of meadow through the surrounding landscape and the total bog edge were also useful in top regression models. Floral richness was the primary factor influencing individual density during bloom, as well as the change in colony density between the growing season and the bloom when change accounts for detection. Landscapes with large agricultural field sizes and very clumpy forest experienced a decrease in colony detection probability, and likely colony dependence during bloom. We suggest that maintaining forested land and interspersed meadow around cultivated fruit crops is important for colony abundance, and bolstering floral richness locally will draw in more bees when floral resources are abundant.
AUTHORS: Ciara Hovis*, Jianguo (Jack) Liu – Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Global food trade drives land use/cover change, which has consequences for species that utilize agroecosystems. The majority of studies on land use changes driven by global food trade focus on countries that produce and export food because of the dramatic change from natural to agricultural landscapes. However, little attention has been paid to the effects of global trade on biodiversity in importing countries, which undergo more subtle land cover/use changes in the form of crop switching and abandonment as imports have substantial effects on domestic crop prices, and thereby land use decision-making. Here, we investigated bird diversity across Heilongjiang Province in China, the world’s largest soybean importer (39% of the world’s total soy imports in 2013 went to China). In 2017, we surveyed bird diversity across agricultural and natural landscapes to analyze how landscape change impacts the region’s bird diversity. Thirty-six bird species were identified in this survey. Preliminary results show that soybean imports have increased landscape diversity (both compositional and configurational), which in turn supports higher bird species diversity. The results of this research can be used to inform landscape planning in agricultural areas, and also predict how farmer decision making will ultimately impact biodiversity in a telecoupled world.
AUTHORS: Anjelika D. Kidd*, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia; Jeffrey Hepinstall Cymerman, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia; Maureen H. Murray, Sonia M. Hernandez – Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia
ABSTRACT: When animals adapt to urbanized landscapes, they often exhibit altered behaviors, such as reduced home range sizes, increased site fidelity, and resource switching from natural to urban resources. The American White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) is a nomadic wading bird that typically moves unpredictably between wetlands of the Everglades and throughout the Southeastern U.S. searching for ephemeral wetland foraging conditions. Within the last two decades, ibis in south Florida are increasingly found foraging in urban areas and relying on artificial wetland-like habitats (e.g., urban ponds, water reclamation sites). As part of a larger effort investigating avian health and ecology in wildland versus urban habitats, we characterize movement behaviors of ibis across an urbanization gradient to understand the relationship between anthropogenic resource availability and changes in ibis ecology. Ibises (n = 48) were captured in urban parks and wetlands in south Florida and outfitted with GPS transmitters recording up to 12 locations per day. We based ibis degree of urbanization on non-breeding habitat use, when their resource selection is least constrained. Ibis range sizes, site fidelity, and use of urban and other habitats were compared to urbanization scores for non-breeding, breeding, and transitional seasons. As ibis degree of urbanization increased, range size decreased and site fidelity increased. During the breeding season, range size and location changed for both urban and wildland ibis, likely to accommodate nesting requirements. Ibises were more likely to use urban areas during the non-breeding season than while breeding, presumably because urban habitats are associated with lower quality resources such as inadequate rookery sites and human-provided food. In contrast to previous VHF-telemetry studies, GPS data provides a fine-scale picture of movements along an urbanization gradient and into remote areas; information instrumental in understanding how species change their movement ecology when adapting to urbanized landscapes.
Monday April 9, 2018 4:00pm - 4:15pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Jason P. Julian*, Russell Weaver, Graham Daly – Texas State University
ABSTRACT: Central Texas is the fastest growing region in the USA. Caught in the middle of this emerging mega-region is the San Marcos River watershed, which provides a suite of ecosystem services to one of the fastest growing cities in the USA, a rapidly growing University student population, and millions of tourists each year. In order to assess the supply and demand of ecosystem services provided by the San Marcos River and its watershed, we conducted 3,193 surveys among these stakeholder groups. Answers from our 49-question survey revealed that there were five distinct stakeholder groups: Non-student Residents, Student Residents, Regional Students, Regional Tourists, and Non-regional Tourists. One key variable emerged that significantly differentiated these groups with respect to their use, preference, and value of ecosystem services: mobility, particularly in terms of the individual’s origin and how often they visit the river. This mobility and its effect on social demand creates cross-scale interactions that can lead to negative and positive feedbacks in this social-ecological system. In our system, a positive feedback occurred where as individual use of the river increased, so did their value and preference of particular ecosystem services. We also found that as temporal use of the river increased at the global scale, a negative feedback occurred where people at the regional scale avoided the river, even more so than at the local scale. Overall, our findings demonstrate that within this social-ecological system, actors at the individual, stakeholder, regional, and global scales interact to define the supply and demand of ecosystem services.
AUTHORS: Lucinda B. Johnson*, Rich Axler, Will Bartsch – Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth; Mae Davenport, University of Minnesota; Cynthia Hagley, Minnesota Sea Grant; George Host, George Hudak, Kristopher Johnson, Julie Oreskovich, Dean Peterson, Norm Will – Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth
ABSTRACT: Sound broad-scale natural resource management decisions require access to a range of ecological, social and economic data that are often not readily available. We are developing a comprehensive web-based Natural Resource Atlas for NE Minnesota comprising geospatial data and analysis tools designed to inform resource management decisions. The goal is promote objective decision-making processes that are anchored in more complete and integrative information sources, resulting in decisions and actions that are more transparent and effective. Potential uses include prioritizing restoration or conservation sites; identifying sometimes controversial mineral, forestry, water and tourism opportunities; and providing unbiased, trustworthy data to communities, industry, businesses, and agencies for shared decision making. The system will integrate data from multiple disciplines and cover topics associated with infrastructure, socioeconomics, climate, geology, forestry, biology, water, and landscapes. Interdependencies among different data will be highlighted using map visualizations, graphical and tabular summaries, and descriptive statistics. Natural resource decision makers, managers, and stakeholders from a number of sectors of the community have been consulted throughout the planning and will help pilot test the Atlas to ensure usability and relevance. Their input will drive the design of the user interface along with the types of data analysis and visualization tools embedded. Case studies are demonstrating use of the tool and are being developed through an elicitation process with science experts. Throughout the system’s development over the past year it has become apparent that this set of tools will also be used by scientists and communicators within and outside the organization. Involving end users early in the design phase has highlighted important data gaps, and has driven the development of novel data layers, including e.g., a statewide map of mineral potential.
AUTHORS: Scott J. Meiners, Eastern Illinois University
ABSTRACT: The restoration of any habitat is really the management of successional processes. In succession, site qualities, species availability and the differential performance of species generate temporal dynamics. In restoration, site qualities are often manipulated as well as species availability, through direct seedling or planting. This is done with the hopes that the performance of species will respond to the manipulations and generate a community similar to the desired target. Data from a 60 year study of succession, the Buell-Small Succession Study (BSS), in suburbanized New Jersey will be used to illustrate successional processes and relate them to the Cook County Forest Preserve restoration project. Invasive plant species have been the primary conservation concern in the BSS, though most have been transitory in their dominance of the system. Invaders which inhibit key successional transitions or that are likely to persist at the successional endpoint represent strong candidates for control to optimize resource utilization. High densities of deer have also begun to limit forest recruitment and understory development of the BSS and will also likely be an issue for the Forest Preserve restoration. Initial survey data may yield suggestions for management, but temporal trajectories revealed through continued monitoring will be the strongest indicators of both success and developing issues. Above all, succession is context dependent, something that restoration has yet to grapple with sufficiently. The wide range of sites, conditions and contexts encompassed by the Cook County Forest Preserve restoration will allow unparalleled assessment of restoration approaches employed across a heterogeneous landscape. Continual analysis of vegetation monitoring data will also yield much information on a wide variety of ecological issues and plans should be made to regularly exploit this region-specific data set.
AUTHORS: Peter Ibsen *, University of California Riverside; Mary Santelmann, Oregon State University; Michelle Talal, Oregon State University; Chris Swan, University of Maryland Baltimore Campus; Dorothy Borowy, University of Maryland Baltimore Campus; David Hondula, Arizona State University; Mary Wright, Arizona State University; Darrel Jenerette,University of California Riverside
ABSTRACT: The combination of increasing urbanization and global warming make cities a hot-spot for climate research. A major research focus is on mitigation of increasing urban warming through vegetation-derived microscale cooling. While vegetation has a documented cooling effect on land surface temperature (LST) and air temperature (Tair), uncertainty exists over the mechanism behind that effect and scale of the drivers. Here we ask how does shading or transpiration drive vegetation cooling, and how cooling effect strength varies from regional to continental scales? To resolve these issues, we placed ~400 Tair and ~100 relative humidity (RH) sensors in four large cities representing varying regional climates (Los Angeles, Portland, Phoenix, Baltimore) during the summer of 2017. To capture a broad range of urban vegetation density, we stratified sensor placement to binned categories of vegetation density. Vegetation density was quantified via satellite measurements of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Sensors recorded microclimate variables of Tair and RH hourly for ~84 days in each city. Microclimate variables in each city were regressed against local NDVI to assess how vegetation affects regional climate. We then regressed mean city-specific effect size (slopes of NDVI~Tair) with regional classifications of citywide vapor pressure deficit (VPD). Initial results show a pronounced difference of cooling effectiveness among cities, with strongest effects in cities with lower average VPD. All cities experienced changes in in cooling effect size during local heat waves, however, the slope direction differed depending on regional climate, with a negative nighttime effect in humid cities, and an positive effect in arid cities. These results show that vegetation-derived cooling cannot be explained through shading alone, as vegetation density does not explain the changes in effect size within different cities. Resolving mechanism and driver strength of cooling provides better resources for urban climate modeling and warming mitigation.
AUTHORS: Kristopher Bonefont*, Northwestern University; Jeremie Fant, Chicago Botanic Garden
ABSTRACT: The environmental consequences of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity have been studied both in natural and controlled experiments, resulting in a broad range of outcomes that are understood to contribute to the detriment of ecosystems. However, recent findings suggest that when experiments control for habitat amount, the spatial arrangement may mitigate the impacts of habitat loss. These factors may play a part in the maintenance of naturally discontinuous communities, despite having amounts thought to be insufficient for their long-term persistence. In this study, we aimed to determine the dominant plant traits that characterize community-wide responses to the spatial configuration of habitats across a naturally-fragmented landscape. We selected 38 dry prairies sites with plant community data. We extracted spatial configuration metrics at landscape extents that had moderate amounts of suitable habitat. Ten plant traits related to the persistence, dispersal, and establishment were selected to characterize the ecological response to habitat configuration. Double-inertia analysis and linear modeling were used to explore the links between the configuration and plant attributes. Results obtained by performing the analysis on a subset of species have already provided relationships between trait attributes and the configurational gradients that we believe influence them. Patch complexity and edge contrast were negatively associated with plant height and degree of habitat specialization, while habitat aggregation and patch cohesion negatively associated with clonality, pollination syndrome, and seed dormancy. Preliminary results suggest that at an intermediate level of fragmentation, the configuration of habitats acts as a filter on species attributes. Understanding how configuration structures the functional dominance of communities improves our ability to predict which species persist, while also offering us the possibility of manipulating the configurational attributes of fragmented sites for conservation purposes.
Monday April 9, 2018 4:00pm - 4:15pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Federico Riva*, University of Alberta and Land Reclamation International Graduate School; John H. Acorn, University of Alberta; Scott E. Nielsen, University of Alberta and Land Reclamation International Graduate School
ABSTRACT: Understanding the interplay between ecological processes and spatial patterns across multiple scales is an important focus of landscape ecology. Because this relationship determines species’ occurrence, it is also fundamental in conservation planning, especially when the aim is to protect a rare species. One native species of conservation interest in North America is the cranberry blue butterfly (Plebejus optilete). In Alberta, Canada, the cranberry blue is considered imperiled with few occurrences known (< 15), generally in treed peatlands. There is concern that this species will be negatively affected by anthropogenic disturbances associated with seismic assessments of underground oil sands reserves. These disturbances are narrow (< 10 m), but dense (up to 40 km/km2), early seral corridors cleared across thousands of km2 of boreal forests, including where cranberry blues are found. Here, we investigated how variation in patterns in natural and anthropogenic forest characteristics affect the occurrence of cranberry blue butterflies. Forests in the region naturally transition from wetland to upland environments, and are characterized by periodic wildfires. To examine responses of cranberry blues to wildfires and anthropogenic sources of disturbance, we sampled butterflies along 250-m transects at five point-counts across 40 sites, and modeled the species occurrence based on fire severity, forest structure, forest fragmentation, and soil wetness, each measured directly at the site and at the landscape with a GIS.In total, we discovered 14 new populations across a 2,500-km2 region of northeast Alberta. Cranberry blues preferred open treed peatlands, and were sensitive to local variation in habitat. While we found no evidence of negative effects from the anthropogenic forest corridors, recent wildfires decreased species occurrence. Although local characteristics are the primary determinant of species occurrence, amount of surrounding treed peatland conditioned the local presence of cranberry blues, confirming that the landscape can fulfill important roles in moderating ecological processes.
AUTHORS: Ta-Ken Huang*, School of Natural Resources and the Environment, The University of Arizona; Darius Semmens, Geosciences & Environmental Change Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey ; Laura López-Hoffman, School of Natural Resources and the Environment, The University of Arizona; Jay E. Diffendorfer, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey; Wayne E. Thogmartin, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, U.S. Geological Survey.
ABSTRACT: Migratory species link ecosystems and people around the world. Their management and conservation requires an approach integrating both ecological and socioeconomic dimensions to reveal these linkages across space. We demonstrate a framework built around the concept that migratory species act as carriers or agents, delivering ecosystem services to people throughout their annual cycle. The resulting benefit flows can be viewed as spatial economic subsidies from ecologically important habitat to socioeconomically important areas where migratory wildlife interact with people. Quantifying these benefit flows between source and delivery areas permits a more comprehensive understanding of the spatial distribution of benefits and costs associated with the conservation of migratory species across international borders. To illustrate our framework, we present case studies quantifying the spatial subsidies provided by migratory species. Management and policy scenarios are used to consider feedbacks within these linked socioeconomic and environmental systems over time. We discuss data needs, methods, and lessons learned from these case studies, as well as implications for trans-border management and conservation of coupled human-natural systems involving migratory species.
AUTHORS: Jacob Peterson, Oklahoma State University; Julia Earl, Louisiana Tech University; Sam Fuhlendorf, Oklahoma State University; Dwayne Elmore, Oklahoma State University; Ashley M. Tanner, Oklahoma State University; David Haukos, U.S. Geological Survey, Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Kansas State University; Scott Carleton, U.S. Geological Survey, New Mexico Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, New Mexico State University
ABSTRACT: In increasingly fragmented landscapes, connectivity among populations is an important concern. Long distance movements, including dispersal, exploratory loops, and movements between home ranges, can contribute to fitness and population persistence through increased resource availability and genetic dispersal. As the spatial separation of a populations increases, questions concerning how species utilize and interact with their environment during long-distance movement are inherent to their conservation. Lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) are a grassland obligate species that have been impacted by land use change and fragmentation of contiguous native prairie. Densities of different anthropogenic structures (i.e., towers, oil wells, roads, powerlines, and fences) vary across regions and movement types. Movements of 344 birds were obtained using satellite GPS transmitters across their distribution in western Kansas, Oklahoma panhandle, eastern Colorado, and southeast New Mexico between 2013 and 2016. In preliminary analysis, 85 individuals made 184 long-distance movements. Effects of anthropogenic structures were assessed along long-distance movement tracts and areas surrounding the home ranges of individuals. Cumulative distribution functions were used to test for selection or avoidance of the different features across multiple scales and subcategories (i.e., study region and movement type). Analyses suggest lesser prairie-chickens respond to high voltage power lines (> 69 kV) and oil wells in a consistent negative pattern up to an inflection point that varies by region (5000–10000 m and 500–2500 m respectively). Other features showed variation in selection or avoidance by region. Comparing the CDF results for multiple scales reveals that the inflection point generally decreases as the available area around movement tracts increases. Further analyses will examine the drivers of this trend and whether feature density has an impact on avoidance in regions. These results are important to understand possible barriers or obstacles to long-distance movements and ensure connectivity among populations for the conservation of this species.
Monday April 9, 2018 4:15pm - 4:30pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Erin Buchholtz*, Texas A&M University, Ecoexist Project; Lauren Redmore, Texas A&M University, Ecoexist Project; Susanne Vogel, University of Oxford, Ecoexist Project; Lee Fitzgerald, Texas A&M University; Amanda Stronza, Ecoexist Project, Texas A&M University; Anna Songhurst, Ecoexist Project, University of Oxford, Texas A&M University; Graham McCulloch, Ecoexist Project, University of Oxford, Texas A&M University
ABSTRACT: When humans and wildlife both rely on the same natural resources, it becomes important to understand their interactions ecologically as well as for issues of conservation, conflict, and coexistence. Our research focuses on hardwood trees in the Eastern Okavango Panhandle of Botswana as a way to study the demands for natural resources in a social-ecological system. Hardwoods are a staple of elephant diet and are heavily relied on for firewood by people in the region, however, spatial and temporal proximity to each other can be risky for both species. Our research will calculate an index of selection for elephants, based on proportional frequency of browsing and availability of hardwood species encountered. Data on human hardwood collection will be analyzed for use preference and availability as well, and this selection index compared with that of the elephants. Our anticipated results will be that there will be overlap in hardwood species selection among humans and elephants and that variation in preference will be related to nutritional content (for elephants) and burning characteristics (for humans). We will also analyze spatial overlap of human firewood collection pathways and elephant movement based on participatory mapping and elephant GPS collar data. Although risky, we anticipate high spatial overlap between the two because elephant browsing damages trees and creates dry wood that is harvested by humans. These analyses of hardwood use may reveal important risk-reward dynamic interactions that have not been evident in previous human-elephant conflict work focused on agricultural crop-raiding. Overall, this will result in a better understanding of the linked social-ecological system revolving around resource use where humans and elephants share the landscape.
AUTHORS: Anne Kuhn and Jane Copeland - US Environmental Protection Agency, Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett, RI
ABSTRACT: Healthy and resilient watersheds provide critical ecosystem service (ES) benefits such as water quality protection for human uses (e.g. drinking water, recreation). Intact wetlands, forests, and other vegetated areas filter pollutants from runoff and atmospheric deposition, supporting clean drinking water and healthy aquatic biological communities. To promote and strengthen the resiliency of coastal watersheds in the face of climate change and development, ecological outcomes as well as economic, social, and environmental justice issues need to be considered.An integrated assessment framework linked to a desktop and web-based decision support system (DSS) incorporating ecological integrity principles with ESs, was developed to provide support in decision making to strengthen coastal watershed sustainability and resilience. The DSS operates within a geospatial platform, allowing for spatially-explicit analysis of individual ecological units and their associated ESs at multiple scales, and provides web-based and mobile applications developed for a range of users from technical users, stakeholders and managers, to the general public. This DSS framework allows for the evaluation of both ecological integrity and ESs of key functional processes, components and elements of watershed integrity relative to the location within the watershed (e.g. headwater streams, flood plains, riparian condition, coastal wetlands, etc.). Watershed managers and coastal communities can use this DSS to identify and prioritize conservation and restoration efforts within coastal watersheds while considering the ecological as well as the economic and social outcomes. This DSS can be used to: 1) prioritize protection and restoration of upland and riparian habitat for water quality; 2) reduce flooding risks, identify opportunities to restore flood plains and riparian zones to increase aquatic connectivity; 3) plan for sea level rise adaptation: marsh migration; 4) optimize green infrastructure and BMP implementation to reduce nutrients and non-point source pollutants; 5) identify best locations for optimizing economic development, multimodal transportation, etc.
AUTHORS: Huilei Li*, Jian Peng – Peking University
ABSTRACT: With the rapid development of urbanization, a series of urban ecological problems have emerged, such as the urban heat island (UHI) effect. This paper uses Wuhan city as a study area, applying a total of 11 remote sensing images from Landsat to examine 27-year (1989 to 2015) land surface temperature (LST) in summer and winter, and analyzes the UHI patterns qualitatively and quantitatively. We explored the relationships between LST values and natural factors (percentage of water body and artificial surface) and socioeconomic factors (population, GDP and energy consumption). The results indicated that the UHI was more serious in summer than in winter. For long time scales, the structure of UHI within the third ring road experienced a compact and decentralized evolution with a turning point in 2010. In terms of the influencing factors, both natural and socioeconomic factors were highly correlated with LST, in which the natural factors were more direct. The correlations between socioeconomic factors and LST were enhanced first and then decreased. Taken together, these findings reveal the evolution characteristics of UHI and its influence factors, which are helpful for improving the planning and management of city ecological environments.
AUTHORS: Stanislav Avdieiev*, Kenneth Tsai, Joel Brown, Robert Gatenby – H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute.
ABSTRACT: Skin cancer is the most common form of malignancy in humans. Despite of the growing body of studies, first principles and basic molecular aspects of initiation and progression of this malignancy is still poorly understood. In this study, we are investigating the evolutionary and molecular principles that can help to explain the establishment, dynamic, and long-term outgrowth of cancer cell clones in skin following chronic UV exposure. Our central hypothesis is that skin cancer is induced not by solely accumulation of genetic mutations, but rather combination of mutations and disruption of the spatial and temporal constraints imposed by the 3-D architecture of skin. Recent ultra-deep sequencing studies have demonstrated that adult sun-exposed skin is a patchwork of clones with common cancer-driving mutations, however, it is still physiologically normal skin. One explanation is that local tissue landscape plays a pivotal role in the skin clonal architecture. Epidermal progenitor cell compartments constitute physical barriers to expansion of p53-mutant keratinocytes. Subsequently, adjacent tissue space provides a valuable resource that permit unusually long rounds of proliferation of mutants. Sunlight can act as a tumor promoter by killing normal cells but sparing the P53-mutated cells since they are resistant to UV-induced apoptotic death. After surviving irradiation, these mutant cells could then clonally expand into vacated compartments.Our study are focused on testing the roles of mutational load and cell turnover (proliferation) on the emergence of malignant phenotypes in-vitro and in-vivo using chronic UV-exposure and live-imaging of primary human keratinocytes, intravital microscopy of K14 keratinocytes in mice, CRISPR functional genomics, signaling profiling and exome sequencing of selected clones. Taken together, our research is aimed to understand, explain and predict the earliest step of carcinogenesis driven by chronic UV exposure.
Monday April 9, 2018 4:15pm - 4:30pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Pamela Blackmore*, Jeff Taylor, Lee Skabelund, Dr. Dave Haukos, Dr. Brent Chamberlain – Kansas State University
ABSTRACT: As pollinators are decreasing across the United States, it is becoming more important to understand how the trend can be reversed. Cities, which have typically destroyed and fragmented pollinator habitat, may be able to utilize roof tops for the benefit of pollinators. The Memorial Stadium Green Roofs at Kansas State University are rooftops previously used as stadium seating, portions of which have recently been covered with native prairie vegetation. This study, initiated in the spring of 2017, evaluates the effectiveness of these created green roofs to provide pollinator habitat in an urban context by comparing butterfly communities of the green roofs to those in urban native prairie (Warner Park, Manhattan) and protected tallgrass prairie (Konza Prairie Biological Station, an NSF LTER site). It also looks at how on-site vegetation composition influences butterfly species richness, distribution, and abundance. Methods employed include a modified Pollard walk, plant composition sampling, and mapping the spatial distribution of vegetation used by individual butterflies with a GPS unit. This presentation will provide methods used and first-year preliminary findings from what will be a two-year study. Initial findings suggest that butterflies can find and use green roofs in this urbanized area. However, while the green roofs support many species of butterflies including monarchs, sulphurs, painted ladies, and others, tallgrass prairie specialist species, such as the regal fritillary, have not been seen using the green roofs, yet have been present at the other sites. This study will give insights as to the potential for green roofs in urban areas to compensate for lost butterfly habitat and what variables may influence the butterflies present.
AUTHORS: James D. Forester*, John Berini – University of Minnesota
ABSTRACT: Wildlife species are increasingly exposed to novel combinations of climate and resource heterogeneity. Understanding how animal populations at the edge of their bioclimatic ranges behaviorally mitigate extreme temperatures while also efficiently extracting resources and avoiding predators will provide insights into how landscapes can be managed for species of conservation concern. Here, we explored the impact of land cover and ambient temperature on the movement behavior and diet of individual moose in northeastern Minnesota. We analyzed the stable isotope composition of common forage plants and hair of 150 radio-collared moose to estimate how the animals’ diets changed in response to the landscape-level distribution and abundance of land-cover types across a 6° C mean summer temperature gradient. Stable isotopic compositions of moose hair showed strong spatial gradients that were not explained by changes in forage availability. These patterns were linked to differences in land-cover compositions within animal home ranges as well as strong patterns of resource selection that changed in response to ambient temperature. Our results suggest that manipulating the size and arrangement of different land-cover types and forest stand ages can have important population-level effects on moose populations at the edge of their bioclimatic range.
Monday April 9, 2018 4:30pm - 4:45pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Todd Lookingbill, Tiffany Holmes, and Kristen Allen
ABSTRACT: As one of the Centennial Initiatives, National Parks all over the country hosted BioBlitz events to discover and document as many species as possible within a 24-hour period. As part of the first of its kind Bioblitz at the Totopotomoy Creek unit of Richmond National Battlefield Park, over 100 citizen-scientists surveyed the park’s flora and fauna. Participants in the community event included three classes and 10 faculty experts from three local universities. The event was also open to the public and was attended by volunteers ranging from grade school children to Master Naturalists. Using the mobile crowd-sourcing technology app iNaturalist to leverage the global community of scientists online, we were able to verify the presence of nearly 400 species of plants, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, fish, arachnids, fungi, and insects. To further the project goals of education about biodiversity, conservation, and responsible stewardship, the data from the event were visualized in an 8-foot-tall pie chart comprised of thousands of broken toy pieces. The museum installation entitled “TMT: Too Many Toys” additionally invoked the complex ecology of plastic toy reclamation. Like the data collection itself, the broken or unwanted small plastic toys repurposed as material for the art installation were crowd-sourced from parents in the artist’s local community of Chicago. Toys were color-sorted and arranged in taxonomic groups to reflect the findings logged in iNaturalist from the Bioblitz. Interestingly, many of the toys had a military theme (e.g., army men, fighter jets, etc.), which ties in with the battlefield location of the Bioblitz. The project, thus, leveraged the numerous benefits of crowdsourcing to engage local communities in Richmond and Chicago via the global iNaturalist app to provide baseline inventory data for a park unit that was transferred to the National Park Service as recently as 2006.Keywords: Citizen science, battlefields, biodiversity inventory, landscape art
AUTHORS: Lisa Schulte Moore*, Robert Valek, Carrie M. Chennault, John C. Tyndall – Iowa State University
ABSTRACT: PEWI, or People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration, is a simple web-based learning tool designed to help people understand human-landscape interactions and ecosystem service tradeoffs. PEWI addresses society’s desire to balance agricultural production with other environmental benefits, including clean water, abundant wildlife, and recreation, among others. PEWI offers a simple approach: users design and evaluate land use patterns on a virtual US Corn Belt watershed across multiple years and variable weather conditions. PEWI illustrates agronomic, soil, water, and biodiversity management principles important for sustainable land use and land management. PEWI is an open-source project that can be used on one’s own, in classrooms, and with community groups. We are presently expanding PEWI to be able to address research objectives regarding human-landscape interactions. While PEWI focuses on the US Corn Belt, lessons can apply to agricultural regions globally. More information can be found at https://www.nrem.iastate.edu/pewi.
AUTHORS: Jennifer Fraterrigo*, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT: Site history and context can act as abiotic and biotic filters that affect plant community dynamics. Sites with a history of intensive agriculture, for example, often have high levels of resource availability that favor plant species with life-history strategies associated with rapid growth. Once these species become established, internal feedbacks can reinforce patterns of high resource availability slowing the establishment of mid- and late-successional species with more conservative life-history strategies. Site history can also create biotic legacies that influence the direction and pace of succession. Species with persistent seedbanks can quickly recolonize a site when conditions become suitable. The ways in which site context acts as a filter on species is less clear. There is strong support for direct effects of context on propagule availability, with many studies demonstrating that dispersal capacity is positively related to recovery rate in secondary forests. Fewer studies have addressed the indirect effects of site context. Indirect effects could be important if context alters abiotic and biotic conditions in ways that affect fitness or competition among species. I will use examples to highlight how site history and context can shape successional communities through these processes, potentially leading to alternative successional trajectories.
AUTHORS: Alexis D. Smith*, Emily Minor – University of Illinois at Chicago
ABSTRACT: The “rural cemetery” movement in the United States began in the early 19th century. At a time when cities were rapidly industrializing, these cemeteries were intended not only as a place to bury the dead, but also as a respite to city-dwellers. Chicago’s cemeteries comprise only a small part of the city’s urban forest (approximately 700 ha in total), but to wildlife they offer unique resources that are difficult to find in the surrounding hardscape. The purposes of this study were to characterize this understudied component of Chicago’s urban forest, and to gain insight into how birds (especially cavity-nesting birds) select urban habitat. To approach the latter question, we used Classification and Regression Tree (CART) models to predict each species’ presence or absence based on our local and landscape variables.We conducted fieldwork in 34 points in 18 of the 22 cemeteries within Chicago’s city limits. Within 50 m of each point, we identified and measured trees, recorded tree cavities, classified trees by their life stage (e.g. alive and healthy, declining, dying, or dead), and counted the numbers of headstones and monuments over 1 m tall (potential perches for insectivorous birds). We also conducted three rounds of point counts to identify birds using the cemeteries, and we measured canopy cover, distance from roads, and distance from a body of water using ArcGIS.Median tree basal area from all 34 points was 8.0 m2/ha (min. = 1.9 m2/ha, max. = 19.4 m2/ha), while median density was 25.5 trees/ha (min. = 6.4 trees/ha, max. = 42.0 trees/ha). Oaks (Quercus spp.) were only found in 13 of the 34 points, yet they dominated the cemetery forest in terms of basal area, comprising nearly 20% of the total. We detected 44 tree species and 42 bird species, including 12 native cavity-nesting species.
AUTHORS: Benjamin Taylor, Purdue University; Kurt Riitters, USFS; Songlin Fei, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Understanding the impacts of roadways in anthropogenic-driven invasion systems is critical as more forests across the United States are threatened by invasive plants. Due to the facts that human-mediated impacts on invasion processes are interconnected, it is not clear whether the impacts of roads have similar effects in different landscape settings and/or regions. Here, we used data from ~40,000 plots collected by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) national program to examine the effect of road impacts on invasive plants in different landscapes in the eastern U.S. We hypothesized that the size of the road-effect zone (distance from road) would be larger in more disturbed landscapes (i.e., agriculture and developed) than in natural landscapes. Our results show that, in general, invasive plant richness has a hump-shaped relationship with distance from road regardless of landscape settings. However, forests associated with landscapes that are prone to higher disturbance rate have higher invasion richness than forests in more natural settings. These results confirms that roads do have strong impacts on exotic plant invasion. The hump-shaped relationship also supports the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (i.e. diversity maximized at certain distances away from road where disturbances are likely at intermediate level).
Monday April 9, 2018 4:30pm - 4:45pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: James L Tracy, Tuula Kantola*, Mike Quinn, Robert N Coulson – Texas A&M University
ABSTRACT: Mortality from roadkill has been suggested to contribute the decline of the eastern migrating monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population. Accordingly, our goal was to estimate monarch roadkill mortality during fall migration within the migration funnel from Oklahoma to Mexican overwintering sites. We surveyed for dead monarchs during four weeks of fall migration in 2016 and 2017. The surveys were conducted along roadways for 100 m transects throughout the Central Flyway in Texas. The highest monarch roadkill densities, ranging from 10 to 67 dead individuals per 100 m, were concentrated in the southern portion of the survey area along a 70 km stretch of Interstate 10 between Sheffield and Sonora, Texas in 2016. Out of 581 detected monarchs, about 62% were males. We developed and compared MaxEnt models for roadkill occurrences with 30 m and 1 km resolution for the survey area. The MaxEnt model with 1 km resolution was projected over the entire Oklahoma/Texas/Mexico funnel for the fall monarch migration. Important variables in the roadkill model included latitude and proximity to three different road types. Monarch mortality by roadkill may be highly variable between years. Projections of monarch roadkill throughout the Oklahoma/Texas/Mexico funnel may represent at least 5% of the overwintering population in Mexico in some years.
AUTHORS: Margaret A. Malone, Christopher J. Whelan, & Joel S. Brown - Ecology & Evolution, University of Illinois at Chicago
ABSTRACT: Predators have both consumptive and non-consumptive effects on their prey. Non-consumptive effects are observable through an organism’s ecology of fear, or the combination of their population ecology and behavior. Coral reefs and their fishes are facing anthropogenic impacts through habitat degradation and intensive fishing, causing shifts in communities. These shifts may impact a fish’s perception of its habitat, including how it perceives predation risk. In this study we investigate the ecology of fear and spatio-temporal habitat use (commonly referred to as a “land(reef)scape of fear”) through the foraging behavior of a common Hawaiian coral reef fish. We ask: Does predation risk change across reefs of varying quality? To address this question we used experimental food patches to quantify the giving-up density (GUD) of generalist saddle wrasse (Thalassoma duperrey) on patch reefs of Kane’ohe Bay, Hawaii. When deployed at small spatial and temporal scales the GUD reveals costs of predation associated with foraging. Common predators on Hawaiian patch reefs include transitory predators like whitetip sharks and bluefin trevally, and reef-associated predators such as the yellowmargin eel. Using a randomized-block design, we deployed experimental food patches across 10m × 20m plots along the leeward side of 5 patch reefs of varying quality within Kane’ohe Bay. Coral cover and structure were quantified using photogrammetry and structure-from-motion (sfm) within the experimental plot, as well as along random transects throughout the reef. Saddle wrasse foraging was higher on reefs of high coral cover and structure, while fish on reefs with low cover and structure had lower foraging. Within reefs, fish did not have microhabitat foraging preferences. This suggests that predation risk is independent of microhabitat properties, and is instead a macro-phenomenon of overall patch reef properties.
Monday April 9, 2018 4:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Payam Tabrizian, Perver Baran, Helena Mitasova, Ross K. Meentemeyer – Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Viewscape modeling- a process of defining, parsing and analysis of landscape visual space’s structure within GIS- has been commonly used in applications ranging from landscape planning and ecosystem services assessment to geography and archaeology. While viewscape models have been increasingly used to assess landscape visual characteristics across continental, regional, and landscape scales, their application for modeling perceptions in urban environments, particularly at the site scale, remains surprisingly unexplored. Modeling urban environments however, require incorporation of fine-grained landscape structure (eg., vegetation) and patterns (e.g, landcover) that are typically omitted from visibility calculations or unrealistically simulated leading to significant error in predicting visual attributes.This poster demonstrate a multi-method approach for modeling viewscapes for urban environments using LiDAR data and Immersive Geovisualization. We develop a viewscape model for an urban park based on a high-resolution LiDAR sourced DSM with improved vegetation visibility and a detailed landcover obtained from high-resolution multi-spectral imagery. We compare the model output with human subject’s assessment of photorealistic immersive panoramas captured from candidate location across study area to assess the capacity of the viewscape model to predict visual characteristics.The regression results overall indicated good explanatory power for the viewscape model. The models explained 64% of variation in perceived Visual access, 62% for perceieved naturalness, and 42% for percieved complexity. Urban viewscape models can be potentially usefull tools for understanding landscape aestethic values and visual characteristic, and for developing decision support tools for landscape planning. Our method can be used to acquire spatially explicit perception maps for the areas to safeguard for public enjoyment and recreation, and for minimizing the aesthetic impacts of development (e.g, buildings, wind turbines).
AUTHORS: Luis Antonio Arias-Medellín, University of Toronto; Adam S. Hadley, Oregon State University; Urs Kormann, Oregon State University; Noelia. L. Volpe, Centro de Ecología Aplicada al Litoral; Matthew G. Betts, Oregon State University; Helene H. Wagner, University of Toronto
ABSTRACT: Changes in landscape composition and configuration can alter abundance, richness and movement behavior of animals, affecting pollination and seed dispersal indirectly. In southern Costa Rica, research has shown that habitat loss and fragmentation is affecting hummingbird abundance and movement patterns, which is decreasing seed set of the understory herb Heliconia tortuosa in small isolated patches. However, if seed dispersers are less fragmentation sensitive than pollinators, seed dispersal might offer the potential to buffer the effects of reduced pollination on recruitment by bringing seeds from other patches. We tested if habitat loss and fragmentation differentially affected the community composition and movement behavior of pollinators and seed dispersers of Heliconia tortuosa in the sorrundings of Las Cruces, Costa Rica. We used a stratified random sampling to select patches with different sizes and proportion of forest in a 1-km radius. Pollinators were captured in 14 patches using mist nets, and seed dispersers were counted in 49 patches using fixed-radius point counts and stopping rule-based walkabout surveys. We also radio-tracked the primary pollinator of H. tortuosa, the green hermit hummingbird (Phaetornis guy), and the main seed disperser, the clay colored thrush (Turdus grayi). Redundancy analysis showed that pollinator communities shifted more strongly between large and connected to small and isolated patches than seed disperser communities. Similarly, linear mixed models showed that patch size and forest amount affected home range and habitat utilization of the main pollinator but not the main seed disperser. This suggests that seed dispersal could potentially buffer the negative effect of forest fragmentation on reduced pollination, which may reduce a decline of seedling recruitment in small, isolated patches predicted from pollinator behavior alone.
Monday April 9, 2018 4:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Ashley L. Kissick*, Jeffrey D. Holland – Department of Entomology, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: The study of functional diversity is a rapidly expanding area in ecology. We propose a workflow that can be used to examine changes in functional diversity with habitat disturbance by creating surface maps of functional diversity and suggest how this can be incorporated into land use management. We applied our new workflow to a forest beetle community of wood-boring beetle prey (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and their generalist beetle predators to examine changes in functional diversity with forest fragmentation. We predicted that habitat fragmentation would have a greater negative impact on predator beetle functional diversity than prey wood-borer functional diversity. Opposite to what we predicted, we found that the functional diversity of the prey was more negatively impacted by fragmentation than the predator functional diversity. Overall functional diversity was greatest with minimal forest fragmentation. Predator functional diversity was less restricted by habitat edge. The methods we developed are widely transferable to other communities, thus have broad implications in the development and application of functional diversity research. We propose that land management may be guided by revealing landscapes that are most appropriate for maximizing functional diversity of multiple communities or shifting the relative abundance within pest and beneficial functional groups with the use of three-dimensional plots or maps. Furthermore, this workflow can be applied to many other systems and used to drive policy decisions.
Check out the posters and meet with poster authors who will be available to answer your questions and discuss their work. Enjoy hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Amanda Chunco*, Emma Nault – Elon University; Rebecca Silverman, Amber Rice – Lehigh University
ABSTRACT: Range disjunctions are commonly seen across many taxonomic groups, and can result either from a dispersal event or local extinctions across part of the range. The loss of connectivity that occurs with range disjunctions can have important ecological and evolutionary implications for a species including increased vulnerability to extinction, increased potential for local adaptation, and even speciation over geologic time scales. Yet, the cause of disjunctions, and the consequences that result from disjunctions, are rarely understood. Here, we investigate a range disjunction in the Plains spadefoot toad, Spea bombifrons, in the continental US. This species is common throughout most of the Midwest and also has a disjunct population in southern Texas more than 400 km away from the rest of the range. We combine ecological niche model and population genetic analyses to determine the ecological and genetic distance between these populations. Despite significant differences in ecological niche space, the isolated population shows almost no genetic differentiation from the rest of the population. This suggests the South Texas population is relatively recent in origin, and its small estimated population size also suggests it is very likely at high risk of extinction. Our work further has implications for ecological niche modeling; although most studies that use niche modeling consider all known occurrences as within a single population, modeling disjunct populations independently can have radically different results, and thus different implications for conservation.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Joy Peplinski*, Joel S. Brown – University of Illinois at Chicago
ABSTRACT: Squirrels, adored or resented, are a noteworthy part of the campus landscape for most colleges and universities in North America. Faculty experts from 500 institutions of higher learning across the continental United States and Canada contributed data on the presence of species in Family Sciuridae -- tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, prairie dogs, flying squirrels, and marmots. Campuses do have squirrels! Thus far only 18 campuses have reported no squirrels; at the other extreme, one university reported up to 14 species. Certain combinations of species are more common than others. Of 76 possible sciurid species, 43 occur on campuses. All 13 genera have at least one representative species on at least one campus. Eastern gray squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, and Eastern fox squirrels, S. niger, are the most common campus species. The Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) is a close 3rd, with the American red squirrel (Tamaisciurus hudsonicus) and woodchuck (Marmota monax) rounding out the top five most common campus species. In general, most sciurid species are under-represented on campuses compared to their general range and therefore potential occurrence. Species absence is on occasion attributable to active (human) control, while in most cases it appears that squirrels are an incidental emergent property of a campus’s habitats, hazards, and opportunities. We consider which landscape and community characteristics of campuses typically accommodate some species while deterring or excluding others. Competitive exclusion between sciurid species is probable in many cases. Species profiles between campuses are analyzed in regards to geographic location, institution funding model, campus size, student body size, elevation, surrounding land use/ecosystem, and historical land use/ecosystem.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Gwendolyn Lloyd*, Michael Mahon, Thomas O. Crist – Miami University
ABSTRACT: Natural ecosystems are often invaded by multiple exotic species that when combined, may exacerbate negative impacts on native biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, but these are often determined from plot-level experiments and it is less clear how interactions among native and exotic species vary across landscapes. Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) is an invasive understory shrub in eastern forests, observed to reduce understory plant abundance and diversity, and exotic European earthworms may aid this process by decreasing nutrient availability and increasing decomposition rates in forest soils. We hypothesized that honeysuckle increases abundance of exotic earthworms in forest soils by providing a preferred litter resource and facilitating overall litter decomposition. We predicted that areas of high honeysuckle cover in the landscape would have less standing litter biomass and greater earthworm abundance compared to areas with lower honeysuckle invasion. To test this hypothesis, we established 15 transects, each 100-m long, in a stratified random design across a 150-ha forest within the Miami University Natural Areas in southwestern Ohio, USA. We measured honeysuckle cover and forest canopy cover of different tree species along the entire transect, and then sampled earthworms, soil moisture, and standing litter biomass at three evenly spaced points along each transect. Structural equation models showed there was no direct effect of honeysuckle cover on exotic earthworm abundance, however, honeysuckle cover directly increased soil moisture, a factor that was positively related to earthworm abundance. Higher earthworm abundance, in turn, resulted in reduced leaf litter biomass, which was also influenced by tree species composition in the forest canopy. Our findings suggest that landscape-level variation in the indirect effects of soils and tree composition influence the outcome of interactions among honeysuckle, exotic earthworms, and leaf-litter biomass.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
ABSTRACT: Inherent to a spatial variable is the scale at which it is measured. In many studies, variables are observed at different scales. For example, biomass data might be available at an aggregated level while temperature is usually measured at specific points. One of the main aims of statistical analysis is to make meaningful predictions, the accuracy of which may be achieved by including related variables in the model. The implementation of this may become cumbersome when related data are measured at different scales, particularly when the scales do not have a hierarchical structure. Currently, cokriging, the use of one or more spatial variables to predict another variable, is applied to variables of the same scale. In this work, we extend cokriging for use with variables of different scales by constructing a nonparametric cross-covariance matrix. This method is flexible as it applies to any marginal spatial model and is suited to large datasets because it uses latent variables which can assist with dimension reduction. The proposed nonparametric method is demonstrated with two correlated variables, biomass and temperature, which are measured at different spatial units. The results show that the method is appropriate for predicting data of different scales and that it outperforms some competing methods with respect to predictive performance.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Alanis Gonzalez*, Roycemore School; Randy Swaty, The Nature Conservancy; Monika Shea, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: The “tension zone” is an ecotone of varying width that runs from the northwestern corner of Minnesota to the central eastern section of Michigan. This ecotone is the meeting place of the southern prairie/savanna/deciduous forest and then northern mixed conifer/hardwood forest ecosystems. Important traits of the tension zone and terrestrial ecotones may include greater biodiversity, possible mutualistic relationships between ecosystems, and novel assemblages of species that are often on the edge of their range. Due to these factors, ecotones could be especially vulnerable in a changing climate and have considerable conservation values. Using LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type data we assessed how much of the tension zone has been converted to agricultural or urban land use. To assess ecosystem health we calculated the vegetation departure (VDEP) of remaining natural vegetation. The VDEP metric assesses the difference between modeled historic and mapped current vegetation composition and structure. In order to verify the historic/reference portion of our LANDFIRE-based findings we compared them with the General Land Office Survey data from the mid-1800s. This data represents trees that were present on the land at that time. Our aim with this research was to spatially assess ecological risk (i.e. conversion to agricultural and urban land uses, and VDEP) in the tension zone as a way to prioritize protection and restoration activities.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Michael Roberts*, Alexis Smith, Emily Minor – University of Illinois at Chicago
ABSTRACT: Community gardens allow residents to participate in creating green spaces in their city. As urban green spaces these gardens provide resources for native and non-native animal residents of the city. Choices made when designing gardens and their surrounding urban matrix likely impact available resources and thus the biodiversity found in gardens. These choices may impact how many floral resources are available for foraging wild pollinators, either directly via crop choice and density, or indirectly as in the potential for honeybees in artificial hives to compete with native bees. In summer 2017 we surveyed bee activity in 24 Chicago community gardens. We wanted to know how local garden characteristics, the presence of honeybee hives, and the surrounding landscape impact wild bee abundance and foraging. In each garden we identified bees in the field by morpho-species groups and gathered information about floral resources, the garden's size, amount of green space surrounding the garden, the presence of artificial honeybee hives, and other potentially explanatory variables. Using mixed models we estimated the effect of surrounding green space on bee abundance and diversity, and honeybee hives on bees' contact with flowers while visiting plots. Preliminary estimates suggest that while plot level floral resources increase bee abundance, green space surrounding the garden makes bees less responsive to floral density in a plot. We hypothesize that as surrounding foraging opportunities increase, bees are less reliant on garden patches for access to dense resources. The presence of beehives appears to increase foraging in plots with dense floral resources relative to plots with low-density floral patches. This study contributes to our knowledge of how urban green spaces impact bees during a time when bee conservation is of considerable concern.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Madelyn M. Tucker *, Daniel M. Kashian – Department of Biological Sciences, Wayne State University
ABSTRACT: Jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) barrens were historically common in northern Lower Michigan, USA, where open, low-fuel barrens persisted within dense, high-fuel jack pine forests. This structure was maintained by frequent, stand-replacing wildfires prior to 20th century fire suppression. Modern forest management prioritizes jack pine plantations to provide endangered Kirtland’s warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii Baird) nesting habitat, but barrens are rarely included and this management has altered the landscape. Barrens host rarer grassland species and potentially create wildfire fuel breaks, but changes in temperature and/or precipitation related to global climate change may alter barrens creation in a number of ways: increased woody plant establishment may change the structure of barrens, warming may reduce negative effects of frost pockets and encourage plant establishment and persistence, and disruptions to the wildfire regime may preclude barrens creation altogether. Reduced distributions of barrens would have a negative impact on landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity, and would likely impede wildfire management in a populated, fire-prone area. Therefore, we used LANDIS-II with historical climate and two general circulation models (GCMs; the Hadley and Canadian Centres) to model the landscape and quantify changes attributable to climate change. Initial results suggest barrens can reduce fire spread, and therefore aid in wildfire management. However, we found reduced fire-created barrens in specific GCMs. As fire severity was not significantly affected, this may result from changes in precipitation or temperature that cause increased establishment on the poor soils of the region. This may suggest that climatic factors are more important than the immediate effects of wildfire disturbance on the creation and persistence of barrens in northern Lower Michigan. Therefore, impacts of climate change should influence long-term management decisions in the region, particularly in the context of wildfire management and Kirtland’s warbler recovery.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Franklin Wagner*, Brady Hardiman, Elizabeth Larue, Doug Jacobs – Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Forest structure is an important driver of resource use and ecosystem functioning in forest communities. Canopy structural complexity (CSC) describes the vertical and horizontal variation of leaves and branches within a canopy, and is an important predictor of forest light use efficiency (LUE). Previous studies have focused on observational relationships between stand level measurements of CSC and LUE; However, a mechanistic understanding of how other factors, such as community composition and tree density, contribute to this relationship is lacking. Therefore, we used manipulative experiments to test how tree density and species composition influence CSC and LUE. We hypothesized that CSC is positively related to both species richness and stand density across treatments. That is, CSC increases with increased species richness and increased density. Furthermore, we hypothesized that CSC is positively related to LUE- LUE increases in stands with higher CSC. The experimental plots were constructed in 2007 and planted with different species compositions (Northern Red Oak, American Chestnut, Black Cherry) and densities (1 m, 2 m, and 3 m spacing) for a total of 21 unique plot variants, including both monoculture and mixed stands. The fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR), a proxy for LUE, was measured in 2017 under different light conditions (direct vs. diffuse) within each plot. Preliminary results showed significant differences in fPAR for the density treatments, but not across species composition treatments. Canopy height was also significantly different across composition and density treatments. Ongoing and future work will involve a more comprehensive investigation of differences in fPAR across treatments as well as integrating tree mortality, a potential confounding factor. Understanding the relationship between CSC and LUE will have important implications for how forest structure influences resource use, and can be further applied to model forest carbon dynamics under climate change.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Sarah Parker*, Dr. John Weishampel – Geospatial and Modeling of Ecological Systems Lab, University of Central Florida
ABSTRACT: Over the last century, millions of hectares of wetlands have been lost, driving an increased need for their conservation and improved monitoring worldwide. A major challenge with creating updated digital maps and evaluating the success of wetland restoration projects, is the lack of long-term monitoring, limitations of the sensors, and differing classifications. We mapped and analyzed the wetland spectral properties and trajectories from before and 25 years after hydrological restoration using remote sensing at the Disney Wilderness Preserve in Florida, USA. In 1992, in an effort to maintain wetland ecosystem function with restoring hydrological metrics (e.g., increased groundwater level), the hydrological wetland restoration was conducted to facilitate the growth of wetland vegetation to approximate the original conditions as a proxy for ecological health. In the literature, expectations about ecological recovery in subtropical wetlands are not well-supported with long-term evidence and techniques using satellite remote sensing compared to previous manual aerial photo analysis still are refining their detection abilities. To that aim, multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite imagery from 1984-2017 were preprocessed, segmented, and indexed using the Enhanced Vegetation Index to evaluate patch spectral properties and trajectories. Wetland patch and landscape scale dynamics were evaluated using FRAGSTATS. The spectral properties of the wetlands were analyzed using nonmetric multidimensional scaling to elucidate patterns among the wetland types (i.e., cypress swamp, bayhead, marsh) over time. Preliminary results suggest that the spectral trajectories of restored wetland patches may be less differentiated among the wetland types years after the original restoration event than expected. With tropical and subtropical wetlands being the main targets of an estimated 50% disappearance of wetlands since 1990, the study of moderate resolution satellite remote sensing applications for monitoring complex and highly variable subtropical freshwater wetlands has immediate applications for managing the vitality of wetland habitats and services worldwide.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Kyndra Hanson, Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability; Jack Friedman, Center for Applied Social Research; Sophie Plassin, Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability; Stephanie Paladino, Center for Applied Social Research; Jennifer Koch, Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability
ABSTRACT: A major step to model development is to develop the conceptual model of the system under study. Researchers typically use some form of concept mapping for developing ideas and structuring thoughts early in the model development process. Formalizing a concept mapping process ensures that critical components are accounted for and the system under study is represented thoroughly. We propose that adding a text analysis of transcribed stakeholder interviews or documents to add the missing details and help discover what may not actually need to be represented in the conceptual model. Combining the two typically exclusive processes of concept mapping and text analysis connects stakeholder contribution to the modeling process through improved conceptualization of the system under study. We began the concept mapping process by using the online framework, Mental Modeler, to develop a set of concept maps that represent how stakeholders understand the Rio Grande River. Next, a text analysis was conducted through the python software package Gensim, where an LDA analysis was produced to identify topics that emerged from stakeholder interviews. By combing both concept mapping and text analysis we are able to further identify important topics to the stakeholders and fill in or address any missing gaps in knowledge into one concept model. In this paper, we present how concept maps were constructed and how we used text analysis to complement the concept maps.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Katherine Magoulick*, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University; Vanessa Hull, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida; Jianguo Liu, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: As humans expand across the globe there are an increasing number of negative impacts on animal populations. It has become more and more important to identify species that are in greatest need for conservation, but also to design conservation strategies that are successful at reversing their decline. Many previous studies address conservation of individual animal species by analyzing their long-term population changes, or outlining conservation plans for their recovery in certain geographical areas. The disadvantage of these separate studies is that they prevent the detection of broader trends in animal population recovery successes and failures, thus thwarting efforts to focus on effective conservation techniques in the future. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis by synthesizing individual research studies on animal recovery within terrestrial protected areas around the globe (n= 220) to obtain a more comprehensive picture of factors influencing the trajectories of recovery projects. We found a positive correlation between country GDP and percent annual increase of mammals within terrestrial protected areas. However, annual increase in mammals was negatively correlated to protected area size and number of protected areas in the country of interest. Countries with larger protected areas and greater numbers of protected areas may dilute resources leading to reductions in mammalian population increase over time. In addition, species in the order Perissodactyla had a significantly lower rate of increase than any of the other orders analyzed. This was possibly due to anthropogenic factors such as poaching. Our findings have broader implications for terrestrial protected area design and implementation in a changing world by providing new insights into conservation successes and failures.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Mariam G. Valladares-Castellanos*, Guofan Shao, Douglass F. Jacobs – Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Changes in fire regimes can be triggered by a series of factors that vary over time. Most of the changes in fire regimes are linked to landscape structural changes that are directly or indirectly related to human activities. Chile’s landscape has undergone a series of accelerated transitions throughout history. From agricultural expansion to tree plantation establishment, Chile has strongly changed its production dynamic. The changes of fire activity within the country could be related to the internal landscape dynamics. The goal of this study was to analyze the landscape transition patterns in the Center zone of Chile and the effect of those transitions on the fire frequency between 2014-2017. Landsat 8 OLI TIRS Level 1 imagery was used to derive a change detection contingency table and intensity analysis. Overall, 27.2% of the area changed between 2014-2017. The Maule region showed the most significant rate of transition between agriculture and forest/plantation area (P9.08%). Intensive transitions where forest/plantation area increased were related to decreases in agriculture areas (Uniform transition >3.95%). Increases in agricultural areas were related to a reduction in bare soil areas (Uniform transition >1.85%). Conversion from bare soil to forest/plantation area, categorized as a passive transition, significantly affected the fire frequency change. Transitions between agriculture to forest, bare soil to urban/burned and forest to urban/burned (p
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Evan M. Bredeweg*, Nathan H. Schumaker, Tiffany S. Garcia – Oregon State University; Anita T. Morzillo, University of Connecticut
ABSTRACT: Amphibian species exhibit metapopulation qualities as they have diverse lifetime habitat needs that are segregated throughout a landscape. Factors that influence dispersal between these isolated habitats are of conservation concern, particularly as climate change may influence precipitation and, therefore, availability of aquatic habitat components. Our objective was to build a spatially explicit individual-based model using the HexSim simulator to investigate the impact of varying precipitation on the dispersal of recently metamorphosed amphibians. We used a generic amphibian species from the Pacific Northwest to develop the life history and biology parameters for this simulation. Twenty landscapes were built using randomly placed uniform habitat patches. Daily rainfall was simulated using probabilities built from monthly precipitation rates during the late summer and early fall (July-Nov) when most juvenile amphibians metamorphose and transition to terrestrial habitats. Simulated amphibians that were available to disperse assessed current conditions to make choices on when and how to disperse. Our model also compared functional connectivity of scenarios in two treatment groups of precipitation: current conditions and future projected conditions (year 2070, downscaled global model from CMIP5 using RCP 8.5 emissions scenario). Model runs were repeated 100 times for each generated landscape under each precipitation treatment. Under the projected precipitation treatment, overall rates of dispersal between populations decreased but average distance of successful dispersal movements increased. This mechanism may serve to open limited connectivity between some populations in the future. These results have important implications for the balancing of metapopulation dynamics of amphibian species and impact the priorities of future amphibian conservation planning.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Jodi Brandt*, Boise State University; Volker Radeloff, University of Wisconsin; Teri Allendorf, University of Wisconsin; Van Butsic, University of California-Berkeley
ABSTRACT: Ecotourism is growing rapidly in biodiversity hotspots around the world, but there is limited and mixed empirical evidence that ecotourism achieves positive biodiversity outcomes. Our goal was to assess whether tourism is an effective conservation tool by empirically evaluating the association between ecotourism and deforestation in Himalayan temperate forests using a counterfactual analytical approach. We compared deforestation rates from 2000 – 2015 in 15 ecotourism and non-tourism areas across four Himalayan countries. We used matching to control for local-level determinants of forest loss, such as population density, market access and topography. In three of four countries, we found that ecotourism areas experienced rates of forest loss that were comparable to non-tourism areas. Ecotourism areas had less deforestation only in the Chinese Himalaya, where overall, deforestation rates are high due to an emphasis on highly-extractive development strategies. Our results suggest that ecotourism, as it is currently practiced in the Himalaya, should not be considered a forest conservation strategy except under conditions of high deforestation pressure (such as is in China) because it contributes to net forest loss.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Elsa Anderson*, University of Illinois at Chicago; Nakisha Fouch*, Clemson University; Monika Egerer, University of California, Santa Cruz; Melissa Davidson, Arizona State University; Mysha Clarke, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Community gardens are socially and ecologically embedded spaces where urban residents can cultivate plants and build community. Gardens typically arise when people mobilize to reclaim a vacant space for food production or in response to economic crises, and success is dictated by community engagement and network support. Many cities have thriving or fledgling community gardening programs, which, to different degrees, are sanctioned by stakeholder groups that provide materials, education, and support to gardeners. New York City, NY, Chicago, IL, and Baltimore, MD, are three such cities. While gardens are touted as a “gold-standard” use for urban vacant land, the role of urban gardens in the larger urban matrix is poorly understood. Here, we compare the spatial aggregation of municipally-sanctioned community gardens in NYC, Chicago, and Baltimore, and demonstrate via circuit-theory simulations the degree to which gardens connect green spaces and people in cities. Although NYC and Chicago have similar patterns in garden distribution and size, gardens in NYC are likely much more important as sources of green space for residents than those in Chicago. Baltimore has the fewest gardens, but they are larger and more evenly dispersed, resulting in more equitable access across the urban landscape. By investigating systems of urban gardens at the city-wide scale, we suggest that gardens are ecologically and socially beneficial, but that the degree to which this is true may be easily overstated. Furthermore, planning for future gardens should consider city-wide context and focus on developing gardens in locations that will synergistically improve social and ecological connectivity.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Naci Dilekli, University of Oklahoma; Qingtao Zhou, Boise State University; Jennifer Koch, University of Oklahoma
ABSTRACT: Urbanization and its impacts on the environment are intensively debated in a wide range of fields. Modeling efforts focusing on urbanization at the local scale are particularly important to analyze and understand the effect of parcel-level local decision making by planners and entrepreneurs. The goal of this work is threefold: Fist, we evaluate historical growth using parcel-level records to understand spatial development patterns in the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area. Second, we use the outcomes of this analysis to parametrize a spatiotemporal simulation model. Third, we use the model to simulate population growth and resulting urbanization in the greater Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area through 2050. Urban sprawl and infill development are two primary means of population growth in urban environments, as discussed in urbanization literature which also deals with themes such as smart growth, compact city, and new urbanism. New development, through sprawl and infill, are often achieved through splitting existing parcels to allow more buildings in a smaller area or develop parts of larger parcels at the urban fringe. We use a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario to understand and visualize how the continuation of historical development trends plays out in the landscape. We also develop two other scenarios based on more dramatic sprawl and infill development. In this paper, we describe our GIS approach to identifying newly developed parcels, introduce the functionality of our spatiotemporal simulation model (based on the ENVISION modeling framework), and discuss the differences between the three urbanization scenarios.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Tanvi Gaur*,Wildlife Institute of India; Hisham Zerriffi, University of British Columbia; Ramesh Krishnamurthy, Wildlife Institute of India; Sarah Gergel, University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT: Humans are continuously altering the ecosystems through multiple interactive pathways to meet the increasing demands of population for food, fresh water, fuelwood, and fiber. Changes in ecosystem affects its ability of producing these ecosystem services that directly or indirectly contributes to the human well-being. Hence, there exists a need to explore the link between the ecosystem services and human well-being at landscape level scale. We investigated this aspect in the Western Himalaya, focusing on Bhagirathi basin, a part of Ganges watershed that drains almost 8846.64 sq. km area in the Uttarakhand state, India. The river Bhagirathi is a major source of water to the tributaries of the river Ganges irrigating 23.41 M-ha of the fertile plains of northern India. The river basin also provides an economic base for a wide array of services including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, livestock, drinking water, irrigation and industrial purposes and experiences huge developmental pressure pertaining to changing land use practices. Based on the population census data of India carried once every 10-year, fuelwood use was identified as the key ecosystem service and the other non-income components such as health, access to basic services, assets, education and work opportunities available to individuals were used to assess and map Quality of life Index (QoL). QoL index (0.18 to 0.89) provided a description of well-being of the households in the villages (N=1932) encompassing the Bhagirathi basin. A correlation analyses indicated a strong negative correlation between fuelwood use and QoL index values (R= -0.40). Similarly, analyses of different landscape variables revealed the role of landscapes in determining the link between ecosystem services and human well-being across the landscape. The study can further be used to guide public policy towards the goal of enhancing human well-being and sustainable management of natural resources in the long-term.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Bryce T. Adams, Stephen N. Matthews* – School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University
ABSTRACT: Determining the factors that influence avian resource utilization and community structure is important for adequate conservation planning. Early work identifying the importance of vegetation structure has advanced our understanding of the factors that constrain species distributions and structure faunal communities. However, recent experimental work has reinvigorated an interest in the role of plant species per se. Aggregating the responses of individual bird species to individual plant species to the community level and providing a quantification of prediction levels into a single metric that is comparable to one based on vegetation structure has long been overdue. Using the newly developed predictive co-correspondence analysis and a predictive variant of canonical correspondence analysis, we did just that, and examined the relative importance of plant species composition and vegetation structure for the community assembly of forest birds. We sampled the composition of avian (passerines) and plant (woody stems) assemblages, as well as quantified vegetation structure with high resolution LiDAR scanning, across structurally- (open to closed) and compositionally-complex forest plots (n = 210) located in the Central Hardwoods Forest Region of southern Ohio. Detailed plant composition data was a significantly better predictor set of bird species composition over comprehensive structural metrics that thoroughly detailed the height and vertical profiling of the forest habitat. In fact, prediction levels based on the best plant composition perspective (10.94% cross-validatory fit) were almost twice as greater than those based on vegetation structure (6.44%). This is likely because plants are a more comprehensive predictor – both descriptive of the environment, including aspects of vegetation structure and site conditions, and mechanistic with regards to individual bird-plant relationships. These results indicate that detailed information on plant species is needed in better accounting for the variation in avian diversity important in guiding sound management strategies and predicting the risk of future climate effects.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: William S. Currie*, Preeti Rao – School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
ABSTRACT: Social-ecological processes are coupled at a range of scales from households to the globe, but the regional scale is useful for analysis and synthesis because a region has a particular history, economics, set of land uses, natural resource uses and decision making. The US side of the Great Lakes region passed through the forest transition about 150 years ago, in which forest land was cleared for agriculture, then re-grew in many places as the region transitioned to a mixture of agriculture, human settlements, and managed second-growth forest. Today there is a strong north-south regional gradient in social-ecological systems. Northern areas have high forest cover, low forest fragmentation, and low human populations; the mid-region has high human populations and exurban development; and the southern end of the regional gradient has highly fragmented forest remnants in a predominantly agricultural matrix. We studied patterns of forest cover, fragmentation, harvest, and carbon storage in forests along this north-south gradient using USFS FIA data and analyzed their relationships to other social and ecological variables including MODIS NPP. We found that human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) did not explain patterns of C storage in tree size classes and age classes in forests. However, we found that in the southern end of the regional gradient, where forests are more highly fragmented and the matrix is increasingly agricultural, forest aboveground carbon was increasingly stored in larger tree size classes and older age classes. Across this region, broadly speaking, forests are harvested more frequently in less-populated, northern areas where forest cover is higher and forest fragmentation is lower. Trees tend to be larger and older on the southern end of the gradient where human populations are higher and forest patches are smaller.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Aline Cruz*, Nivaldo Peroni, Lucas Bueno – Federal University of Santa Catarina
ABSTRACT: Knowledge about the historical interaction between humans and forests can bring a new insight about conservation strategies, allowing to understand the effects of the past actions. Considering that the composition of species is influenced by the landscape, and the landscape is historically shaped by the human action, we investigated whether the current composition of tree species could reflect the use of forests during the pre-Columbian period, in southern Brazil. The study area is Itajaí River Basin, where there are 227 archaeological sites described. The earliest dating is 8,090 ± 50 years ago, and the most recent one dating back 300 ± 30 years. The vegetation is part of Atlantic Forest domain, and comprises the Mixed Ombrophilous (high altitudes) and Dense Ombrophilous (low altitudes) forest formations. The vegetation was inventoried by the Forest Floristic Inventory of Santa Catarina (FFISC). Using Maxent software, we performed a predictive modeling of the distribution of archaeological sites using the geographical location of sites and environmental variables (topographic and water availability). For the model validation, we used the Area Under Curve (AUC) method. The AUC was 0.805, with a standard deviation of 0.036. Using the predictive map, we classified the forest sample units as their probability of occurrence overlapping with the sites. We applied a generalized linear multivariate model in environment R, using the mvabund library, using the abundance matrix as response variable and the probability of overlapping with archaeological sites as an explanatory variable. The model indicated a significant relationship (P
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Tyler J. Hoecker, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Philip E. Higuera, University of Montana
ABSTRACT: The boreal forest biome is globally important for its influence on Earth’s energy balance and its sensitivity to ongoing climate change. Structure and function in boreal forests are strongly shaped by fire activity, so anticipating the impacts of climate change requires understanding the precedence for, and consequences of, climatically induced changes in fire regimes. Long-term records of climate, fire, and vegetation are critical tools for gaining this understanding. To understand the relative importance of variability in climate and vegetation flammability as drivers of fire activity in boreal forests, we characterized the relationship among centennial-scale records of fire, climate and vegetation. We reconstructed the timing and pattern of fire activity in a boreal forest landscape in interior Alaska, USA using seven lake-sediment charcoal spanning CE 1550-2015. We developed composite fire activity records and used correlation and qualitative comparisons to assess relationships with existing vegetation and climate record. Biomass burning and fire frequency were higher over the past 50 yrs than during any other 50-yr period in the record. Mean fire return intervals ranged from 50-125 yr at individual sites, with a study-wide mean (SD) of 90 (60) yr. Pulses in tree establishment occurred between periods of elevated fire activity, when biomass burning and fire frequency were relatively low. Fire activity was facilitated by warm growing season temperatures combined with landscape-scale dominance of mature black spruce. The results support evidence that fire-vegetation feedbacks can regulate fire activity in high-severity regimes, and imply widespread buring at intermediate spatial scales (100’s km2) is controlled by a combination of climate and vegetation dynamics that drive landscape flammability.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Megan Culler, Justin Shedd, Jelena Vukomanovic* – North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: This project demonstrates the potential role of geospatial web applications in what-if scenarios for wildfires. It aims to help the National Parks Service (NPS) quantify and visualize wildfire risks at the wildland-urban interface using geospatial data and an ArcGIS web mapping application. Wildfire suppression is common practice across Park Units and while wildfire suppression is intended to reduce fire impacts, it leads to a buildup of fuels and ultimately larger and more intense fires. In addition, population growth and increased urban development near national parks have led to increased risk to communities at the urban-wildland interface. These conditions make it important to identify areas in national parks that are at high risk of fire and assess the potential impacts of fire on surrounding communities, natural resources, and cultural resources, demonstrating the value of fuel treatments and identifying priority areas to treat. The project entailed the calculation of a Fire Return Interval Departure index for selected parks, resulting in a map layer showing the relative risk of fire based on the natural fire regime and on the years since the last fire for a given area. This layer is included in a web application along with data layers representing features at risk, including critical habitats for threatened and endangered species, sites in the National Register of Historic Places, and the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index – a suite of demographic and socioeconomic metrics about community resilience during natural disasters. The web application includes tools that allow the user to select an area of interest, visualize features that could be affected if a wildfire were to occur there, and summarize its socioeconomic and demographic variables. This project has the potential to be expanded to incorporate a range of data for assessing potential wildfire scenarios.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Hongmei Lu*, Department of Social Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Shanghai Academy of Landscape Architecture Science and Planning; Audrey L. Mayer, School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University
ABSTRACT: Abstract: The function of green infrastructure (GI) in mitigating urban flooding is extensively recognized. In China, GI establishment has been expected to primarily provide recreational space, given the high population density of Chinese cities. The “7.12” rainstorm disaster in Beijing in 2012 put urban flooding issues high on the political agenda. In 2014, the central government initiated the national Sponge City program (2015-2030), which called on dozens of pilot cities to improve both grey and green infrastructure to reduce urban flooding. This is the first time GI was officially identified as an urban stormwater management approach. Two general categories of GI are proposed in this program: sunken ground greenspace (10-20cm lower than the ground level); and green roofs. Most pilot cities have GI targets set by municipal technological guidelines, some even as high as 60% of sunken greenspace (out of all ground-level greenspace) and 50% for green roofs.In the past three years of the Sponge City program, the roof greening rate has not increased by much, and the sunken greenspace has been controversial. Here we examine the gap that has emerged between policy goals and reality, and explore its causes. We find that misunderstandings about how the GI provides stormwater management functions and a lack of trans-disciplinary collaboration among landscape ecologists, landscape architects, and urban managers and planners are the main barriers to meeting Sponge City goals. In order to make GI function efficiently, we suggest more emphasis of correctly identifying the ecological roles of GI, while fostering substantial collaboration to better design urban GI to meet multiple aesthetic and ecological functional goals.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Abigail C. Leeper*, DePaul University; Beth A. Lawrence, University of Connecticut; Jalene M. LaMontagne, DePaul University
ABSTRACT: Mast seeding is the synchronous production of highly variable seed crops across years by a population of perennial plants. The strength of mast seeding is described by the variability in reproduction as the coefficient of variation (standard deviation / mean; CV). While there are several hypotheses used to explain mast seeding, the resource matching hypothesis states individuals reproductive output reflects the available resources (e.g. soil nutrients). While mast seeding is often studied at the population level, it is individual trees that produce the pattern, and are the focal unit for our study. Furthermore, in North America, the impact of soil nutrients on the reproductive output of mast seeding individuals has not been studied in depth, and may have a large influence over the mast seeding dynamics. To test the hypothesis that soil nutrient levels influence mast seeding patterns, and the prediction that increased nutrients (in particular nitrogen) will lead to lower variability in mast seeding and higher mean cone production, we deployed sets of Plant Root Simulator Probes for 6 weeks in each of the summers of 2016 and 2017 to record macro- and micronutrient availability at 114 individual white spruce (Picea glauca) trees in the Huron Mountains, Michigan, USA. We estimated cone production for these individuals from 2012 to 2017, from which we calculated CV. Additionally, we recorded diameter at breast height in 2012 and soil moisture at probe burial and retrieval in 2016. We found that CV was not significantly influenced by soil nutrient availability. However, larger trees had both higher mean cones per unit basal area, and lower variability (CV) in cone production over time. There is considerable unexplained variation in individual reproduction patterns, and factors such as soil moisture, and trade-offs in growth and reproduction may both play a role.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Steve Norman, William Christie, William Hargrove – US Forest Service
ABSTRACT: Predictions of increased tropical hurricane intensity suggest that Caribbean forests may be increasingly vulnerable to disturbance. This hazard was demonstrated on September 20, 2017 when Hurricane Maria passed over Puerto Rico causing massive forest damage, yet our understanding of these impacts is limited by frequent cloud cover and seasonal phenological change that make remotely-sensed impact assessments difficult. This research uses Google Earth Engine’s computational abilities to document the island’s historical land surface phenology using MODIS at 250m, then vegetation impacts from Hurricane Maria using seasonally-appropriate maximum value compositing of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) at 10m using Sentinel 2. We then compare regional forest impacts in light of the chance alignment of the storm and local topographic exposure and potential wind refugia. This cross-scale approach provides insights into the different mechanisms that cause patterns of impacts, with potential implications for the long-term resilience of Puerto Rico’s forests.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Zeynab Jouzi*, Lindsey S. Smart, Erin O. Sills, Jelena Vukomanovic – North Carolina State University.
ABSTRACT: Land-use change resulting from urbanization are changing coastal landscapes and impacting socio-ecological systems through rapid population growth, rising cost of living, habitat destruction and fragmentation. As pressure increases, the need to find a balance between development and conservation becomes more urgent. While there is widespread recognition of the need to protect vulnerable coastal landscapes, there are differing views on which elements of those landscapes and which ecosystem services are the highest priority to conserve. In particular, local perspectives are often overlooked in favor of expert knowledge. Through a series of workshops, we asked long-term residents to identify, describe, and locate valuable natural and cultural resources in the lowcountry of South Carolina. For example, these included fishing and hunting spots, sites of historic and/or cultural importance, locations of community events, and recreational spaces. This iterative, participatory effort allowed us to determine which resources are valued by local stakeholders. In this study, we compare stakeholders’ values to official conservation plans, such as the Charleston County Comprehensive Plan, Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Plan for the State of South Carolina, Comprehensive Green belt plan and the Johns Island Community Greenways Plan. We call attention to mismatches between the areas identified as important by local stakeholders and those currently protected under existing protection plans. Our research demonstrates an approach to incorporate local community perspectives in conservation planning, which could potentially help to engage local people more effectively and to conserve cultural ecosystem services. These “missed” values could highlight conservation opportunities for NGOs that are likely to have community support.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Jianmin Qiao, Beijing Normal University; Deyong Yu*, Beijing Normal University; Ruifang Hao, Beijing Forestry University; Jianguo Wu, Beijing Normal University & Arizona State University
ABSTRACT: Understanding the relationships and drivers of agro-ecosystem services (AES) can promote the management of sustainable agricultural ecosystems. In contrast to previous studies that analyzed the trade-off or synergistic relationships between ecosystem services, the constraint effects and the thresholds between ecosystem services were quantified using a constraint line method in this study. The constraint effects of climate (solar radiation, precipitation, wind speed, relative humidity, maximum temperature (Tmax) and minimum temperature (Tmin)), management (fertilization and irrigation), soil texture (sand, silt, and clay content), and terrain (elevation and slope) on AES were evaluated. The results indicated that two types of constraint relationships (hump-shaped and logarithmic) between ecosystem services of maize yield, soil organic carbon (SOC), nitrate (N) leaching, water and wind erosion were identified in the agro-pastoral transitional zone of China. The maize yield had hump-shaped constraint effects on SOC, N leaching, and water erosion, while other paired AES were mutually exclusive with logarithmic constraint curves. By contrast, seven types of constraint effects of drivers on AES, including positive linear, hump-shaped, negative and positive convex, logarithmic, exponential and S-shaped curves, were identified. The drivers that played major roles in determining the yield, SOC, water erosion, wind erosion, and N leaching were Tmin, relative humidity, slope, and precipitation. The constraint line approach enriches our understanding of linkages between ecosystem services and is particularly helpful in identifying the constraint drivers on AES from the perspective of optimizing the agricultural ecosystem.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Victoria Schneider*, Amanda Deguire, Emily Donahue, Thilina Surasinghe – Bridgewater State University
ABSTRACT: Red-backed salamanders are widely-distributed much of eastern North America. They are sensitive to anthropogenic disturbances particularly clear-cutting. Here, we studied how their abundance vary across different habitats (of variable sizes) located in urban vs rural landscapes. Additionally, we studied the temporal variations of their abundance at each habitat as well. Our study was conducted at two Audubon Sanctuaries in southeastern Massachusetts- Moose Hill and Oak Knoll- the former was a large forest patch (size=7.26Km2) located in a rural landscape with greater landscape-scale connectivity while the latter is a small forested area (size=0.20Km2) located in an urban landscape where remnant forests are highly fragmented. In each sanctuary, we set up cover boards (1x1ft pinewood) arranged into four perpendicular transects, each transect with five pairs of cover boards. We surveyed these cover boards in 2016-2017, and documented the number of individuals and their snout-vent lengths (SVL). Although total abundance of Red-backed salamanders did not differ significantly between the urban vs rural landscapes or between different years, the overall abundance differed significantly across different months. Additionally, the interaction (landscape-year and landscape-month) were significant predictors of overall abundance indicating that temporal (seasonal) variation in overall abundance of Red-backed salamanders were not consistent between urban and rural landscapes (Permutation ANOVA). The SVL of Red-backed salamanders differed significantly between urban and rural landscapes; both the year and month were significant predictors of SVL while none of the interaction terms were significant. We concluded that small-sized reserves embedded in urban landscapes are effective for conservation of Red-backed salamanders suggesting that these salamanders are capable of utilizing smaller habitat patches despite adversities of the edge effects. However, salamanders occupying rural landscapes were greater in SVL implying greater survival and higher fitness benefits conferred by larger contiguous conservation lands.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Xin Chen, Laura Leites – Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, The Pennsylvania State University
ABSTRACT: Under rapid climate and land-use change at broad scales, forest management and conservation requires a better understanding on how tree species distributions respond to those changes across landscapes. In this context, species distribution models (SDMs) have been developed to identify the associations between species occurrence and abiotic factors. However, SDMs rarely consider effects of land-use legacies (LUL) on species distributions. Historical land use plays a key role in shaping tree species distributions by altering soil environment, ecosystem patterns, and ecological processes. SDMs that fail to account for LUL influence on species distributions are likely to yield biased projections of species distribution under future climate. Here, we address this shortcoming by incorporating LUL into modeling presence or absence of forest tree species in Pennsylvania. Using 3,336 USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots, we fitted the Random Forests models to predicting plot-level presence or absence for six forest tree species based on LUL related predictors in addition to climatic, topographic, and soil variables. The former included forest establishment year derived from FIA data, cropland area, and pasture percent area before establishment year at 5’ longitude/latitude grid resolution extracted from the History Database of the Global Environment. Results indicate that the forest establishment year and cropland area before establishment year had relative higher importance compared to other predictors while pasture percent area before establishment year was not significant in determining the performance of the SDMs. Additionally, accounting for LUL influence on tree species distributions lowered the misclassification error rates for absence of tree species, which suggests that, in addition to unsuitable abiotic conditions, the unoccupied areas of tree species can also result from unfavorable historical land use or the interaction between those two factors. The results highlight the importance in considering land-use legacies when predicting species distributions across landscapes.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Yi'na Hu*, Jian Peng – College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University
ABSTRACT: Scenario process can reveal the changes of ecosystem services for different land-use patterns in the future, and is of great significance for land-use decisions and ecosystem management. Based on the actual situation of deteriorating water quality and dwindling water supply in the Erhai Lake Basin of southwest China, this research put forward to converting paddy land to dry land (PLDL) in the basin, and simulated its potential impact on ecosystem services. Taking environment pollution, social impact, economic benefit and resident participation into consideration, four scenarios of PLDL were designed. Then, four ecosystem services (water purification, water yield, soil conservation and rice production) were calculated for each scenario. The optimal scenario of PLDL in the Erhai Lake Basin was identified by trade-offs of the four services. The results showed that total nitrogen export could be reduced by 42.07% and water yield can be increased by 5.61% after converting 100% of paddy lands to dry land, thereby greatly improving the water quality and increasing the water yield of Erhai Lake. However, PLDL involving 100% of paddy lands also increased the sediment export by 17.22%, and eliminated rice production in the region. By comparing the four PLDL scenarios for converting just 50% of paddy lands, the resident participation scenario was identified to be the best pattern of PLDL implementation because it achieved the best level of water purification and had the smallest negative effect on other ecosystem services. The optimal scenario for each township showed spatial differentiation, and there were conflicts between the optimal scenarios at a basin scale and township scale, suggesting that the object and the spatial-temporal scale should be taken into consideration in land-use decisions using ecosystem services trade-offs.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Li Tian*, Qianyanzhou Ecological Research Station, Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Jiquan Chen, Ranjeet John – CGCEO and Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, USA; Changliang Shao, Xiaoping Xin – National Hulunber Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station / Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
ABSTRACT: The rapidly changing climate and land use has produced abnormally large consequences on ecosystem functions in high latitude and high altitude regions. Leaf area index (LAI), evapotranspiration (ET), and land surface albedo are among the most sensitive land surface properties in response to these changes, which may also result in feedback effects on regional climate. Our study objective is to explore the interdependent dynamics of these three variables, as well as the underlying regulations on two roofing landscapes in Asia during 2000-20014: Mongolia and the Tibetan Plateau (MP and TP, respectively). While the range of ET, albedo and LAI was 0-31 mm/M, 0.11-0.5 and 0-2.8 for TP, and 0-44 mm/M, 0.10-0.6 and 0-2.9 for MP, ET and albedo showed much higher spatial variability than LAI on both plateaus. The total land area with significant intraannual change of ET and albedo was 4.75x105 and 0.44×105 km2, but with a 3.79×105 km2 (78.30%) and 0.32×105 km2 (72.73%) decrease, and a 0.96×105 km2 (27. 72%) and 0.12×105km2 (27.27%) increase on TP. For MP, the corresponding figures were 3.11×105 km2, with a 0.28×105 km2 (9.06%) decrease and 2.83×105 km2 (90.93%) increase in ET, and 0.64×105 km2 (58.18%) and 0.46×105km2 (41.82%) for albedo. The interannual variation measured by coefficient of variation was smaller on the TP than that on the MP. More importantly, the above changes are dependent of cover types, suggesting landscape structures are partially responsible for the spatial variations of the changes. Finally, it seemed that the decreasing trends in ET and LAI on the TP were contributed mostly by the mid-growing season (July-August), due likely to an advanced growing season (i.e., no change in the end-date). On the MP, all three variables were contributed mostly by the mid-growing season, without significant changes in growing season length.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Dawn Olson, Crop Protection and Research Management Unit, USDA-ARS; Kristina Prescott, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota; Adam Zeilinger, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley; Suqin Hou, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health; Alisa Coffin*, Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS; Coby Smith, Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS; John Ruberson, Department of Entomology, Kansas State University; David Andow, Department of Entomology and Center for Community Genetics, University of Minnesota
ABSTRACT: Landscape factors can significantly influence arthropod natural enemy and herbivore pest populations. The economically important brown stink bug, Euschistus servus, is a native mobile, polyphagous and multivoltine pest of many crops in southeastern USA and understanding the relative influence of local and landscape factors on their reproduction may facilitate population management. We determined the influence of the percentage area of non-crop and major crops in the landscape, the connectivity of major crops, the identity of major crops and stink bug egg predator density on E. servus reproduction. Finite rate of population increase (?) was estimated in four major crop hosts—maize, peanut, cotton and soybean—over three years in 16 landscapes of southern Georgia. A geographic information system (GIS) was used to characterize the surrounding landscape structure. LASSO regression was used to identify the subset of local and landscape characteristics and predator densities that account for variation in ?. The percentage area of maize, peanut and woodland and pasture in the landscape and the connectivity of cropland had no influence on E. servus ?. The best model for explaining variation in ? included only four predictor variables: whether or not the sampled field was a soybean field, mean natural enemy density in the field, percentage area of cotton in the landscape and the percentage area of soybean in the landscape. Soybean was the single most important variable for determining E. servus ?, with much greater reproduction in soybean fields than in other crop species.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: John Ruberson, Department of Entomology, Kansas State University; Dawn Olson, Crop Protection, Research, and Management Unit, USDA-ARS; Adam Zeilinger, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California Berkeley; Kristina Prescott, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota; Alisa Coffin*, Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS; David Andow, Department of Entomology and Center for Community Genetics, University of Minnesota
ABSTRACT: The economically important brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say), is a native pest of many crops in southeastern USA and insecticide applications are the prevailing method of population suppression. To elucidate biological control of E. servus populations, we investigated two egg predators’ (red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren, and Geocoris spp.) responses to both local and landscape factors that may have influenced their combined ability to cause mortality in immature E. servus and to identify potential ways to increase their biological control efficacy.We investigated the influence of landscape and field-scale factors on the density of fire ants and Geocoris spp. on four major crop hosts—maize, peanut, cotton and soybean—in landscapes over three years in the coastal plain of Georgia USA. Both Geocoris spp. and fire ant populations were concentrated on specific crops in this study: maize and soybean for Geocoris spp. and peanut and cotton for fire ants, but the percentage area of specific crops and woodland and pasture in the landscape and year also influenced their density in focal fields. The differential and crop specific density of both taxa, the influence of the percentage area of specific crops and woodland in the landscape, and the variability in density over years may have been related to variable alternative resources for these omnivorous species in the habitats, and the variable and extreme weather conditions that occurred over the duration of this study. Despite the variability over years, the differential habitat use of fire ants and Georcoris spp. may have contributed to their combined ability to cause E. servus immature mortality.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Nicholas Yarmey*, Anita T. Morzillo – University of Connecticut; Jason Hawley, Rick Jacobson, Paul Rego – Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, Wildlife Division
ABSTRACT: The American black bear (Ursus americanus) is a generalist species that has been expanding its range in the northeastern US. Connecticut contains the nation’s highest proportion of wildland-urban interface (72% of land area) and fourth highest human population density. As a result, black bear range expansion across the largely exurban landscape of Connecticut has been accompanied by an increasing number of interactions between black bears and humans. To better understand the landscape-level dimensions of these interactions, a survey was used to collect data about human-black bear interactions across nine Connecticut towns with high human-black bear conflict density. The survey focused on resident’s attitudes towards black bears, past experiences of black bear interactions, and preferences for management actions as a result of interactions. We received 1315 completed surveys (response rate = 41%). Results suggest that despite the high rate of interactions with black bears in the area, attitudes towards the bears are generally favorable. In addition, more than half of respondents indicated support for regulated black bear hunting. Spatial analysis was used to describe the distribution of attitudes and support versus opposition to bear hunting across the landscape. Patterns in the clustering of similar responses were related to characteristics of the socio-ecological landscape (e.g. location on the urban-rural gradient, distance from forest edge, degree of habitat fragmentation) in order to account for the heterogeneity of attitudes. The results of this study will be used to guide management of human-black bear conflicts in a largely exurban context.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis, Environment and Climate Change Canada
ABSTRACT: Our ability to capture the relationships between organisms and climate is essential for understanding and predicting the vulnerability of species to climate change. To capture ecologically relevant climate profiles at landscape and local scales, researchers are increasingly quantifying microclimate through the use of data sensors and drones. However, the discrepancies between field-based measurements and remotely-sensed data remain unclear. Furthermore, the effect of landscape scale amount of forested land-cover on microhabitat remains poorly characterised. Here I assess (1) whether the amount of landscape scale forest cover buffers temperatures in microhabitat (i.e., crop fields) located in agroecosystems, and (2) the consistency among the temperature data captured across a range of methods. I deployed a network of temperature sensors within 15 agroecosystem landscapes across a forest cover gradient. I assessed the consistency of temperature readings between data recorded using 3 alternative methods including data sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and a fine-scale interpolated climate model. Interpolated climate models over-estimated local minimum temperature and under-estimated local maximum temperatures, and this difference was most pronounced in landscapes containing more forest cover. The type of crop field and its associated phenology played a large importance in within-field temperature variability. The results of this study highlight the limitations of fine-scale climate models for characterising thermal heterogeneity, and emphasize the importance of forest cover in buffering temperatures across human-modified agricultural landscapes. Overall, these results suggest that landscape context and local scale habitat type can influence spatial and temporal patterns of microclimates and require consideration when assessing species’ vulnerabilities to climate change.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Beatriz Otero-Jimenez*, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan; Kevin Li, Department of Crop Science, University of Gottingen
ABSTRACT: Agricultural production has expanded rapidly in tropical regions, transforming the landscape and fragmenting tropical forests. However, little is known about the longterm effects of agricultural production practices (i.e., management intensification) on population connectivity and dispersal. Our study integrates genetic and landscape data to examine landscape factors influencing the connectivity of tropical small mammals. Specifically, we investigated landscape factors driving the population structure of Heteromys desmarestianus goldmani, a common forest rodent, in a coffee agroecosystem. We evaluated 5 different landscape variables; (1) tree cover, (2) slope, (3) elevation, (4) riparian effect, and (5) streams, to measure their influence in driving H. d. goldmani genetic patterns in the coffee agroecosystem. Our results show that H. d. goldmani dispersal is limited in the coffee landscape, characterized by discrete genetic populations with limited gene flow. We found that riparian effect is the variable with the strongest correlation with the observed genetic structure. Areas close to streams in these coffee farms are steep, hard to access, and tend to be unmanaged. Our results suggest that these areas are serving as habitat or corridors, facilitating dispersal, and allowing H. d. goldmani to survive within the coffee farms. Additionally, tree cover and elevation showed some correlation with genetic distance, but it was not significant.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Celia Hein*, University of Toronto; Ronan Marrec, Université de Picardie Jules Verne; Hossam Abdel Moniem, University of Toronto; Helene Wagner, University of Toronto
ABSTRACT: Bees pollinate large proportions of native plants and agricultural crops, and they are declining in abundance, diversity, and distribution worldwide. Intensive agricultural systems spread geographically and increase habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation. Efficient, accurate studies of pollinator communities and their relative threats are crucial to prevent further losses and aid conservation, preservation, and restoration efforts. The main goal of this project is to test and compare the power of several connectivity models in explaining the spatial genetic structure and connectivity of native bee species in the agricultural zone of Alberta, Canada. We selected six common, generalist bee species: Bombus ternarius, B. rufocinctus, Halictus confusus, H. rubicundus, Andrena lupinorum, and Hylaeus affinis that were sampled and identified by collaborators in a hierarchical sampling design with 12 clusters and 101 sites. We will genotype each species with SNP markers and relate its spatial genetic structure to competing models of panmixia, isolation by distance, species-agnostic structural connectivity, habitat connectivity, and species-specific habitat connectivity, and choose the best model for each species. The species-agnostic structural connectivity model was developed using indices of human footprint and intensity of human use extracted from landcover data at 10 meter resolution provided by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI). This study will help validate such a coarse-filter approach and discriminate between alternative parameterizations of the contributions of human footprint categories and intensity of human use to landscape resistance and overall connectivity. We hope that through comparisons of connectivity models with varying specificity across a range of bee species with varying life history, we can help bridge the gap between single-species connectivity models and coarse-filter approaches, which are important for decision-making in multifunctional landscapes.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Aline Cruz*, Federal University of Santa Catarina; Pedro Higuchi, Ana Carolina Silva, Marcos Schimalski – Santa Catarina State University
ABSTRACT: The Araucaria Forest is part of an Atlantic Forest formation inserted in a landscape with different intensities of anthropic alteration: natural but usually exploited areas (fields, wetlands, forests, watercourses and water reservoirs); productive areas (agriculture and forestry); and built/urban environment. The Araucaria Forest has been drastically reduced, and landscape management is a strategy for maintaining the ecological functionality of the remnants. In this context, we aim to identify the influence of the landscape matrix on the tree species composition of nine forest fragments. The floristic data was obtained from Laboratory of Dendrology and Phytosociology at the Santa Catarina State University database. We generated land cover maps from Landsat 8 satellite images, which we classified in the Envi software, using the maximum likelihood algorithm. The two soil cover maps presented values of 98% for general accuracy and Kappa indexes of 0.98. We use Fragstats software to calculate the area of the inventoried fragments and of each land cover class inserted in landscapes. Using the R software, We order as landscape metrics through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and a Non Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) to order a matrix of species abundance. The first two PCA axes explained a significant portion of data variation (69,54%). We adjusted the land cover metrics to the ordering generated by the NMDS and plotted the variables with significant influence on the floristic-structural organization (p
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Jeremy Larroque, Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal ; Sandrine Ruette, French Hunting and Wildlife Agency; Jean-Michel Vandel , French Hunting and Wildlife Agency; Sébastien Devillard, Biometry and Evolutionary Biology Lab, University of Lyon, France
ABSTRACT: A primary objective of community ecology is to understand the conditions that allow species to coexist by identifying how co-occurring species use and share space and resources. The European pine marten (Martes martes) and the stone marten (M. foina) are syntopic mustelids with similar morphology and ecology for which differential habitat use, especially differential use of resting sites, appears to be the main driver underlying their coexistence. Organisms commonly respond to their environment across a range of scales and habitat selection is a hierarchical process where each level reflects distinct behavioral processes. We performed an optimized multiple-level (i.e., selection of home range in the study area and selection of specific habitat components within the home range) and multiple-scale study of resting-site habitat selection. Each covariate was tested separately across a range of pre-specified scales and then combined into a single multi-variable, multi-scale model. The 2 species differed significantly in their habitat selection at both levels. Stone martens selected buildings whereas pine martens selected forest patches. However, both species avoided open areas and selected shrubs and hedges, confirming that syntopy was likely to occur with possible interactions between species. Differences in the spatial scale of resting-site selection, when both species selected the same landscape elements, might also contribute to this coexistence. Overall, stone martens showed higher inter-individual variability in habitat selection than pine martens, and this variability was influenced by age and sex. Whether this variability was due to a greater behavioral and ecological plasticity of stone martens or to interactions with pine martens forcing stone martens to use suboptimal habitat remains unclear. In addition, stone martens generally avoided areas associated with high trapping pressure. However, a percentage of subadult males selected these areas, which could have serious consequences for the stone marten population.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Christie Sampson*, Clemson University & Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute; Peter Leimgruber, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute; John McEvoy, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute; Aung Nyein Chan, Colorado State University & Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute & WWF–Myanmar; George Wittemyer, Colorado State University; Jenny Glikman, San Diego Zoo Global; David O’Connor, San Diego Zoo Global; David Tonkyn, Clemson University & University of Arkansas at Little Rock
ABSTRACT: Our research has detected an extreme rate of poaching occurring in Myanmar. This was initially identified when seven of the 19 elephants collared for a telemetry study were found dead or disappeared within six days to one year of being fitted with a satellite-GPS collar. Subsequent follow up of ground teams confirmed the human caused loss of at least 19 elephants, including the seven collared individuals, within a 35 square kilometer area in less than two years. 40 additional elephant carcasses were found across Myanmar once systematic surveys began. In addition, we are conducting an interview survey to assess the perception of poaching among communities. The responses from this survey will be used to inform conservation policy and anti-poaching programs. Myanmar represents one of the last remaining countries with substantial wildlands suitable for elephants. Increasing rates of human-elephant conflict and poaching events in this country pose a dire threat to the global population.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Amanda Deguire*, Thilina Surasinghe, Emily Donahue, Jackie Toomey, Sarah Jones – Bridgewater State University
ABSTRACT: Given their ephemeral nature and small size, vernal pools are unique habitats that are critical for temperate amphibians with a biphasic life cycle. Both local and landscape-scale predictors of amphibian occupancy at vernal pools have been extensively studied, and these species responses can vary significantly across geographies. In this study, we explored effects of land-cover change at variable spatial scales on the egg-mass abundance of two widespread North American amphibians— wood frogs and spotted salamanders. We surveyed egg masses at eight vernal pools located in southeastern Massachusetts in March-April period (2016-2017), and estimated several local (canopy cover, pool width, and upland basal area) and landscape scale (percent forested and built-up land-cover types around 100m, 500m and 1km radius around the vernal pool) environmental variables. Although egg-mass abundance of both focal species was greater in vernal pools located in rural landscapes than those of urban landscapes (wood frogs: urban=15.17, rural=30.27; spotted salamanders: urban=8.17, rural=43.81), those differences were statistically insignificant for wood frogs whereas a significantly greater number of spotted-salamander egg masses were found in rural vernal pools. Multivariate statistical analyses indicated that the percent forest cover around a 500m-buffer is a significant predictor of species composition of egg masses. A multiple stepwise generalized linear model indicated that canopy cover, pool width, forest cover at all spatial scales, and built-up land-cover at 1km radius being important predictors for egg-mass abundance of spotted salamanders. The same modeling approach showed that canopy cover, pool width, and both built-up and forest land-cover at all spatial scales being important predictors for egg-mass abundance of wood frogs. Our study shows the importance of both urban and forested vernal pools for amphibian breeding. Regional municipalities should retool their biodiversity conservation efforts where vernal pools are protected at landscape-scale as interconnected wetland-woodland habitat complexes.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Kristin H. Braziunas*, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Winslow D. Hansen, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Rupert Seidl, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna; Werner Rammer, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna; Monica G. Turner, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: High-severity, infrequent fires in subalpine forests shape landscape mosaics of stand age and structure for decades to centuries, and forest structure can vary substantially even among same-aged stands. We used a individual-based forest process model (iLand) to ask: (1) How do early postfire regeneration density, climate, and soil characteristics influence among-stand variation in structure (stand density, basal area) of same-aged forest stands over stand development, and (2) How does the relative influence of these drivers vary among species? We parameterized iLand for lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca), Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa). Simulations were initialized with field data on regeneration following stand-replacing fires in Greater Yellowstone, and stand development was simulated for 300 years under current climate without further disturbance. We expected variation in regeneration density to drive structural variability among young stands and variation in climate and soils to become increasingly important as stands aged. We expected regeneration to influence stand structural variability of lodgepole pine more than other conifers, due to its wider range of initial stem densities. Simulated stand structures fell within observed ranges, and among-stand variation persisted over time. For over 75 years postfire, variation in stand densities was due primarily to initial differences in regeneration density. Climate or soils were more important drivers of variation in Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, and subalpine fir stand densities by 170 years postfire, but early regeneration densities had the greatest influence on among-stand variation in lodgepole pine densities for nearly 300 years. Among-stand basal areas converged faster than densities, and by 50 years postfire, climate was a more important driver of variation in lodgepole pine basal area than early regeneration density. Understanding dynamics of postfire stand development is increasingly important for anticipating future landscape patterns as fire activity increases.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Bryce T. Adams*, Stephen N. Matthews – School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University; Matthew P. Peters, Louis R. Iverson – Northern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service
ABSTRACT: Forests of eastern North America are incurring rapid species turnover as a result of recent changes to natural and anthropogenic disturbance processes and climate change. We employed an ordination-regression approach to mapping the current species composition of forest assemblages as floristic gradients in a 5,000-km2 area in southern Ohio’s Central Hardwoods Forest Region. Forest plot data (n = 699 plots; 99 species/genera) that comprehensively sampled the composition of both overstory and understory woody species across structurally- (open to closed canopy) and topographically-variable forest conditions were projected onto a 3D ordination solution using non-metric multidimensional scaling. Floristic gradients, via their ordination scores, were related to spectral reflectance provided by a multitemporal Landsat 8 OLI image using the regression-type Random Forest model. Approximately 53%, 42%, and 18% of the variation in the first, second, and third axes were captured by the Landsat spectra, respectively. The three predicted axes were merged to a RGB color composite for the final floristic gradient map, displaying the 3D compositional complexity across the landscape in terms of variation in color. The color of each pixel subsequently references to its unique position within the original 3D ordination space and, thus, a statistical approximation of its specific species composition. Our case study determined that this approach is a highly effective means to mapping forest cover types, and remains an attractive alternative to traditional classifications, utilizing discrete classes or clusters, because it is time-efficient, more realistic in that compositional turnover is represented in continuous fields rather than arbitrary breaks, and it overcomes the generalization problem inherent in categorizing groups a priori. Moving forward, our model will be a valuable tool in developing suitable management options on individual forest stands for restoration of desired species, adapting to a changing climate, and improving wildlife habitat quality in southern Ohio’s forest lands.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Jamie L Peeler*; Erica Smithwick – The Pennsylvania State University
ABSTRACT: Forests in the western United States are projected to experience more frequent and larger fires in coming decades due to increased temperatures, earlier spring snowmelt, and longer fire seasons associated with global warming. Due to this anticipated increase in fire activity, recent research has identified factors that influence post-fire forest resilience: distance to unburned area, soils, and post-fire climate. However, few studies have explored how the arrangement and interactions of these factors contribute to forest resilience, especially at the landscape level. Spatial resilience is an important framework for understanding the spatial links that support forest resilience in an increasingly fire-prone world. In particular, spatial resilience leverages a useful theoretical lens for tackling the challenge: network theory. Here we propose a framework for using network theory to predict how mixed conifer forests will reorganize following fire in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Links to re-establish nodes are determined by interactions between dispersal and local site conditions, as re-establishment is dependent on material legacies (e.g. seeds and resprouts) reaching nodes with suitable post-fire climate, soils, and topography. However, networks may differ based on post-fire regeneration traits: resprouting, having an aerial seedbank that releases seeds when cued by fire (serotiny), and re-seeding via wind or animal. In post-fire landscapes, such insight is critical because fire may interact with dissimilar networks differently, causing some to become brittle more rapidly. This causes nodes to become less connected or less suitable for certain material legacies, while other material legacies maintain their connectivity. If mismatches in connectivity reach a threshold, then a node may re-establish differently. Accordingly, we ask: Do the structures of seeding, sprouting, and serotinous networks differ and how does fire alter these networks? Can connectivity metrics be used to predict how forests will reorganize post-fire?
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Jiali Jin*, Research Institute of Forestry & Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation, State Forestry Administration & Urban Forest Research Centre, State Forestry Administration, Chinese Academy of Forestry; Sarah E. Gergel, Landscape Ecology Lab, Department of Forest and Conservation Science, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia; Yuhao Lu, Integrated Remote Sensing Studio, Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia; Nicholas C. Coops, Integrated Remote Sensing Studio, Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia; Cheng Wang, Research Institute of Forestry & Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation, State Forestry Administration & Urban Forest Research Centre, State Forestry Administration, Chinese Academy of Forestry
ABSTRACT: Urbanization is responsible for vegetation loss and landscape fragmentation impacting ecological processes, ecosystem services and human health. As such, urban greenspace which provides significant environmental benefits, is critical for both residents and wildlife in urban areas. Pan-Pacific cities are the fastest urbanizing centres in the world and home to nearly 55% of the global urban population. However, a lack of cross-site comparison limits our understanding of changing greenspace in such cities. To investigate changes in greenspace heterogeneity, we built annual Landsat composites from 1984 to 2012 for 16 cities across seven countries in the pan-Pacific region to answer two primary questions: 1) Do trends in greenspace heterogeneity change over time?; 2) How does greenspace heterogeneity vary along urban gradients? Normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVI) were used to distinguish four classes of greenspace using a thresholding technique. Landscape metrics including Edge Density (ED) and Percentage of Landscape (PLAND) were used to characterize the greenspace attributes. Temporal dynamics of greenspace were assessed using the Mann-Kendall test. Applied generalized additive mixed models (GAMM) helped describe the change trajectory of ED and PLAND and evaluate differences among “greening” and “browning” cities. Gradient analysis of spatial patterns along all radial directions from city centres was used to detect directional changes in greenspace. We also used Principle components analysis (PCA) to find the metrics most useful in comparing the differences between Asian and North American cities. Our results suggest that more than half of pan-Pacific cities became greener as they became wealthier. In contrast to browning cities, most greening cities showed increases in dense vegetation along the urban gradient. Compared to North American cities, dense vegetation in Asian cities increased and became less fragmented. These comparisons can be used to guide future planning for green infrastructure at regional scales.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Regina B Thomas*, University of Kansas; Xingong Li*, University of Kansas; Gautam Talukdar, Wildlife Institute of India
ABSTRACT: Micro-climate of high altitude regions is influenced by global climate variations and indirectly the local livelihoods of mountain communities. Between 3000m - 4500m altitude in the western Himalayas in India a mountain community is irrevocably dependent economically on a medicinal fungus beginning late 1990s. This medicinal fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis, is sensitive to climate variability, human-interactions and has a limited evolutionary capacity. This study delineates the potential geographic distribution region and conducts a spatio-temporal comparison for clear visualization for any range variations. Maxent model is used to predict the geographic distribution area and range variations between 2010 -2017; only field validated occurrence points are used in combination with abiotic factors viz. product of NDVI, snow cover frequency from MODIS data along with topographical variables. The range variations are distributed into two short periods of three years each In addition, participatory research practice helps us argue that the current harvest practice discourages recuperation of the medicinal fungus and there is visible climatic variability and consequences on the landscape in last two decades. Although, this study does not intend to delve into value assessment of the ecosystem instead it focuses on the climate variability effects on the species as a surrogate to draw chain of effects on the alpine ecosystem and human communities. The results from a preliminary analysis have indicated variations in potential suitable range, as its inability to rapidly adapt to a new zone is uncertain it will have a major negative impact on the local livelihood.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Justin White, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
ABSTRACT: Urban habitats in North America can be both resource islands and ecological traps for raptors, but various characteristics of the urban landscape impact individual species differently. The complexity of urban environments make it difficult to identify which variables most impact reproductive efforts. To identify the optimal predictor of Red-tailed Hawk nesting success, I examined eight characteristics of the urban landscape (nightlight, noise level, building height, building footprint, employee density, residential density, an index of overall urban density, and land cover type (agriculture, riparian, impervious, trees, desert shrub)) at four spatial scales for 110 nests in Reno, NV during the 2015-16 breeding seasons. Nests were considered successful if they produced at least one fledgling. Success was calculated using a logistic exposure model with a binomial response and a logistic exposure link function. Models were created with all variable combinations, excluding those that were collinearly related. The final models were chosen based on their Akaike’s Information Criterion scores. The optimal predictor of nesting success was land cover type when measured within a 670-m radius (the nearest-nest midpoint distance) around the nest. Nesting success declined with riparian cover, and increased with desert shrub and agriculture (P<0.05). With large ranges and high dietary generalism these hawks are able to successfully nest atop the complex urban mosaic except when riparian cover dominates their range. Other elements of the urban landscape such as intra- and interspecific competition or localized human actions were not included in this study but may be of critical importance to individual nest success.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Shereen Xavier, Alisa Coffin, Dawn Olson and Jason Schmidt
ABSTRACT: Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) equipped with multispectral sensors are increasingly being tested and deployed for collecting high resolution spatio-temporal data of agriculture and the environmental. Agricultural land is currently under review for finding ways to improve sustainability and long-term health. Studies show that habitat management to provide non-cropping areas and specifically, wildflowers to provide floral resources, such as pollen and nectar to support healthy beneficial arthropods and the ecosystem services they provide. In a previous small plot study, we counted blooms over the season, and found that plots with greater numbers of flowers supported significantly higher pollinator populations. Here we examined the potential of deploying an inexpensive UAV system as a tool to remotely estimate floral resources and corresponding pollinator populations. UAV data were collected from previously established native wildflower plots in 19 locations on University of Georgia experimental farms in Tifton, Georgia. A UAV (Solo 3Dr) equipped with a standard panchromatic camera was deployed to capture images of the wildflower plots during the months of June and September 2017, months where we observed high and low pollinator populations and high and low flower counts. Pollinator population estimates and vegetation quadrat sampling was carried out simultaneously. Images were analyzed using supervised image classification to determine the floral area within ArcGIS software. The floral area obtained from the images positively correlated with the floral counts gathered from the quadrat samples. Furthermore, UAV-derived floral area significantly predicted pollinator populations, with a positive correlation indicating that plots with greater area of blooming flowers contained higher numbers of pollinators. Our results suggest analysis of images derived from low-cost UAV systems can provide indirect estimates of pollinator populations.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Julia Needham*, Amanda Chunco – Elon University
ABSTRACT: Human activity is causing the rapid movement of species around the globe, both directly through human facilitated movement and indirectly as a consequence of climate change. In addition to direct harm to native species through predation and competitive exclusion, introduced species can also impact native species through hybridization. Here, we have examined hybridization events between native and invasive species to determine taxonomic, temporal, and geographic patterns in hybrid zone formation. Using Web of Science, we identified 54 cases of hybridization between native and invasive species published between 2011 and 2016. Preliminary results have identified clear taxonomic patterns, with the largest numbers of studies focusing on fishes, and geographic clustering of hybrid zones in the United States, Europe, and Japan. This work also reveals significant gaps in knowledge of invasive species and the natives that they affect. Specifically, updated spatial data are unavailable for many of the species included in our study and, alarmingly, 40% of those species, including two of the most studied invasives – the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss – were unassessed by the IUCN Red List. This work has clear implications for global impacts of invasive species through the risk of genetic introgression. This paper also uncovers gaps in hybridization research that, due to our quickly-changing landscape, must be addressed soon to ensure the success of current conservation efforts.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Namaluba Malawo*, Gabriela Nunez, Songlin Fei – Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Invasive species have become a major problem in the US, but our understanding of invasion patterns and key drivers are still limited. Using a powerful tool in predictive biogeography, Boosted Regression Trees (BRTs), we created models which can predict exotic species distribution for the Eastern United States at a high resolution. BRTs build on binary decision trees and combine them to create a linear combination of many trees. This leads to a more accurate model of invasion prediction and allows us to better identify key underlying variables that drive the observed patterns. Ultimately, our goal was to create a model with many trees and low deviance that could accurately predict invasive plant species richness patterns for the Eastern United States. The data measures 38 different variables, including soil characteristics, biotic variables, and anthropogenic drivers. The results of our work will help us better understand drivers of invasion by quantifying the relative contribution of each variable. Additionally, the results from our studies can then be used by policy makers and practitioners to manage invasions of species with more proactive measures and preventative actions. These uses will alleviate areas in the Eastern United States from significant ecological and economic damages.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Brian D. Young*, Department of Natural Science, Landmark College, Putney, VT; Falk Hüttmann, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
ABSTRACT: Wildfire is both a naturally and anthropogenically produced disturbance which plays an important role in the development of the boreal forest. The boreal forest currently experiences frequent, stand-replacing fires which typically result in stands dominated by a single cohort of a limited number of tree species which establish simultaneously after fire but, differ in their growth rates. Substantial modeling and empirical evidence suggests that wildfire within the boreal forest of western North America is likely to increase in extent and severity with climate change. Therefore, a clear understanding of the present state of the entire forested area is crucial so that future change may be assessed. The environmental factors controlling the spatial heterogeneity of time since fire are numerous and vary from one ecosystem to another and between spatial scales. Large areas of Alaska are very difficult to access therefore; there is a need for advanced approaches to mapping. Here we investigate a predictive modeling approach that uses publicly available data and environmental variables to predict the time since fire for the interior forest of Alaska.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Basil V. Iannone III, Gisele Nighswander, Kayla Hess – School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida
ABSTRACT: Residential landscapes and their associated institutional and economic land uses are the fastest growing land cover type in the United States. These anthropogenic ecosystems alter spatial patterns of biodiversity and species movement through a number of mechanisms, including habitat fragmentation and the creation of designer and engineered ecosystems, such as ornamental gardens and stormwater ponds. Furthermore, while urban and urbanizing areas tend to be ecologically homogeneous relative to one another across large spatial scales, ecological processes, particularly those occurring at smaller spatial scales, within a given urban or residential landscape can be very heterogeneous. This poster will highlight multiple investigations being conducted by the Residential Landscape Ecology Lab at the University of Florida that contribute to the long-term goal of quantifying spatial patterns and drivers of ecological processes within and surrounding residential landscapes. The aims of these projects are: (1) to mitigate the negative impacts of expanding residential landscapes and (2) to inform the design of future residential landscapes so that they exhibit greater levels of ecological functionality. Ongoing projects include quantifying how landscaping practices aimed at reducing irrigation and fertilizer needs impact hydrological connectivity, water quality, and plant communities in adjacent wetlands; determining the degree to which ornamental plantings in stormwater pond networks benefit downstream water quality; and the effects of alpha and beta diversity, structural complexity, and landscape context of ornamental gardens on top-down and bottom-up regulation of herbivorous arthropod pests. In addition, we are pursuing research aimed at quantifying the impacts of landscaping plant choices and stormwater ponds on patterns of plant invasion across multiple spatial scales and quantifying spatial heterogeneity in ecosystem services that benefit homeowners (e.g., cooling, soil fertility, and arthropod pest control) and the spatial thresholds at which these services become homogeneous.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Natalie C Pawlikowski*, The Pennsylvania State University, Alan H Taylor, The Pennsylvania State University, Michelle Coppoletta, U.S. Forest Service, Eric E Knapp, USFS Pacific Southwest Research Station
ABSTRACT: Historically, forest structure and species composition in ponderosa pine forests was maintained by frequent, low to moderate intensity, wildfire. However, fire suppression policy and land-use practices following Euro-American settlement have altered forest conditions and contributed to reduced resilience to wildfire in these forests. Growing recognition of how structural attributes influence resilience has led to an interest in restoring more heterogeneous conditions once common in the forests at both stand and landscape scales; however, little is known about the persistent effects of fire on spatial heterogeneity and fire resilience since few contemporary examples of structurally-restored old-growth ponderosa pine forests exist. Here, we studied how forest structure – density, composition, and spatial patterns – changes following ~20 years of fire suppression in the Beaver Creek Pinery – a contemporary example of heterogeneous wildfire-resilient forest located in the Southern Cascades in northern California. Fire behavior was modeled at different weather and fuel conditions to examine the implications of these structural changes on the stand’s resilience to wildfire. Results show forest structure is starting to homogenize – disturbance-tolerant species – namely, California black oak – are being lost, gaps are being infilled by small trees, and small diameter pines (5-15cm dbh) dominate ~1/3 of the site. However, fire modelling suggests that the majority of overstory (trees >30cm dbh) are still highly resilient to wildfire. Overall, this research broadens our understanding on how forests respond to fire and, in turn, how fire can be used to restore and maintain heterogeneity and resiliency in ponderosa pine forests where wildfires have been suppressed for nearly a century.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Cristina Quintas-Soriano*, Idaho State University & Boise State University; Jodi Brandt, Boise State University; Antonio J. Castro, Idaho State University
ABSTRACT: Sustainable management of water-related ecosystem services (WES) is a worldwide priority, especially in regions experiencing water scarcity and governance issues. WES are defined as freshwater benefits to people generated by freshwater social-ecological systems (SES), including freshwater supply, water quality, water regulation, flood mitigation, and cultural values. WES are particular susceptible to landscape changes such as agricultural expansion or urbanization, but also by watershed decisions that prioritize water supplies for human needs. Here, as part of the PECS-WaterSES project (www.pecwaterses.com), we use two place-based research sites that represent different watershed management scenarios to analyze patterns and perceptions and preferences regarding WES. We conducted over 1,000 face-to-face questionnaires to explore the societal demand regarding WES across two sites in the Portneuf and Treasure Valleys, Idaho (US). These sites have different climates, and socio-ecological and cultural dynamics, but are all experiencing new regional, societal demands for limited water resources. We examine how ecosystem services bundles emerge from diverging social preferences toward WES under different watershed management scenarios. Additionally, we explore factors determining differences in the social perceptions. We hypothesize that social demand for WES are strongly influenced not just by the social-ecological-cultural context but also by watershed management decisions over time.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Matteo Garbarino*, University of Torino, IT; Malandra Francesco, Marche Polytechnic University, IT; Tom Dilts, University of Nevada, Reno; Sam Flake, University of Nevada, Reno; Fabio Meloni, University of Torino, IT; Peter J Weisberg, University of Nevada, Reno
ABSTRACT: Pinyon-Juniper woodlands expanded considerably in the last century across the western USA. The presence of anthropogenic biotic and abiotic disturbances (grazing, logging, fire) contributed to shape the structure of this ecosystem. We established 20 plots (10 along the upper and 10 along the lower treeline) in the Toyabe range, Great Basin National Park, NV. Tree canopies were photo-interpreted in a GIS and the accuracy was assessed through GCPs. PPA (pair-correlation function) analyses was used to compare the spatial arrangement of trees at upper and lower treelines. We used LANDSAT images to do a 30-year NDVI trend analysis to describe treeline dynamics. Upper treeline plots were located around 2500 m a.s.l. on steep slopes (22°) and were characterized by a mean density of 106 tph. Lower treelines were denser (124 tph) and on gentler slopes (7°) at a mean elevation of 2096 m a.s.l. Combining the spatial pattern 10 by 10 replicates we obtained a clumped distribution of trees for both upper and lower treelines. Nevertheless, upper treeline ecotone resulted more grouped than the lower one. The NDVI and the tree size distribution analyses support previous observations of recently active expansion at both treelines in the Great Basin. The increasing trend of NDVI was significantly higher at lower than at upper treeline. At higher elevation tree recruitment was limited to favorable microsite due to energy limitation. Conversely, at lower elevation water limitation led to a less aggregated pattern at small scale due to competition between trees. This different pattern between upper and lower treelines could also be explained by the higher level of topographic variability observed at the upper treeline. Further studies are needed to determine whether the observed fine-scale patterns of tree distribution reflect fundamental differences in limiting factors that control tree distributions at upper and lower forest ecotones globally.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Lindsay E. Hansen, University of California Berkeley; Falk Huettmann, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Andy Baltensperger*, National Park Service
ABSTRACT: Birds are known to be excellent indicators of environmental health. In Nepal, 15% of the naturally occurring bird species are nationally threatened due to human-caused habitat alteration, largely due to urbanization. However, little research is available providing species distribution models and richness/evenness calculations for birds living in urban spaces. A large majority of Nepali people follow Hindu or Buddhist traditions. Culturally they see birds and other animals as spiritually divine and deserving respect and welcoming. Therefore it is common for shop owners to encourage birds to visit shops in the mornings via the spreading of bird seed, and it is customary to leave alone any nest birds have built inside of shops, restaurants and homes. In 2016 and 2017 we conducted a study of avian species roosting and nesting in and around shops and restaurants in urban centers of Nepal. This study created the first database of bird abundance and bird nesting habits in urban spaces within Nepal to inform and advise future management and research decisions within the country. Georeferenced avian point counts, vegetation/urbanization assessments, and nest counts were conducted within Kathmandu and Pokhara, and smaller mountain villages in Nepal. This was done to investigate a gradient of urbanization that determines the level of urbanization preferred by different functional groups of birds, as well as to determine the likelihood a bird nest would be found in a shop given the urbanization gradient of the shop and religious background of the shop owner. Data mining and machine learning algorithms were used to model, predict and extrapolate the effect of religious affiliation and urban predictors on bird nest acceptance, distribution, population spread and nesting habits of avian species. This study will develop a quantitative assessment of urban species distribution throughout Nepali cities and village centers.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Devon Gaydos, Center for Geospatial Analytics, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Spatial problem solving is an increasingly important component of research, education, and decision-making. However, interactions with geospatial data are not always intuitive, posing a barrier to widespread usage. To address this limitation, tangible models have been developed that allow users to quickly and easily steer sophisticated geospatial models through physical interactions. Expanding upon presentations in the Visualizing Ecosystem Futures Live symposium, we will be highlighting the potential of one of these systems, Tangible Landscape, with 3 interactive demonstrations. We will show how Tangible Landscape can be used to teach spatial concepts like water flow, landform development, and grading. We will discuss how Tangible Landscape can be used to inform decision-making in the context of forest disease management. And lastly, we will demonstrate how this system can be linked with immersive photorealistic visualizations of the landscape to enhance user's perceptions of interventions.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Maoning Yuan*, Jian Peng – Peking University
ABSTRACT: City diseases caused by rapid urbanization, as well as extreme weather and subsequent disasters caused by climate change, are the main causes of the current impact on urban security. And in coastal cities, waterlogging caused by heavy rain is the most frequent disaster. Urban resilience is an ability of the resistance, absorption, adaptation and recovery of city when it is disturbed. It is necessary to evaluate the resilience level of city, especially for specific disasters, which is of great practical significance and far-reaching strategic significance. First of all, this paper marshals the concept of urban resilience, discriminates the difference of synonyms, and on the basis, the index system to evaluate the level of resilience based on waterlogging is established. Then, the annual changes of Shenzhen's resilience level in the past 2005-2016 years are evaluated by using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the SPSS software. The result shows that the resilience level of Shenzhen has little fluctuation in the research period, but it shows an overall upward trend. And the improvement of its resilience depends primarily on infrastructure that can resist waterlogging.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Gisele Nighswander, Basil Iannone, Adam Dale – University of Florida
ABSTRACT: Land conversion into exurban, or residential, developments has been the largest form of land-use change in the United States. This land conversion has resulted in the loss of ecosystem services once provided by these areas, including habitat, food sources, enhanced biodiversity and potentially even bottom-up and top-down pest regulation. Fortunately, there has been increased interests in understanding the ecology of these growing exurban areas, as well as how to mitigate aforementioned losses. "Designer ecosystems” have emerged as a potential solution to the mitigation of losses in ecosystem services and may even act to enhance biodiversity more urbanized landscapes. The purpose of this project is to generate knowledge on how to create designer ecosystems in exurban areas that provide important ecosystem services. We will focus specifically on the degree to which alpha and beta diversity, structural complexity, and landscape context (hereafter referred to as "biotic complexity") or ornamental gardens contribute to bottom-up and top-down regulation of herbivorous arthropod pests at both the local and landscape level. Because Florida has undergone some of the most intensive exurban development in the country, the study will be performed across numerous exurban developments within the state’s central region with the following objectives: (i) determine the degree to which biotic complexity of ornamental plantings affects herbivorous arthropod pest abundance and (ii) identify the mechanism by which biotic complexity of ornamental plantings affects arthropod pest abundance and (iii) determine the degree to which various components of landscape context of ornamental plantings affects the abundance of arthropod pests and predators and the interactions among them. Meeting these objectives will enable the design of more ecologically functioning landscapes, thus presenting potential benefits such as enhanced ecosystem services and reduced pesticide use.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Allie V. Schiltmeyer*, David A. Wedin – School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Dirac Twidwell, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ABSTRACT: Nebraska’s Wildcat Hills support an intact mosaic of ponderosa pine forests, woodlands, and mixed-grass prairie. It is home to one of Nebraska’s Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep populations and contains several thousand hectares of public land. The Wildcat Hills face multiple threats including climate change, wildfire, drought, pine beetles, and invasive species. In particular, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) woodlands have experienced extreme wildfires throughout the western US in recent decades. Today, less than one percent of Nebraska’s woodlands and grasslands are burned in a given year. Conservation strategies encouraged by the Nebraska Natural Legacy Project include incorporating a fire return interval of 5-10 years on land within the Wildcat Hills. However, the threat of juniper (Juniperus spp) encroachment deters landowners from incorporating fire into their management routines. Substantial fuel loads and juniper flammability can lead to crown fires within ponderosa pine stands. Simple land cover classifications provided by state and federal agencies are the only data available to evaluate preliminary wildfire models. Neither of these assessments has evaluated the population density, age structure, and regeneration of ponderosa pine and juniper. The age and size structure of Wildcat Hills woodlands affect ecology and potential fire behaviour at both the stand and landscape scale. We did not find evidence of extensive juniper establishment in the grassland matrix surrounding ponderosa pine patches, but a threshold exists for woodland density beyond which juniper establishment increased significantly. This will be important for managing the growing threat of juniper encroachment and wildfire regimes in Nebraska’s ponderosa pine regions.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
AUTHORS: Geoffrey M. Henebry*, Monika A. Tomaszewska, Kamilya Kelgenbaeva – South Dakota State University
ABSTRACT: Mountain pastures form the basis of herder livelihoods in Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere in the mountains of Central Asia. We explore here how the seasonality of vegetation, as observed through remote sensing, changes with elevation and influenced by slope, aspect, latitude, and location. We use 16 years of moderate resolution (Landsat: 30 m) image time series combined with land surface temperature data at coarser resolution (MODIS: 1 km) to describe the temporal progression of vegetation. We evaluate the variation across four districts in two provinces of the Kyrgyz Republic--Alay, At-Bashy, Chong Alay, and Naryn. We classify the temporal reliability of pasture resources to identify critical areas for resource management. This approach is applicable to other mountain environments where the seasonal variation of temperature limits pasture growth.
Monday April 9, 2018 5:30pm - 7:00pm CDT
Monroe Room
Join US-IALE student attendees for a night of socializing with friends new and old. This event will be held at the Emerald Loop Bar & Grill (216 N Wabash Ave, .4 mile, a 9-minute walk from the Palmer House). Proper I.D. will be required for alcoholic beverages.
PLENARY PRESENTATION: Dwindling Numbers for an Iconic Insect: A Conservation Biologist Ponders Moving Beyond the Documentation of Declines - Dr. Karen Oberhauser, University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum
Monarch butterfly populations have been declining over the last 20 years. Because insect numbers are notoriously difficult to assess, and because they often show large year to year fluctuations, simply documenting this decline has been a challenge. It is now important to move beyond simple documentation and toward responding to the challenge posed by monarch conservation, and insect conservation in general. Monarchs are negatively impacted by many human activities, particularly habitat degradation and loss, pesticide use, climate change, vehicular collisions, invasive species, and pathogen spread in their dwindling numbers. Attributing the share of losses to each of these pressures is complicated by its population variability in time and space, thus complicating conservation solutions.
In this presentation, I’ll describe the amazing biology of migratory monarch populations, and the work of citizens and scientists in documenting monarch numbers at all stages of their migratory cycle. I’ll then discuss threats to monarchs, and potential responses to these threats. Because conservation biology must be at its essence a science of hope, my focus is on positive changes as well as on the challenges posed by declining monarch numbers.
Dr. Karen Oberhauser is the Director of the University of Wisconsin – Madison Arboretum, where she is continuing her 30 years of research on the biology and conservation of the monarch butterfly. She has initiated multiple “citizen science” projects, involving K-12 students... Read More →
Tuesday April 10, 2018 8:15am - 9:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Bianca Lopez, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC); Emily Minor, University of Illinois at Chicago
ABSTRACT: As technology allows people to spend more time indoors and in front of screens, city dwellers are increasingly disconnected from nature, a phenomenon known as the extinction of experience. However, biodiversity conservation efforts in cities can provide opportunities for people to experience and learn about the natural world. In this study, we used publicly available data on observations of birds from three different social media and crowdsourcing websites—eBird, iNaturalist, and Flickr— to identify locations where people observe birds in Chicago. These websites have very different aims and users: eBird is used by birders to keep track of their bird observations, including organized point-count and transect sampling; iNaturalist is a platform for citizen science projects using species observation data, as well as for non-experts to obtain expert identification of the species they photograph; and Flickr is a photo-sharing site often used by professional photographers. While hardly representing the general population, these data together provide information about three sets of people: birders, biodiversity enthusiasts, and photographers. We pulled georeferenced data on bird observations from these sites within a bounding box around the city of Chicago, and used land use data from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) to categorize the locations where these observations took place. Most observations were on public lands, but we found differences in the types of locations where people observed birds in the three datasets, with eBird users more frequently observing birds in residential areas and a much higher proportion of iNaturalist observations occurring on conservation land. In contrast, more than half of Flickr photos of birds were taken in open space that is primarily used for recreation. These results provide insight into the appreciation of biodiversity in cities, and may be useful for guiding targeted urban conservation and education efforts.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Shuster, WD*, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory; Herrmann, DL, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory; Grosshans, J, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5; Schifman, LA, U.S. EPA, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory; Furio, B, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5
ABSTRACT: Social and economic drivers have resulted in population loss and altered demographics in many Great Lakes basin cities. This change has created a landscape mosaic that includes extensive coverage in blighted parcels, which – through proper demolition and site finishing – may satisfy a growing demand for local ecosystem services rendered via passive green infrastructure (e.g., vacant lots). In general, green infrastructure represents a suite of scalable practices to manage water quantity, but specifically urbanized landscapes with a high proportion of pervious surfaces may passively render ecosystem services. Yet, the hydrologic processes and capacities of these landscapes are tied to poorly-characterized urban soil conditions. Drawing on a unique urban soil taxonomic and hydrologic dataset collected in 12 cities (each city representing a major soil order), we determined how urbanization processes (compared to paired reference soil series) alter the hydrology of urban landscapes. Using field datasets from Cleveland OH and Detroit MI we parameterize an unsaturated zone model (HYDRUS1D) to quantify and illustrate how variability in urban soil taxonomy and hydrology contribute to the rendering of supporting (plant-available soil water) and regulating (runoff mitigation) ecosystem services. These results contribute to our understanding of how high-vacancy urban landscapes may play a role in rendering ecosystem services in urban centers, while contributing to compliance with the U.S. Clean Water Act.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Yanxu Liu, Bojie Fu – State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University
ABSTRACT: How can planners integrate multiple planning processes with conflicting spatial boundaries from various administrative departments? This question presents one of the key obstacles in China’s current spatial planning practices and has aroused controversy among planners from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Focusing on the differences in spatial scale between economic and social development planning, land use planning and urban master planning, this study explores an integration of multiple planning approaches at different spatial scales based on a landscape functional zone (LFZ) analysis for Hebi City, a resource-based city in China. The landscape has been segregated into cultivated landscapes, ecological landscapes and urban landscapes, with rigid and conditional restriction levels for either dominant landscapes or coherent landscapes. In the result, the landscape was zoned into 11 classifications based on the 22 restriction and suitability indicators. Rigidly restricted cultivated landscapes accounted for 45.37% of the total area, and conditionally restricted ecological landscapes ranked second with 12.52% of the total area. With regard to the context-dependent planning debate of land sharing/land sparing, the LFZ is able to support land-use policy making at the landscape scale. To conclude, the LFZ could be a solution to the planning conflicts because it takes advantage of the geographic understanding of spatial scale dependence.
AUTHORS: Matthew A. Williamson, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis; Rose A. Graves, Human-Environment Systems, Boise State University; Brett G. Dickson, Conservation Science Partners, Inc.
ABSTRACT: Conservation easements, voluntary encumbrances placed on private property to limit future development, are increasingly recognized for their potential contributions to local, regional, and national conservation objectives. As such, there is growing interest in models capable of identifying locations where individuals are likely to adopt easements. The National Conservation Easement Database provides one of the most comprehensive, spatially explicit datasets documenting conservation easements in the United States; however, current estimates suggest that only 49% of existing easements are contained in the database. The inability to distinguish the factors correlated with easement adoption from those correlated with easement reporting may create bias in efforts to develop spatially explicit, predictive models of the probability of easement occurrence. This challenge is analogous to the problem of imperfect detection in wildlife surveys wherein an individual may be absent because a) it truly does not occur in the area or b) because the surveyor failed to detect it. Extending this analogy to the NCED, we develop hierarchical Bayesian mixture models that rely on fine resolution data on demographics, economics and land ownership to estimate the likelihood of easement adoption while explicitly accounting for the effects of variation in reporting rate. We illustrate the potential for bias both in interpreting covariates and estimating the probability of CE adoption and motivate our models with a series of simulations. We then evaluate the ability of our models to predict unreported easements using data from Montana and Idaho. Our results suggest that untangling the drivers of reporting from those of adoption is critical for conservation planners hoping to identify areas where easements are likely to play key roles in achieving conservation objectives. Moreover, our approach may improve the ability to model non-random under-reporting of a variety of conservation behaviors.
AUTHORS: Caroline A. Curtis*, Valerie J. Pasquarella, Bethany A. Bradley – University of Massachusetts
ABSTRACT: The spread of non-native conifers into areas naturally dominated by other vegetation types is a growing problem in South America. This process results in a landscape transformation as the conifers suppress growth and regeneration of native vegetation leading to altered water and nutrient availability and reduced biodiversity. In parts of Chile, pines are problematic due to widespread establishment of plantations and failure to control expanding populations. The large spatial extent and detectable spectral characteristics of non-native pines provide a unique opportunity to apply remotely sensed data to identify patterns of pine occurrences across the landscape. Previous research has identified the current and historical extent of non-native pines to quantify land cover changes. However, most studies have used a limited number of images to characterize change and covered a relatively small spatial area. This research uses a dense time series of Landsat images which allows us to capture the gradual invasion and dispersal process over more of the affected area. We used all available Landsat images for two scenes (Path 231/Row 092 and Path 232/Row 092) in southern Chile. For each scene, we created training data based on historical aerial photos from Google Earth. We then used time series models to quantify when land cover changes occurred and the Random Forest algorithm to classify images and create biennial maps showing changes in land cover. This method allowed us to use all of the high-quality pixels from each image, greatly improving our understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of land cover change. In addition to creating risk maps for conifer invasion in Chile, this research also has implications for other ecosystems as it highlights the importance of using dense time series to monitor conifer spread.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Virginia H. Dale*, University of Tennessee; Charlie C. Crisafulli, US Department of Agriculture Forest Service; Henriette I. Jager, Amy K. Wolfe, Rebecca A. Efroymson – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ABSTRACT: Ecological disturbances are occurring with greater frequency and intensity than in the past. Furthermore, multiple events or different types of disturbances can undermine the ability of environmental systems to recover, and interacting disturbances can cause ecological systems to transition to new, undesirable states. Under projected shifts in disturbance regimes and patterns of recovery, societal and environmental impacts are expected to be more extreme and occur over a larger area. Furthermore, reestablishment may be to a new state or what some call an “emerging ecosystem,” whose properties then influence future risks and resilience to subsequent disturbances. The need to proactively address risk and resilience is pressing. Managing complex ecosystems to maintain essential characteristics in the face of an uncertain future is challenging. Therefore, I offer a perspective on risk and resilience that encompasses interactions among ecosystems, human organizational dynamics and infrastructure, and evolving technological capabilities. Management decisions need to address (1) hazard assessment, monitoring, and mitigation; (2) natural resource use and management of ecosystem services; and (3) interfaces among humans, technologies, and emerging ecosystems. The spectacular eruption of Mount St. Helens on 18 May 1980 was the largest and most deadly volcanic eruption in historical times in the conterminous United States. I will review lessons distilled from the 37-year body of research, which has strongly influenced and even reshaped our understanding of biological community assembly and successional processes. Because the future is uncertain and unknowable, ecologists must be cognizant of how disturbance patterns become integrated into planning of future infrastructure and protection. Ecological research can test and demonstrate the benefits of protecting or proactively managing important features and places, circumstances, and processes that enhance provisioning of ecosystem services. It is time to demonstrate how ecological science applied to human-environmental systems can reduce risks and enhance resilience in a complex, changing world.
AUTHORS: R. Daniel Hanks*, Clemson University; Paul B. Leonard, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Robert F. Baldwin, Clemson University
ABSTRACT: Understanding influences of multiple stressors across the landscape on aquatic biota is important for conservation, as it allows for an understanding of spatial patterns and informs stake holders of geographic areas of significant conservation value. Data exists for landuse/landcover (LULC) and other physicochemical components of the landscape throughout the Appalachian region yet biological data is sparse. This dearth of biological data relative to LULC and physicochemical data creates difficulties in making informed management and conservation decisions across large landscapes. At the HUC12 watershed scale we sought to create a single score for both abiotic and biotic values throughout the region. We used boosted regression trees (BRT) to model biological responses (fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate variables) to abiotic variables. Variance explained by BRT models ranged from 62-94%. We utilized relative importance values of predictor variables from BRT models to weight the abiotic variables, creating a single watershed score to reflect watershed quality for aquatic fauna. We combined predicted values from BRT models to create a single watershed score for aquatic macroinvertebrates, fish, and aquatic macroinvertebrates and fish together. Use of such multimetric scores can inform managers, NGOs, and private land owners regarding landuse practices; thereby contributing to largescale landscape conservation efforts.
AUTHORS: Charles I. Scaife, University of Virginia; Jonathan Duncan, Pennsylvania State University; Naomi Tague, University of California-Santa Barbara; Colin Bell, Colorado School of MINES; Lawrence Band, University of Virginia
ABSTRACT: Soil moisture extremes drive ecohydrological processes, but the spatially variable nature of soil moisture makes characterizing patterns across the landscape particularly challenging. A consensus among the literature is that spatial variance is lowest at both high and low mean soil moisture values forming concave mean-variance relationships. Topography has previously served as a template for landscape-level patterns of mean soil moisture and variance, particularly in hydrologically-focused research. However, nitrogen cycling studies are, to a greater degree, concerned with spatial variation of soil moisture as it relates to biogeochemical cycling at ecological patch scales or smaller. Non-linear relationships describing nutrient dynamics require consideration of small-scale heterogeneity not captured in landscape-scale studies. We’ve previously shown at a single-site that including spatial variance reduces bias in nutrient cycling estimates. In this study, we reconcile scale discrepancies by posing a simple question: how similar are patterns of plot-scale soil moisture measurements between sites representing a variety of land-uses and vegetation cover? Our analysis combines over 8000 point measurements and 6 years of data across 8 sites encompassing dry and wet years to answer this question. Our goal is to utilize point-based measurements from other studies to broadly characterize plot-scale mean-variance relationships. Preliminary results suggest that despite differences in vegetation and land-use there is agreement between mean-variance relationships across sites in the mid-Atlantic. Differences between landscape positions within a single site (i.e. riparian versus upslope) are greater than differences between sites. While our study focuses primarily on the mid-Atlantic region, similar mean-variance relationships may exist in other regions. Ultimately, these uniquely-defined relationships can provide a useful framework for future integration into hydroecological models where soil moisture modelling is often done at coarser resolutions. Improved downscaling of spatial soil moisture in empirical studies and within these models can further enhance our estimates of nitrification and denitrification rates.
ABSTRACT: Wildfires have significant effects on human populations worldwide. Smoke pollution, in particular, from either prescribed burns or uncontrolled wildfires, can exacerbate existing health conditions and make normal functioning impossible. Scarcity in the measurements of particulate matter responsible for these public health issues makes addressing the problem of smoke dispersion challenging, especially when fires occur in remote regions. Our work suggests that crowdsourced data can be useful in estimating particulate pollution from wildfire smoke. In an examination of California wildfires in the summer of 2015, we find that a social media data based model can be an accurate predictor of air quality across the region. Moreover, combining insights what users are saying on social media about smoke and wildfires increases model accuracy, indicating a confluence of social and spatiotemporal data.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Yuanqiu Feng*, Joan I. Nassauer – School for Environment & Sustainability, University of Michigan
ABSTRACT: In urban landscapes with vacant property, green infrastructure (GI) designs should vary with the spatial distribution and quantities of vacant lots relative to their context in: grey infrastructure, land use, land cover, and geomorphology. GI designs also should vary to produce socio-environmental functions that are relevant and valuable to local communities. We argue that GI designs should respond to landscape heterogeneity, and we demonstrate that analysis of heterogeneous characteristics at a catchment scale is a foundation for sustainable GI. We question menu-driven GI design approaches, in which GI practices are selected and implemented without close reference to heterogeneous landscape characteristics. To recognize heterogeneity, we detail our design-in-science approach, which leverages knowledge of social and environmental processes to critically assess how GI designs may interact with specific local conditions and patterns. We demonstrate this approach in two catchments of approximately 700ac and 450ac, with contrasting characteristics in the Upper Rouge watershed in Detroit. One catchment lies in a highly vacant neighborhood, with large patches of vacant lots and substantial variation in topography and substrate characteristics. The other is in a geomorphologically uniform and comparatively intact neighborhood, with fewer vacant lots and a more evenly distributed vacancy pattern. These differences led us to design distinct GI strategies for each catchment – a single large and contiguous GI network in one and a system of several small distributed GI nodes in the other. We show how these differences allow the designs to operate as hypotheses about performance of socio-environmental functions, which can be tested as models or as built pilot projects in our larger transdisciplinary project with local government and NGO collaborators, Neighborhood Environment and Water research collaborations for Green Infrastructure (New-GI).
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Laura R. Musacchio*, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
ABSTRACT: One of the key challenges today for landscape planners is to reframe the meaning of ecosystem services. In this context, alternative concepts such as ecologies have potential to complement ecosystem services when applied to human-nature relationships in changing landscapes. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) review some of the major critique approaches that are used by landscape planners to translate the meaning of ecosystem services and (2) introduce why ecologies has potentially helpful insights to complement ecosystem services. To address these objectives, a conceptual framework is used to examine how landscape planners have used critique in their academic writings to reframe the meaning of ecosystem services. This framework is then revised as a potential scenario to reframe the meanings of ecologies and ecosystem services. In the conceptual framework, landscape planners have used three critique approaches to reframe the meaning of ecosystem services to advance the understanding of human-nature relationships in changing landscapes. Yet, they have identified some important gaps that have emerged when it is applied. These gaps are part of the rationale for why landscape planning is at an important crossroads with ecosystem services. This rationale is then extended to create a potential scenario for why a revised conceptual framework is needed for landscape planners to reframe the meanings of ecologies and ecosystem services.
AUTHORS: Nakisha Fouch*, Robert Baldwin, Caitlin Dyckman, Patrick Gerard – Clemson University
ABSTRACT: Ideally, landscape and conservation planning provide sufficient coverage, spatial representation, and effective placement of land uses to support biodiversity pattern, process, and change. The use of private conservation easements (CE) has dramatically increased, and yet little is known about their cumulative landscape-level functions. Prior to undertaking analysis in a large, nationwide study, we tested an assessment tool on three representative counties. We assessed the relative impact of interacting spatial, social, and environmental attributes as related to the Human Modification Index (HMI). The HMI, a statistically derived spatial measure of landscape condition, provides a strong indicator of land-use transformation. We hypothesized that on CEs mean HMI would be lower (identifying less human modification) than mean HMI on non-CE parcels. This was tested via pairwise parcel sampling, comparing randomly selected points for CE and non-CE parcels having similar topographic, land cover, and size characteristics. At the parcel level, CE lands did not differ from non-CE lands, for 2 of the 3 counties. This third county showed a lower mean HMI in CE versus non-CE lands. Because CEs occur in various land covers ranging from small infill parcels to large forested or agricultural parcels, it was hypothesized that size and landscape context would influence the result. We hypothesized that small parcels, such as those typically found in more urban areas, would have a high edge to area ratio, and also a higher HMI. In the first two counties 1/2 counties were found to have a CE parcel size inversely related to HMI and both counties had non-CE parcel size inversely related to HMI, the third county showed both CE parcels and non-CE parcel sizes inversely related to HMI. Findings suggest that heterogeneity of land-uses, geographic context, and the degree to which CEs influence the quality of the landscape may depend on spatial context.
AUTHORS: Gabriela Nunez-Mir*, Songlin Fei – Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Empirical and theoretical studies have shown that the association between native diversity and invasion (e.g., usually exotic richness) is inconsistent, varying across scales and ecosystems of study. To explain the different patterns, ecologists have proposed a number of underlying processes, focusing mostly on the role of local or regional native species richness. Yet, there are other aspects of native diversity involved in influencing a community’s invasibility that may be contributing to the inconsistencies observed. Although abiotic environmental heterogeneity has been extensively explored as a driver of these patterns, little is known about the role of biotic heterogeneity. Here, we seek to understand how beta diversity, the heterogeneity of species composition among assemblages, influences the observed relationship between native and exotic species richness. In addition, we sought to understand how this influence changes across scales. To do this, we obtained native and exotic richness data for the entire continental United States from the USGS nonindigenous aquatic species and NatureServe databases. We took advantage of the nested properties of these databases (HUC levels) to incorporate the influence of scale in these relationships. Because beta diversity is likely to be a good indicator for spatial heterogeneity, we hypothesized that high beta diversity enhances coexistence and supersedes processes that decrease invasibility. Therefore, we expected that areas with higher levels of beta diversity would display more positive relationships. Our results seem to indicate a scale-dependent effect of beta diversity on invasibility. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found beta diversity to have, not a negative effect, but a positive effect on invasibility, and only at scales with the largest spatial extent. Ultimately, our study contributes to our understanding of these invasion patterns and their relationship with scale, as well as to our ability to evaluate the vulnerability of communities to invasion.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Caroline Gagné*, University of Quebec in Montreal, Institute of temperate forest science and Center for forest research; Frédérik Doyon, University of Quebec in Outaouais, Institute of temperate forest science and Center for forest research; Christian Messier, University of Quebec in Montreal, University of Quebec in Outaouais, Institute of temperate forest science and Center for forest research; Élise Filotas, University of Quebec Téluq and Center for Forest Research
ABSTRACT: Since the 1800s, forested areas in southern Québec have shrunk and became highly fragmented as they have thereafter undergone several successive anthropogenic disturbances. This study aims at answering the following questions: 1) can historical land-uses and forest disturbances be related to a species and functional diversity erosion in the southern Québec temperate forest and 2) is the local ecosystem memory more important than the external memory for explaining species and functional diversity variations? During the summer 2015, tree sampling was conducted within 64 sites in the Montérégie region. A total of 17 functional response traits were then selected and a search in the literature and trait databases was done in order to obtain trait values for each species present in sampling sites. Traits were divided in sub-groups representing different ecological processes related to tree life cycle and functional diversity index was computed for each of them. Then explanatory variables related to historical land-uses and disturbances were computed for the years 1930-40, 1958, 1983 and 2015 and for 4 spatial scales (30m, 60m, 600m and 2km radii). This was done using photo-interpretation and data integration from multiple data sources. Data exploration was done using correlation analyses and final analyses were done with hierarchical multiple linear regression models. We found strong relationships between some historical land-uses and disturbances and tree species abundance, tree diversity and functional diversity. For species and functional diversity, landscape contextual variables were better predictors than the in-site ones. In fact, some old historical land-uses and disturbances (1930-40 and 1958) still have a strong influence on the current tree species and functional diversity. These results plaid for suggesting that external ecosystem memory has a larger influence on species and functional diversity than local memory.
AUTHORS: Paul Schilke*, Anna Pidgeon – Silvis Lab Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Flows of materials across ecosystem boundaries can be an important determinant of ecosystem structure. For example, food resources from aquatic ecosystems that move into adjacent terrestrial ecosystems can affect the abundance or density of terrestrial consumers such as birds. Increased numbers of insectivorous birds occur near rivers and streams due to inputs of emergent aquatic insect food resources. However, despite their prevalence in north-temperate and boreal landscapes, the effect of lake-derived food resources on forest bird populations has not been characterized. We asked whether the presence of lakes and the density of emergent aquatic insects were correlated with the abundance of forest breeding birds. We conducted bird point counts during three breeding seasons and captured emergent aquatic insects on sticky traps in nearshore and inland areas in the Northern Highlands Lake District of Wisconsin. We found that several insectivorous bird species, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Wood-Pewee, and Yellow-rumped Warbler, were more abundant near lakes, but that bird abundance was not correlated with emergent aquatic insect density. Our results suggest that the presence of lakes is an important determinant of forest songbird community composition, but other factors, such as vegetation structure, may be more important than food inputs from aquatic ecosystems in determining bird community composition.
AUTHORS: Shijie Shu, Atul K. Jain – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT: Methane is the second most important Earth’s greenhouse gas with a global warming potential (GWP) 28 - 36 times higher than carbon dioxide. Although recent quantification of land-atmosphere methane fluxes received higher attention, calculated global natural methane sources/sinks based on most state-of-the-art models remain highly uncertain. One of the important reasons is that most approaches or models focus on estimating methane fluxes from the natural wetland by ignoring the sink through soil methane oxidation in non-wetland soil and the methane emission from the wet soil with high water table. In this study, we incorporate soil gas diffusion and methane dynamics into a land surface model, Integrated Science and Assessment Model (ISAM), to evaluate the importance by including the soil oxidation and wet soil methane fluxes on estimating the global natural methane sources/sinks for the recent past decade (2001–2009). We develop a general bottom-up framework by coupling a gas diffusion module with the vertically resolved soil hydrology and methane dynamics to estimate the relative contributions of both soil methane oxidation and net emission. Evaluation of the historical simulation using ISAM shows a general match of the wetland methane emission pattern comparing to WetCHARTs global wetland methane emission product. In addition, the new estimation from ISAM shows a higher natural methane emission after considering the contribution from seasonal inundation and wet soil. Results from the model simulation under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 climate scenarios show an important role of soil oxidation affecting the estimated natural methane source by purging over 30% of the produced gross methane. Under the RCP8.5 case, we find the wetter and warmer climate can largely change the pattern of dry soil methane sink and wet soil methane emission and overall can contribute an extra amount of global methane emission.
AUTHORS: Alexander Killion*, Boise State University; Neil Carter, Boise State University; Tracy Swem, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Human-caused mortality of carnivores has significantly increased the extinction risk for many of the world’s large carnivore species. On the other hand, large carnivores provide a variety of benefits to human societies. However, the risks and benefits from carnivores are often unequally distributed in human landscapes. This asymmetry has contributed to a polarizing public discourse about their conservation and has made it difficult to develop non-controversial legislation. Since collecting social survey data to examine temporal trends in public opinion is costly and time-consuming, analyzing the salience of media reports is an efficient alternative. Public opinion influences what the media reports, and by disseminating certain types of information, the media has in turn been shown to influence human perception of wildlife risk. However, there are often computational constraints in analyzing a large corpus with sufficient detail to capture trends in salience over a long timeframe that has witnessed changes in both policies and carnivore abundances. To overcome these constraints, we utilized a hierarchical Bayesian framework to identify distinct topics of highest salience regarding gray wolves (Canis lupus) and assess trends in the prevalence of those topics over 55 years (1960-2015), the longest wildlife media content analysis to date. We highlight significant differences between local and national salience levels over time and present how our methodology can identify changes in public opinion in heterogeneous social landscapes.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Oludunsin Arodudu, Department of Geography, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland; Ronan Foley, Department of Geography, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland; Michael Brennan, Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, Ireland; Malachy Bradley, Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, Ireland; Gerald Mills, School of Geography, University College Dublin, Ireland; Tine Ningal, School of Geography, University College Dublin, Ireland
ABSTRACT: Several known factors affect or contribute to human health outcomes. One of such factors is the presence or absence of nature’s green and blue infrastructures (i.e. vegetation and water bodies) or ecosystem services. While previous health impact assessment studies have provided evidence that nature's green and blue infrastructures have multiple health benefits, noteworthy however is the fact that most of such previous studies are conducted around locations of green and blue infrastructures (GBI) or based on the availability of green and blue infrastructure data (i.e. essentially green and blue infrastructure or GBI led). Within the context of such studies, it is often not explicitly clear if there are other more important determinants of health. To avoid this lack of clarity and strike the needed balance, there is a need to adopt a new health-led approach that accounts for long-term health outcomes at different geospatial scales, before considering the effects of the location of green and blue infrastructures; as well as the impacts of other factors. In order to forge such a health-led approach, this study identified research and data needs at the green and blue infrastructure and the human health research interface (i.e. the GBI/health study interface), through an integrative scoping review of 36 key publications that are either entirely GBI-led or entirely health-led in nature. The identified research and data needs are proposed for incorporation into a new and broader framework for a health-led approach. Among other things, they are expected to extend analysis at the GBI/health study interface, beyond considering narrow cross-sectional health outcomes at single geospatial scales, to considering health outcomes on longitudinal basis at multiple geospatial scales. This is expected to make GBI/health studies more holistic, and their resulting research outcomes more robust and acceptable. This will also help ascertain the need for green and blue infrastructure interventions in the physical development of living spaces, in order to ensure healthier environment and societies.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Fanghan Luo*, Jian Peng – Peking University
ABSTRACT: Cities are suffering various natural disasters due to rapid urbanization and global climate change. Landscape ecological risk assessment is conducive to identifying disaster stresses and guiding risk prevention in critical areas. However, few studies have focused on characterizing the dynamic processes of urban landscape ecological risk. In this article, the adaptive cycle in resilience theory was incorporated into a risk assessment framework for Beijing that used three criteria: “potential”, “connectedness” and “resilience”, integrating risk sources of exposure and disturbance. The results showed that the ecological risk of “potential” and “connectedness” weakened radially from urban centers to the surrounding outskirts. The distribution of “resilience”, “exposure” and “disturbance” were similar to the final landscape ecological risk pattern of Beijing, which exhibited a concentric pattern of “higher risk”, “highest risk” and “lowest risk” sequentially from urban centers to the outskirts. The results reflected the fact that people living in urban centers had already taken ecological restoration measures to reduce risk, while continuous urban construction in the surrounding areas increased the ecological risk. In terms of the risk adaptive cycle, six districts were in the reorganization O-phase, four districts were in the exploitation r-phase, and the other five districts were in the conservation K-phase. The resilience theory helped in understanding the evolution mechanism of urban landscape ecological risk, as well as its geographical-ecological significance. As a consequence, the assessment provides scientific guidance for improving the adaptability of an urban system as well as for implementing resilient urban planning.
AUTHORS: Rose A. Graves*, Boise State University; Matthew A. Williamson, University of California-Davis & The Center for Large Landscape Conservation; Travis Belote, The Wilderness Society; Jodi Brandt, Boise State University
ABSTRACT: The most pressing conservation issues in North America require conservation approaches that span large landscapes. Public protected areas (PPAs) in the United States do not currently protect many ecosystems or larger scale ecological processes. Increasingly, conservation easements (CE) are used as a tool to protect private land from future development; yet, few studies have examined whether contemporary patterns of CEs effectively contribute to landscape-scale biodiversity and ecosystem conservation goals. Using a database of 1237 CEs established from 1970 to 2016, we analyzed the spatial pattern and conservation value of private-land conservation in the High Divide, a region dominated by public lands and critical to ecological connectivity in the Rocky Mountains. Specifically, we asked 1) how does the spatial distribution of CEs differ from non-protected private lands?; 2) how well are ecological systems (i.e., vegetation communities) and biodiversity (i.e., vertebrate species) represented in CEs relative to their occurrence in the region?; and 3) how well do CEs maintain landscape-scale ecological connectivity relative to unprotected private land? We found that CEs comprised 9.1% (4853 km2) of the private land area and 3.6% of the total land area in the High Divide. Compared to random private land locations, CEs were more likely to be found in lower elevations and nearer to water bodies and PPAs. Despite small areal coverage, CEs contribute disproportionately to conservation of 30% of vegetation communities in the region and, importantly, provided complementary protection for habitat types underrepresented in PPAs. Private land in the High Divide is important for connectivity between PPAs but mean connectivity score was not different between CEs (M=0.79, sd=0.10) and unprotected private land (M=0.75, sd=0.11). Our study suggests that private land conservation contributes substantially to landscape-scale conservation goals, and that current patterns of CE provide complementary conservation value to PPAs.
AUTHORS: Kathryn C. Baer *, Andrew N. Gray – US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
ABSTRACT: A central question in landscape ecology concerns the environmental determinants of species distributions and the scale at which these determinants act. This question is of particular importance when attempting to predict the distribution of invasive species. Biogeographical theory upon which distribution modeling techniques are built predicts that abiotic constraints are of primary importance at the landscape scale, while biotic resistance or facilitation are likely to primarily impact a species’ local distribution. However, tests of this theory have yielded equivocal results. In this study, we utilized observational data collected on over 9,000 plots from 2004-2011 in Washington, Oregon, and California to identify and evaluate the relative importance of correlates of the presence of Bromus tectorum, Cirsium vulgare, and Rubus armeniacus across spatial scales. Contrary to predictions that biotic constraints should not affect distribution at this level, the landscape-scale presence of all three invasive species was strongly correlated with aspects of both the biotic and abiotic environment. Proximity to the nearest road was more strongly predictive of C. vulgare and R. armenicus presence at the landscape than the local scale, indicating dispersal limitation of these species’ geographic distributions. Several abiotic conditions such as annual precipitation showed a stronger relationship with local- than landscape-scale patterns of invasive species presence. Aspects of the local biotic environment including forest vegetation cover and grazing history were also more important at the local level, providing a measure of support for the prediction of biogeographical theory that interactions such as biotic resistance and herbivory are likely to be more important in determining local than landscape-level distributions. Our results suggest that the incorporation of biotic variables and dispersal limitation into the construction of distribution models, particularly for invasive species, is likely substantially improve the accuracy of their predictions.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Thilina D. Surasinghe*, Bridgewater State University; Robert F. Baldwin, Clemson University; Matt Johnson, National Audubon Society; Nathan Weaver, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
ABSTRACT: Impacts of land uses at variable spatial-scale on aquatic amphibians have been extensively researched in North America. In this study, we documented variation in the species composition of stream salamanders in response to three forest management practices— old-growth, shelterwood, and pine plantations— in low-order streams of Southern Appalachian Mountains. During our survey, at each sampling site (N=15), we surveyed five, 5-m stream segments (consecutive segments separated by a 10-m gap), and repeated the survey on three different occasions. We also measured multiple habitat variables at each site. No larval diversity indices (species richness, Shannon, and Simpson) differed significantly across forest management practices. In contrast, the same indices showed a greater adult diversity in both old-growth and shelterwood forests than in pine plantations. An NMDS ordination showed that adult salamanders associated more with both old-growth and shelterwood forests than pine plantations with the exception of mud and seepage salamanders. Habitat associations among larvae differed markedly from that of adults; two-lined, common dusky, ocoee, mud, and red salamanders mostly associated shelterwood forests while black-bellied and seal salamanders associated both pine plantations and old-growth forests. Multivariate generalized linear models suggested relationships between adult species composition and conductivity, stream pH, water temperature, basal area of riparian hemlock, canopy cover, stream width, and fine sediments in the channel. In comparison, predictors of larval species composition included conductivity, the extent of riffles, undercut banks, and large woody debris. AIC-based model comparisons indicated that water quality variables and riparian habitat structure were critical predictors of adult species composition while stream substrate composition and channel geomorphology were the most important for larval species composition. Our study showed that species responses to differential forest management can vary depending on life stages. Such life-history structured niche divergence warrants consideration when implementing sustainable silvicultural practices.
AUTHORS: Gavin McNicol*, University of Alaska Southeast; Brian Buma, University of Alaska Southeast; Ian Giesbrecht, Hakai Institute; Santiago Gonzalez Arriola, Hakai Institute; Allison Bidlack, Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center
ABSTRACT: Temperate rainforests exhibit some of the highest ecosystem carbon (C) stocks globally and have been studied much less than their tropical counterparts. The perhumid zone of the North American temperate rainforest blankets over 100,000 km2 of remote fjords and lowland islands in southeast Alaska and coastal British Columbia. These wet, cool ecosystems provide ideal conditions for large soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulations, particularly in forests (Spodosols) and deep peatbogs (Histosols). Quantifying SOC stocks across the perhumid coastal temperate rainforest (PCTR) is important to understand the landscape distribution of sequestered C and the lateral terrestrial-to-aquatic fluxes of organic C.We built a Random Forest (RF) model from pedon data and 10 environmental covariate datasets to predict SOC stocks across the North American PCTR. Pedons and associated SOC stocks were compiled from Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) data and a recent Canadian Forest Service pedon database. Model evaluation included comparisons with FAO and SoilGrids SOC and validation with USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis pedon data. Preliminary results suggest the PCTR contains significant SOC stocks with a median pedon SOC stock to 1 m of 480 Mg ha-1, compared to stocks of 93 Mg ha-1 and 186 Mg ha-1 in boreal and evergreen tropical forest soils, respectively. The strongest environmental predictors include MAP, slope, and aspect, along with latitudinal effects resulting in increasing stocks moving north from Vancouver Island, and south from Juneau, to a maximum across the southern extent of the Alexander Archipelago. Aboveground C is also compared to belowground C to determine overall spatial partitioning of C resources in the PCTR which is important to questions of sensitivity to change, C export to marine systems, and management.
AUTHORS: Jason H. Knouft*, Department of Biology, Saint Louis University; Darren L. Ficklin, Department of Geography, Indiana University, Bloomington; Damon Hall, Center for Sustainability, Saint Louis University; Christopher S. Lowry, Department of Geology, University of Buffalo
ABSTRACT: Because freshwater species are some of the most imperiled taxa in North America, accurate spatial representations of their habitat are needed. This can be accomplished through the collection of data by government and research organizations or by computer modeling, whereby the accuracy of the model is dependent upon the observed data. The amount of observed data in freshwater habitats has been declining due to decreases in funding from federal agencies. Data that do exist are on large rivers important for urban communities (i.e., flooding, water supply), a location not appropriate for aquatic species whose habitat are in the smaller headwater streams. Local communities of active resource users, however, offer an opportunity to close this data-availability gap through citizen science. We are using an integrated approach to data collection, storage, evaluation, forecasting and application that blurs the lines between citizen and professional scientists in the Boyne River Basin in Michigan, USA. We have installed CrowdHydrology (a citizen science network that collects hydrologic data) stream gauges throughout the Boyne River Basin. The local community can text (via cellphone) stream level and water temperature data to the CrowdHydrology platform. These citizen science data are then automatically transformed and input into an eco-hydrological model of real-time simulations of streamflow, stream temperature, and eventually aquatic species habitat. The primary goal of this work is to advance the science of hydrological/ecosystem modeling using high performance super computers by incorporating participant-generated data to advance approaches for engaging citizens in water and ecosystems.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:45am - 11:00am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Authors: Anna L. Johnson1*, Dorothy Borowy2 & Christopher M. Swan21Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh2Geography and Environmental Systems Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
ABSTRACT: Ongoing urbanization is known to be a major driver of both biodiversity loss and compositional change. The quality of many vital urban ecosystem services, however, is dependent on the ability of city habitats to maintain functionally diverse urban plant communities. We present results from a three-year field experiment which manipulated both functional and phylogenetic diversity of seed additions into vacant lots in Baltimore, MD to determine how increasing the diversity of the urban species pool impacted community assembly and establishment in vacant lots, a common urban habitat type that is often discussed as a potential location for urban ecosystem restoration projects. Twenty-five vacant lots were cleared in the spring of 2014, and 21 received seed additions while 4 were left to recolonize spontaneously from the soil seed bank or ambient regional species pool. All treated lots were mowed biannually, but no additional management (e.g. weeding) was performed. We found that simply clearing lots and allowing them to recolonize on their own increased species diversity compared to unmanipulated sites. However, over time, vacant lots receiving more phylogenetically diverse seed mix additions led to more diverse established plant communities. Our findings suggest, overall, that overcoming dispersal filters via seed additions can enhance the diversity of urban plant communities, but that there are particular plant characteristics which lead to more successful establishment in vacant lots. Additionally, we discuss preliminary findings linking manipulated diversity of the plant communities to urban ecosystem services, including availability of floral resources for pollinators. Establishing policy-relevant biodiversity experiments in cities which can directly inform urban environmental management with non-academic partners. Thus, we also share lessons learned from the establishment of this large urban community engagement project and discuss how these findings are informing follow-up work.Keywords: Baltimore, MD, USA; biodiversity; dispersal; experiment; plant community; plant traits; vacant lots
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:45am - 11:00am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Georgina M. Sanchez*, NC State University; Jordan W. Smith, Utah State University; Adam Terando, U.S. Geological Survey; Ross K. Meentemeyer, NC State University
ABSTRACT: Integrated land- and water-use planning is gaining attention as a means to inform more water-efficient development patterns. In this study, we coupled a land change model with a development-related water use model to explore alternative futures of continued urbanization and estimate the associated water demand across the rapidly growing region of the southeastern U.S. We used the FUTure Urban-Regional Environment Simulation (FUTURES) framework to simulate spatial patterns of land-use change for both a “status-quo” and a “WaterSmart” urbanization scenario. While both scenarios meet the water demands of the same projected population, the WaterSmart scenario optimizes water efficiency based on four parameters: per capita land consumption, spatial patterns of development, protected areas and attitude towards conservation. The urban planning guidelines and regulations implicit in the WaterSmart scenario show a robust improvement in water efficiency across the region. Future projections of development-related water use will benefit from the use of dynamic land change models to estimate the water footprint of different patterns of development.
AUTHORS: Jeffrey Haight* and Edd Hammill - Utah State University
ABSTRACT: Landscape conservation in the face of climate change requires quantification of spatial differences in climate change exposure and the distribution of ecological systems. When conserving elements of a landscape, it is often prudent to prioritize areas of relatively low vulnerability to climate – i.e. climate refugia. Quantifying an area’s exposure to changing climatic conditions is key to assessing its relative vulnerability. This can be done through the calculation of climate velocity, the rate at which organisms must travel in order to persist within their climate envelopes given some projected shift in climatic parameters. While climate velocity and similar proxy measures of climate vulnerability alone can aid in the identification of climate refugia, relatively little has been done to incorporate climate velocities into the broader conservation frameworks that address management goals (e.g. species protection) and factors affecting the likelihood of achieving those goals. By enabling one to integrate a wide variety of social-ecological variables, systematic landscape planning strategies can improve the efficiency of the process of selecting climate refugia for management action. We evaluated climate exposure within the Southern Rockies region by independently calculating climate velocities based on select bioclimatic variables. We then used the software program Marxan to prioritize areas of minimal climate exposure while additionally accounting for the presence of species of interest, existing protected areas, and environmental risks. Our model framework successfully identified priority climate refugia that were within the spatial extents of the region’s threatened wildlife species. Accounting for risks to conservation success served to further identify the highest priority areas. Our results highlight the need for more thorough assessment of factors that contribute to ecological vulnerabilities under climate change. We hope that the results and framework we outline here will aid managers in efficiently allocating conservation resources with the goal of promoting climate change resilience.
AUTHORS: Insu Jo*, Purdue University; Kevin Potter, North Carolina State University; Grant Domke, USDA Forest Service; Songlin Fei, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Plant-fungal interactions play an important role in forest community structure and functions; however, the dominant tree-fungal interactions that affect species invasions in forest understories remain largely unexplored. Using Forest Inventory Analysis program data from the US Forest Service, we examined how dominant tree mycorrhizal type affects forest soil properties, and in turn, how the altered forest soil properties and forest structure affect understory plant invasions in eastern US forests. We found that understory invaders were more abundant in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) dominant forests than ectomycorrhizal (ECM) dominant forests, whereas native species cover and richness had no strong associations with AM tree dominance. Among the soil attributes that were significantly influenced by AM tree dominance, forest floor thickness and soil carbon:nitrogen ratio were significantly associated with invader richness and cover. Our results suggest that forest structure and dominant mycorrhizal type are closely linked with understory plant invasions. The increased invader abundance in AM dominant forests can further facilitate nutrient cycling, such as nitrogen cycling, altering ecosystem structure and functions in forest ecosystems.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:45am - 11:00am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Brooke A. Cassell, Portland State University; Robert M. Scheller, North Carolina State University; E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Matthew D. Hurteau, University of New Mexico
ABSTRACT: Temperatures in the western USA are rising, leading to earlier snowmelt, smaller snowpack, drier fuels, and longer fire seasons. In dry mixed-conifer forests, these conditions are already resulting in more frequent and more severe wildfires, and this trend is projected to continue. Fuel treatments, including mechanical removal of trees and prescribed burning, are known to be effective in reducing wildfire behavior, particularly in forests that were historically dominated by frequent fire-maintained forest types, but the effectiveness of these treatments is uncertain under climate change. Better understanding of the factors that influence the effects of fuel treatment on wildfire activity at large spatial scales and over time is needed while accounting for complex interactions among forest dynamics, fire sizes and severities. We investigated these interactions by simulating forest succession, forest management, and wildfire activity under historical weather and extreme fire weather in a mixed-conifer landscape in the Blue Mountains region of central Oregon. Forest succession and disturbance (e.g., tree harvest, prescribed burning, and wildfire) were dynamically modeled over a 100-year period. We used scenario-building to compare the effectiveness of different management strategies at reducing the spread and severity of wildfire. Spatial optimization of treatments on the landscape was achieved by running 1000 simulation-years of wildfire under extreme conditions on an unmanaged landscape to identify locations that are most likely to burn at high severity (i.e., with a high proportion of tree mortality). Concentrating fuel treatments in these locations was at least as successful, and in some scenarios more successful, at reducing wildfire spread and severity at the landscape scale as placing treatments across the entire landscape. The results of this study offer insight to forest management under extreme weather conditions and help inform decision-making by identifying strategies for spatially optimizing fuel treatments.
AUTHORS: Timothy M. Swartz*, Jenna R. Mattes, Jaime J. Coon, James R. Miller – Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT: Farm ponds are ubiquitous in agricultural landscapes worldwide. Over the last century, about two million farm ponds have been built across the Central US, representing a fundamental change in the composition of landscapes in the region. While these ponds are primarily designed to control soil erosion and provide water for livestock, they also play an important role in conserving biodiversity. Particularly in landscapes with few natural wetlands, ponds may serve as critical refuges for native species, including amphibians. However, because the majority of ponds are privately-owned, determining their capacity to support amphibians requires accounting for the management decisions of landowners. Landowners can impact the ecology and function of ponds in several ways, including by introducing predatory gamefish for recreational fishing, impeding the growth of wetland vegetation, and periodically renovating aging ponds to restore their agricultural function. Our goal was to assess the potential for farm ponds to provide habitat for amphibians in the eastern Great Plains. We identified habitat associations of amphibians through field surveys and occupancy modeling and analyzed historical aerial imagery to determine patterns of pond construction and renovation. We also assessed the perceptions of landowners through a mail-back survey. Amphibians preferred ponds that had extensive cover of wetland vegetation, lacked fish, and were situated within or near woodlands. Ponds built before 1960 were more likely to exhibit these features. However, more than half of pre-1960 ponds had been renovated, suggesting that high-quality amphibian habitats have been lost over time. Furthermore, many landowners considered predatory gamefish more important than native amphibians, indicating a potential conflict between the conservation and recreation value of ponds. Overall, these results reveal that while farm ponds may provide suitable breeding habitat for amphibians, landscape-scale conservation of these species will require acknowledging the human values and attitudes that drive pond management decisions.
AUTHORS: Long Sun*, Lei Yang, Liding Chen, Fangkai Zhao, Shoujuan Li – Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
ABSTRACT: Identifying the changing patterns of soil water and related plant water isotopes in response to a rainfall event will benefit both water management and plant water-use efficiency. This study presented results at multi-day timescales. Two crop sites and four wood sites (including 2 forest sites and 2 orchard sites) were selected in a typical peri-urban area in eastern China. Water for dD and d18O analysis was collected from rainfall, branch xylem, and soil (three soil layers). Basic topographic features and soil properties were measured. Soil water recharge processes were varied in different land uses. The extents of isotopes depletion in topsoil (0–10 cm) were along the sequence of forest (9.90%) < orchard (10.86%) < cropland (13.70%), in contrast to the reduction of soil water content (17.46% in cropland, 32.06% in forest, and 41.78% in orchard). Trees in forest lands had larger variability in stem water dD compared with trees in orchards (peach and tea). Opposite changing patterns of stem water dD were found between the orchards and forest lands. Although the soil water in bottom soil layer was mainly used by trees, the stem water dD had limited correlation with soil water dD due to the influence of rainwater mixing. Eight factors, including altitude, capillary porosity, porosity, slope gradient, pH, total phosphorous, available nitrogen, soil bulk density, were mainly responsible for shaping changing patterns of stem water dD. Accompanied another 4 factors (clay, sand, soil organic matter, and antecedent soil moisture), all the 12 factors explained 97.4% of the total variability in stem water dD for the five samplings. This study emphasized importance to characterize the changing patterns of soil water and related plant water dD in tiny timescale, which may be helpful for water management and increasing plant water-use efficiency.
AUTHORS: Ian Breckheimer*, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
ABSTRACT: As climate change accelerates, tracking its impact on ecosystems is becoming both more important and more challenging, revealing the limits of environmental monitoring strategies based on traditional data sources. New advancements in computer vision technology (“deep learning”) have recently made it feasible to extract observations of important ecological events from streams of publically available georeferenced photographs. Here I describe the development and preliminary results from BloomFinder, a project that uses computer vision to track wildflower blooms in crowd-sourced photographs of mountain meadow ecosystems in the western USA. Our preliminary work with the Flickr photo database indicates that 15% of the approximately 1.1 million accurately georeferenced photographs available from 38 meadow study sites from 2009 – 2016 contain wildflowers, and our preliminary results show strong relationships between flower timing and climate that vary predictably across the varied geographies and ecologies of the Western USA. Although our database of human-classified training photos is still under construction, we expect that cutting-edge computer vision tools will soon be able to identify a substantial fraction of these flowers to species. These observations, augmented with traditional field data and remote-sensing, will allow us to reconstruct spatial patterns of flowering for hundreds of taxa at continental scales.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Katherine Foo, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
ABSTRACT: Discussions of urban shrinkage have been conspicuously absent from the urban planning literature, although policy practitioners have applied temporary strategies, especially urban greening initiatives, to urban vacant land. However, little is known about the role of temporary strategies on urban development, and the institutional configurations that translate temporary into permanent uses. I ask the question: do weaker land markets foster civic environmental coalitions? I answer this question by examining the influence of land markets on urban governance through a comparative study of three US cities with different land markets: Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.The three cases show that urban vacant land becomes recognized as a resource after it is confronted as a governance problem. The bigger the problem of vacancy, the greater the political will that the government possesses in addressing and managing it through civic environmental coalition building. However, the bigger the problem of urban vacancy, the less capacity the government has to manage it, and the fewer incentives developers have to invest. It appears, then, that the political will for land-based greening initiatives appears to be counter-cyclically related to the strength of the city’s land market. The greater the political will driving a city to address vacant land, the less financial capacity it possesses to follow through on its goals.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Gustavo Ovando-Montejo*, Amy Frazier, Peter Kedron – Oklahoma State University
ABSTRACT: The distribution of population size of cities follow a high degree of empirical regularity termed Zipf’s law, which establishes that the population of a city is inversely proportional to its rank within in a system of size-ranked cities. Generally, the largest city will be twice as large as the next largest city, and so on, allowing practical predictions regarding city size, and generalized knowledge about urban systems. In addition, Zipf’s law has been observed in other urban-related phenomena, such as network theory, income distribution, and firm size among others. Research has demonstrated that landscape ecology metrics in other contexts follow power laws similar to those observed in urban phenomena. However, the statistical relationship between landscape ecology metrics applied explicitly to urban landscapes within a population rank system is yet to be fully explored. The objective of this study is to examine the distribution of urban structure characteristics measured through landscape metrics within a population size-rank system of cities. The analysis is carried by plotting metric values against their population rank ordering for more than 2000 Mexican cities. Mexico was selected as the study area given the highly hierarchical structure of cities across the country, as well as a shared pattern of growth that make it a true system of cities. Preliminary results suggest that some metrics such as SHAPE, GYRATE, NP, and TE among other show strong statistical relationships in a manner concordant with Zipf’s law.
AUTHORS: Peng Gao*, University of South Carolina; John Kupfer, University of South Carolina; Derek Van Berkel, U.S. EPA; Adam Terando, U.S. Geological Survey
ABSTRACT: Given expected changes in economic and population growth, urbanization will continue to transform landscapes in the Southeastern U.S. over the remainder of the 21st century. Urban sprawl increases connectivity among urban habitats while simultaneously fragmenting non-urban habitats such as forests and grasslands, which poses a range of challenges for conservation and stewardship actions targeted toward species and ecosystems in the region. In this study, we examined the projected impact of urbanization on conservation corridors for two Southeastern species of conservation interest. Urbanization under scenarios based on different assumptions of urban growth strategies, land consumption, and conservation plans were simulated using the FUTure Urban-Regional Environment Simulation (FUTURES) model. Linkage Mapper was then used to detect conservation corridors given current land use patterns as well as various projected land use and land cover conditions. Constrictions (“bottlenecks” or “choke points”) in these corridors and important barriers to facilitate restoration planning were identified using Pinchpoint Mapper and Barrier Mapper, respectively. We found that projected patterns of urbanization increase the cost of movement between core habitats due to losses of key corridors and the degradation of corridor quality. In some areas, individuals are forced to take alternative shortest routes to disperse between core habitats. We also found that many ‘conservation opportunities’ (i.e., locations where small improvements in ecosystem quality may result in substantial increases in landscape connectivity) are lost in the developed areas. Our study provides insights relevant to strategic plans for the long-range conservation under the pressure of urbanization in the Southeast U.S.
AUTHORS: Jake Kvistad*, University of Toledo; Jonathan Bossenbroek, University of Toledo; Lindsay Chadderton, The Nature Conservancy
ABSTRACT: Ballast water is a major vector for aquatic invasive species (AIS) introduction and spread on the Laurentian Great Lakes. Understanding inter-lake patterns of domestic ballast water exchanges on the Great Lakes will aid in designing effective ballast water management plans that can either slow or prohibit secondary spread of potentially harmful AIS. Graph theoretic analysis techniques were used to identify central ports in a network of 151 Great Lakes ports that should be considered for increased management efforts. Twenty-seven ports which scored high for several network centrality metrics were identified for hypothetical management focus. Aquatic invasive species secondary spread patterns were simulated for 1000 trials of both 3 and 10 time-steps using a stochastic model of basin-wide ballast water exchanges between ports under a continuum of management scenarios ranging from “no management” to “100% management” at 10% incremental increases of potential management effort. Infestation probabilities resulting from 10 time-steps of simulated spread in both 100% managed and unmanaged scenarios differed significantly (p < 0.05), and average basin-wide infestation probabilities reduced by 75.6%. Average basin-wide infestation probabilities after 10 time-steps decreased exponentially as management effort increased, with the greatest reductions in infestation probabilities occurring between 70 and 100% management effort. Average basin-wide infestation probabilities after 3 time-steps decreased approximately linearly. Differences in average infestation probabilities after 3 time-steps 10 time-steps across management scenarios suggest that management loses effectiveness the longer an organism is allowed to spread. Some ports within the Great Lakes basin, specifically in northern Lakes Michigan and Huron, did not show any appreciable reduction in infestation probabilities, suggesting additional scrutiny is required for AIS management in these areas. These simulations show that targeted management at central ports within the Great Lakes basin have the potential to dramatically reduce and slow AIS secondary spread through ballast water exchange.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Lucas Harris, Alan H. Taylor – Pennsylvania State University
ABSTRACT: Future change in dry forest systems is likely to be abrupt and nonlinear, with severe disturbancepotentially causing persistent changes in vegetation types. A gridded network of field plots spaced 90 m apart (n = 439) was surveyed at five sites at the lower-elevation forest ecotone on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, California, in areas burned between 2002 and 2008 to evaluate post-fire tree regeneration and to characterize the influence of local topography, water balance and vegetation on post-fire forest recovery. Each site encompassed the elevational range of Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) forest from shrub steppe and pinyon pine-dominated (Pinus monophylla) woodland at the downslope end to mixed-conifer forest at the upslope end, with areas of Cercocarpus ledifolius interspersed. Plots where all trees were killed by the fire and no seedlings or saplings were present were characterized by lower actual evapotranspiration, more southwesterly aspects, more gradual slopes, less leaf litter and lower shrub cover than in corresponding areas where tree regeneration was present. Statistical modeling of tree regeneration presence by individual tree species and for all species combined revealed that the relative influence of topography, water balance and vegetation on tree regeneration varied by species, but that high actual evapotranspiration and nearby (< 15 m away) live trees were common factors that were critical for regeneration of each species. These results suggest that variability in water balance and local climate generated by complex terrain and vegetation structure affect post-fire tree regeneration, and that forest loss is likely to occur in drier and sparsely vegetated portions of the sites.
AUTHORS: Benjamin Sullender*, Melanie Smith – Audubon Alaska
ABSTRACT: Alaska’s Arctic coastal plain and the nearshore waters of the Beaufort Sea are recognized for their internationally significant biological value. However, myriad stressors threaten components of this terrestrial-coastal-nearshore ecosystem, including increased oil and gas development, elevated vessel traffic, and a wide range of climate change-related impacts such as coastal erosion.We completed a spatially explicit analysis to prioritize biological areas in relation to relevant stressors. As part of this process, we integrated decades of cetacean, shorebird, waterfowl, terrestrial mammal, and other wildlife data at a regional scale. Core biological areas included caribou calving grounds, waterbird molting sites, and bowhead whale migration pathways. Stressor datasets included monthly vessel traffic densities, coastal erosion rates, oil and gas exploration well sites, and projected rate of permafrost degradation. For key taxa, we analyzed how wildlife distributions change over time, identifying particularly resilient areas that provide vital habitat across years. We used our aggregated results to assess expected impacts of stressors across terrestrial, coastal, and nearshore domains.Our combined spatial and temporal results highlight a number of key areas such as the waters surrounding the submarine Barrow Canyon, the Colville River Delta, and the tundra-thermokarst landscape around Teshekpuk Lake. Within key areas, vessel traffic and oil development arise as the most significant stressors. We recommend management actions such as designating Areas to Be Avoided and speed restrictions for ships, and energy leasing restrictions to mitigate negative impacts and conserve the ecological integrity of this region.
AUTHORS: Fangkai Zhao*, Lei Yang, Shoujuan Li, Long Sun, Liding Chen – Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences
ABSTRACT: Soils in peri-urban area are facing with increasing socio-economic and eco-environmental pressures under rapid urbanization. Especially, the extensive use of manures in peri-urban inevitably aggravates the ecological risks posed by antibiotics and metals in agricultural soils. Quantifying the effects of land use intensity on soil contamination and identifying the dominant contamination sources are essential for soil security and ecosystem services in peri-urban areas. In this study, the distribution of antibiotics and metal elements in soils of a typical peri-urban catchment of east China were investigated. The landscape development intensity (LDI) index was used to characterize the potential influence of landscape variance on soil antibiotic and metal pollution. Results showed the total antibiotic concentrations in farmland reached 395.6 µg/kg, and there were relatively lower concentrations of total antibiotics in soils from orchard and forest with maximum concentrations of 26.4 µg/kg and 3.7 µg/kg, respectively. Redundancy analysis showed that land use pattern in buffer zone of 300 m had an appropriate explanation on the variation of soil contamination by antibiotics and metals. Meanwhile, the LDI in 300 m buffers had a close correlation with concentrations of total antibiotics. This indicated soil contamination in peri-urban area was mainly determined by land use pattern and was correlated with intensive agricultural activities. Results of structural equation modeling showed that Al, Cu, Zn can aggravate the concentrations of tetracyclines in soils, while there were only significantly direct paths from Cu to ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin. According to the results of variation partitioning analysis, a total of 6.7% variance of tetracyclines and 8.7% variance of fluoroquinolones in soils could be explained by metal elements. In conclusion, the co-contamination of antibiotics and metals in peri-urban areas were influenced by complex land uses and intense human activities. Optimization the landscape pattern of peri-urban areas can improve the soil security.
AUTHORS: Spencer Wood*, University of Washington; Dale Blanha, US Forest Service; Dave Fisher, Stanford University; Sarah Lange, US Forest Service; Emmi Lia, University of Washington; Dave Redman, Mike Schlafmann, Alex Weinberg, Eric White – US Forest Service
ABSTRACT: In order to provide relevant recreation opportunities for a changing population, public land managers need to know who is visiting public lands, when, and why. Surveys, permits, and trail counters provide valuable data on visitors, but these traditional methods are costly to implement and limited in their spatial and temporal coverage. To overcome this issue, we employ the wealth of data that is openly available through social media websites to better understand recreation behavior, preferences, and values across landscapes. In this talk we show how locations of geolocated photographs, tweets, and mobile phone records can be paired with traditional visitor data to model recreational use in US National Forests and predict how visitors will respond to changes in the natural and built environments. We describe how our team of scientists and practitioners -- from a diversity of disciplines -- analyze and evaluate various data sources, and discuss the benefits (and downfalls) of social media as data for understanding, anticipating, and responding to trends in recreational use.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Elsa C. Anderson*, Emily S. Minor – University of Illinois at Chicago
ABSTRACT: Vacant lots make up a large percentage of land area in Rust Belt cities, and researchers have taken a keen interest in the ability of this space to provide ecosystem services and habitat for wildlife. In Chicago, there well over 10,000 vacant lots, concentrated predominantly in communities of color on the south and west sides. Over two field seasons, we assessed a sample of these lots to catalogue the plant and pollinator diversity and better understand the ecological patterns that arise in these undermanaged spaces. We assessed plant communities using a transect method in the summer of 2015 and followed up the next year by pan-trapping pollinators. Overall, we found 97 species of herbaceous plants and 18 species of trees >10 cm dbh. Twelve of these woody species were also recorded as seedlings. Trees in vacant lots are typically found in later stages of decay than street trees or trees in city parks. Vegetation in vacant lots is highly variable, but there is a uniquely positive relationship between species richness and Pileou’s evenness at the lot level. Vegetation patterns are furthermore driven by human activities such as mowing and maintaining turf, and these patterns likely influence the pollinators that can utilize a given site. In our pan-trapping study, we identified 41 morhpospecies of bees, most of which are abundant generalists. The high diversity found in Chicago’s vacant lots suggest their importance as sources of urban habitat and support the notion that land management could be tailored to better suit the needs of urban species.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Zach Vernon, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
ABSTRACT: Created in 2005, CMAP is the official regional planning organization for the northeastern Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will. The agency and its partners are in the process of developing ON TO 2050, a new comprehensive regional plan slated for adoption in October 2018. The plan will recommend a suite of actions to achieve sustainable prosperity for all of metropolitan Chicago. As part of the plan development process, CMAP has been exploring and refining policy recommendations in key areas, including strategies to address urban and riverine flooding.To help direct these recommendations, CMAP has developed a Stormwater and Flooding Strategy Paper, which will inform the related recommendations made in ON TO 2050. The paper presents strategies to reduce flooding impact throughout the region by integrating stormwater management into transportation and land use planning, alongside analysis of damages from past flooding events. To help direct these strategies, CMAP has developed urban and riverine flooding susceptibility indexes to identify priority areas across the region for flooding mitigation activities. GIS datasets representing flood susceptibility factors such as impervious cover, age of development, and combined sewers were used to construct the indexes, by assessing each factor’s influence using a GIS-based frequency ratio approach as implemented via a custom Python toolbox. The flood susceptibility indexes will help CMAP focus stormwater planning efforts within the region, and this presentation will discussion the background, inputs, analysis techniques, and results.
AUTHORS: Jimmy Andrianina Rakotovao*, Department of Water and Forest, School of Agronomy, University of Antananarivo; Martial Charpin, ECO Consult - Sepp und Busacker Partnerschaft; Arimino Aina Navale Ratovoson, Department of Water and Forest, School of Agronomy, University of Antananarivo; Joary Niaina Andriamiharimanana, PAGE GIZ Madagascar; Harifidy Rakoto Ratsimba, Department of Water and Forest, School of Agronomy, University of Antananarivo
ABSTRACT: Most countries have suffered forest loss or degradation over the last two decades. Opportunities for restoration exist on all continents and are huge in terms of area, although the estimate of their extent is rough. The Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration therefore asked a consortium of organizations led by the World Resources Institute to map the global opportunities for restoration using only worldwide scale available data. To this purpose an identification of priority restoration sites is fundamental at a much more local scale using local data sets. Therefore, this study introduces a Geographic Information System-based (GIS) methodology to identify forest landscape restoration (FLR) priorities in Madagascar and evaluate them with respect to a set of ecological and socioeconomic available and spatialized criteria using multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA). Those criteria were defined through consultations and workshops where many experts in the field were asked on how some criteria might contribute to the forest landscape restoration in the country. Once the criteria listed and the prioritization were well defined, two different multicriteria assessment approachs were adopted and compared for the FLR opportunity assessment: Weighted Liner Composition (WLC) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). 26 criteria were provided in total and grouped into three main objectives relating to water resource management, biodiversity conservation and soil protection. This research shows that the resulted map obtained from the two methods are significantly different as the weighting of the criteria are based on different process and have different scenario based models of landscape change. These simulations can be used as a guide for forest and ecological planners and designers in order to better cope with the environmental and socioeconomic challenges on forest landscape management.
AUTHORS: Whalen W. Dillon*, University of Florida; Brian F. Allan, University of Illinois; Michael C. Dietze, Boston University; S. Luke Flory, University of Florida
ABSTRACT: Ecological theory predicts that climate change will alter vector-borne disease risk through a variety of direct and indirect pathways, but the relative importance of various pathways is poorly understood for most systems. We are exploring several factors hypothesized to affect the risk of exposure to tick-borne diseases (TBDs) on Department of Defense (DoD) installations along a gradient of climatic conditions across the southeastern United States. Specifically, we are examining the effects of fire regimes and plant invasions on abundances of ticks and wildlife hosts, focusing on non-native cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) and the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanaum). Our overarching hypothesis is that fire and plant invasions are dominant factors directly and indirectly affecting exposure risk to TBDs on DoD installations in this region. In the first year of this multi-year study we visited six DoD installations, collecting data on forest structure, the plant community, and abundances of ticks and wildlife hosts at 29 plots primarily in pine-dominated landscapes varying from 0 to 11 years since the last prescribed fire. Cogongrass management efficacy on DoD installations limited the number of untreated invaded areas to eight plots, with six of these burned less than three years prior. Tick-host abundance was greater at 0-1 years than 2+ years, following fire. Tick abundance was greater in uninvaded plots, increasing with time since fire, litter cover, and over-story canopy cover. Climate effects based on the latitudinal gradient of installations weren’t detectable in our preliminary data set. Our initial results provide evidence suggesting that fire and forest vegetation and structure have significant effects on TBD risk as we predicted. Frequent prescribed fires are a typical management goal to maintain pine ecosystems, and we show the additional benefit of lowering TBD risk by reducing canopy and litter cover.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Spire Parlor
ABSTRACT: Every year in the contiguous United States (U.S.), on average 2.3-2.7 million hectares of wildlands were burned; and fire burned area also showed a strong increasing trend since about 1990. Wildland fires have profound ecosystem and social consequences. For instance, fire burning releases greenhouse gases and aerosols into the atmosphere; and frequently returning fires can also modify landscape and ecosystem functions. In particular, many of the fire impacts on wildland ecosystem functions are made through fire-altered vegetation spatial structure and species composition, such as potentially increased ecosystem vulnerability to the invasion of non-native species. Forests are significant biological components of the land system, which play a critical role in carbon cycles and provide numerous ecosystem services and products. An improved understanding of fire disturbance impacts on forest community structures is therefore important for forest management under consistent disturbances from fires and other agents.Investigations on post-fire forest succession and community structure changes are often of local scales with limited spatial coverage. Understanding of fire impacts on forest community structure and species composition over a broad geographical scale is still scarce. Here, we incorporated large data sets, including the U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data, MODIS derived the Global Fire Emission Database Version 4 (GFEDv4), and the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) database, to investigate how fire disturbances, including their severity, may have impacted forest community structure and species composition in the contiguous U.S. over recent years. Preliminary results suggested that fire disturbances had highly variable impacts on post-fire forest community species composition, seedling regeneration, and understory layer coverage of different forest types and geographical regions, which also depended on fire severities. Our results highlight the importance of long-term monitoring data of fire occurrence and forest dynamics for meeting forest management and research needs.
AUTHORS: Andrea Raya Rey*, Luciana Riccialdelli, Natalia Dellabianca, Sabrina Harris, Gabriela Scioscia, Natalia Paso Viola, Samanta Dodino, Analía San Martin, Nicolas Lois, Ulises Balza, Yamila Becker, Monica Torres – Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC-CONICET), Argentina
ABSTRACT: Seabirds and marine mammals are known to be important components of the seascape and for the economies of coastal cities mainly through tourism. A cornerstone of environmental policies and social-ecological systems management is to identify nature (species) intrinsic, instrumental and relational values. Seabirds and marine mammals´ intrinsic and instrumental values are at some point more identified while relational values, strongly tight to specific communities, had not received much attention. Environmental initiatives and individual community stewardship, though, would benefit if leveraging social relationships. In the present study we seek to identify instrumental, intrinsic and relational values for the seabird and marine mammals as integral part of the seascape of the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Seabird (15 species) and marine mammals (8 species) inhabit the Beagle Channel all of them of highly intrinsic value, species and genetic diversity and animal welfare. 19 out of 23 species very important for the seascape formation, biological control and waste breakdown and detoxification as important members of the food web with high abundance in the channel. Most of them are also a source of inspiration, physical, mental and emotional health. For the first human inhabitants they have a strong symbolic meaning, and are relevant for social cohesion and cultural identity. Such valuation will provide not only powerful arguments for marine wildlife conservation, but for management and governance strategies toward the maintenance of the social-ecological system around the Beagle Channel.
AUTHORS: Shoujuan Li*, Lei Yang, Liding Chen, Fangkai Zhao, Long Sun – Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
ABSTRACT: Rapid urbanization has significant influences on soil processes, especially for peri-urban areas. The complex land use pattern and intense human activities has significant influences on spatial distribution of heavy metals. Understanding the land use’s influence on spatial distribution of heavy metals in peri-urban soils is important for soil security and ecosystem services. In this study, a typical peri-urban catchment in east China was selected. Totally 3 transects along and perpendicular across the main river with 35 sampling sites were selected to identify the spatial distribution of heavy metals in peri-urban soils. The concentrations of Cu, Zn, Cd, Ni, As, Cr, Pb, and Hg in different soil depth were analyzed. The results the heavy metal concentration in soils were significant influenced by land use type. The farmland had the highest values and forestland had relatively lower values. The spatial variation of heavy metals showed that concentration of heavy metal rapidly increased when the town and village appeared. Spatial analysis showed the concentration of heavy metal increased with increasing percentage of town area in buffer zone. This indicated that land use structure determined the heavy metal concentrations in peri-urban soils, and the influence were correlated with scale and location of towns and villages. The concentration of Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and Hg in soils were correlated with the altitude, distance from river, distance from town and village, and clay content. Interestingly, results also showed that the heavy metal in forestland that human could arrive were higher than forestland with no human activities, and historic land use still had affection on the concentration of heavy metal in forestland.
AUTHORS: Ariel Firebaugh*, University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences; Dr. Kyle J. Haynes, University of Virginia Blandy Experimental Farm, Department of Environmental Sciences
ABSTRACT: Light pollution from artificial light at night is a symptom of urbanization whose ecological consequences are poorly understood. We sought to understand how light pollution affect insects, and the spatial scales over which these effects appear, using fireflies as a model system. Many firefly species are nocturnal and communicate with bioluminescent flashes during courtship prior to mating. Although laboratory and field experiments show light pollution impacts firefly flashing behavior, less is know about the consequences of light pollution for firefly populations. We evaluated effects of light pollution and urbanization using field surveys and citizen science data. In summer 2017, we surveyed firefly abundance, firefly species richness, light pollution, and vegetation characteristics at 45 sites across Virginia. Around these same sites, we conducted geospatial analysis of satellite imagery to calculate mean illuminance from light pollution (VIIRS DNB 2011) and urbanized land cover (NLCD Percent Developed Impervious Surface 2011) within 1 and 10 km radii. We found relatively local factors including illuminance from light pollution at the site impacted firefly abundance and species richness. We also compared our data with those from Firefly Watch, a large-scale citizen science project affiliated with the Boston Museum of Science. We combined firefly abundance and local light pollution observations reported by citizen scientists with geospatial analysis of light pollution and impervious surface surrounding each site. Light pollution and impervious surface within 1 km of each site were significant predictors of firefly abundance. Our work will help determine how citizen science data can be used to examine larger-scale ecological patterns. Additionally, identifying drivers of firefly abundances and richness could help to conserve these unique insects in a rapidly urbanizing world.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:30am - 11:45am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Paul H. Gobster, US Forest Service; William P. Stewart, Carena J. van Riper, Douglas A. Williams, Alessandro Rigolon – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT: A growing academic and planning literature has identified vacant lot restoration as an important area of opportunity to increase biodiversity and other ecosystem services. While ecological goals should be part of an overall strategy for urban revitalization, they must be integrated with the personal goals of residents who live in neighborhoods with high vacancy rates. We studied the perceptions and stewardship activities of residents who purchased city-owned vacant lots for $1 under the inaugural offering of the City of Chicago’s Large Lot Program using a mixed-methods approach that included systematic observation of environmental conditions via aerial and street-level photography, coupled with a mail survey and focus groups of lot owners. We found considerable evidence that greening was a primary component of vacant lot stewardship but little support for intentional activities to achieve ecological goals. Results point to an overall reduction in tree canopy with residents often removing trees off lots because they were seen as hazardous, overgrown, or in the wrong place. The few times lot owners mentioned wildlife was in negative contexts associated with overgrown vegetation that attracts unwanted rodents, raccoons and opossums. On the positive side, gardening was observed and reported as a desirable activity, and overall yard and turf management aimed for an aesthetic that emphasized vegetation that was neat, clean, beautiful and functional. Our findings suggest that biodiversity and ecological goals must be compatible with social preferences in order to be considered part of vacant lot stewardship. Vacant lot programs that integrate social and ecological factors could help create mutually beneficial new natures that depart from traditional, single-track solutions. Two mutually compatible strategies are suggested: (1) develop ecological goals for revitalization that embrace a range of residential preferences, and (2) develop educational outreach programs related to ecological goals and provide resources for their implementation.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:30am - 11:45am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Jia Wang *, Weiqi Zhou – State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
ABSTRACT: Rapid urbanization leads to the Urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon which affects ecological processes and human health. Previous studies largely investigate the dynamics of temperature in the urban areas, and focus on single city level based on the thermal remote sensing data or the long time series of meteorological data. However, few studies have revealed the real dynamics of land surface temperature (LST) due to its spatial heterogeneity from multiscale levels (city level, urban-rural gradient and hot spot zone). In this study, we presented a general framework for analysing the dynamics of urban thermal environment from a multiscale perspective in Beijing, using the annual average summer LST from 2000-2015 based on MODIS global LST 8-day data. We found that: 1) The average LST and UHII were increasing significantly from 2000-2015 in urban areas, but varied greatly in urban areas with different development degree. The increase rates of average LST and UHII in the new urban areas were higher than those in the old urban areas; 2) The rates of LST increased with the increase of distance from urban core; 3) Overall 3.41% of the study area had a significantly positive trend of LST with the rate of 0.19?/a, mainly distributed in Daxing, Tongzhou and Changping Districts. This study can enhance our understanding of urban thermal environment dynamics from different scales. The findings are considered important so as to promote sustainable urbanization, as well as provide important insights to UHI mitigation plans in Beijing.
AUTHORS: Deahn M. Donner, Mark Nelson - Northern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service; Christine A. Ribic, Daniel M. Wolcott - U.S. Geological Survey; Donald J. Brown, West Virginia University; Carol Bocetti, California University of Pennsylvania; Tim Greco, Michigan Department of Natural Resources
ABSTRACT: Conservation and recovery of the endangered Kirtland’s Warbler, a long-distance Neotropical-nearctic migratory songbird, requires knowledge on how changing environmental conditions can impact essential summer and wintering habitat. Shifting precipitation and temperature patterns in the Midwest may affect distribution and growth of jack pine, the species primary breeding habitat, while drying conditions and sea-level rise may threaten habitat quality and quantity within their Bahamian wintering grounds. We modeled jack pine occupancy and growth in relation to several environmental variables under current and future climate scenarios to determine if shifts in distribution and growth rate may occur. Our models projected that jack pine distribution across the Upper Midwest could decrease by up to 90% by 2099, and up to 50% of current Kirtland’s Warbler Management Areas could become unsuitable for jack pine. We also projected winter precipitation and temperature across the Bahamian archipelago and determined how much winter habitat (open lands) was susceptible to 1- and 2-m sea-level rise. Islands currently used by Kirtland’s Warbler are predicted to become warmer and wetter, except during March when the central islands are predicted to go through a drying trend that may influence food supply prior to migration. Greatest loss of open land was predicted for the northern, lower-elevation islands. From a conservation perspective, the central Bahamian islands, which currently contain the majority of the wintering population, will be critical islands on which to focus climate adaptation efforts. In the Great Lakes region, the potential loss and redistribution of jack pine habitat may require establishing additional habitat management areas or altering plantation rotations to ensure adequate breeding habitat to sustain recovery goals.
AUTHORS: Samantha Schwab*, Rutgers University; Chris Stone, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Dina Fonseca, Center for Vector Biology; Nina Fefferman, University of Tennessee Knoxville
ABSTRACT: Recent epidemics of mosquito-borne dengue and Zika viruses demonstrate the urgent need for effective measures to control these diseases. The best method currently available to prevent or reduce the size of outbreaks is to reduce the abundance of their mosquito vectors, but there is little consensus on which mechanisms of control are most effective, or when and where they should be implemented. Although the optimal methods are likely context-dependent, broadly applicable strategies for mosquito control, such as how to distribute limited resources across a landscape in times of high epidemic risk, can mitigate (re)-emerging outbreaks. We used mathematical simulations to examine how the spatial distribution of larval mosquito control affects the size of disease outbreaks, and how mosquito metapopulation dynamics and demography (ecological context) might impact the efficacy of different spatial distributions of control. We found that the birth rate and mechanism of density-dependent regulation of mosquito populations affected the average outbreak size across all control distributions, with a higher birth rate leading to smaller outbreaks in some circumstances. Ecological context also determined whether spatial control distributions favoring the interior or the edges of the landscape most effectively reduced human infections. Thus, control efforts that consider local mosquito population dynamics to determine how to distribute limited resources across space may reduce the size of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks more effectively than uninformed efforts.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:30am - 11:45am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Monica G. Turner*, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Brian J. Harvey, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington; Winslow D. Hansen, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kristin H. Braziunas, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Novel fire regimes have the potential to erode forest resilience (ability to tolerate disturbance without shifting to a new state) in fire-prone forest landscapes. In Greater Yellowstone (Wyoming, USA), lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) forests have been highly resilient to large, stand-replacing fires that historically burned at 100 to 300-yr intervals. However, fire-return intervals (FRI) are projected to decline substantially by mid-century as climate warms, increasing the likelihood that forests will re-burn prior to recovery from previous fire. Opportunities to study ecological effects of short-interval fires remain rare in any landscape, but the Yellowstone fires of 2016 included >18,000 ha of short-interval (70,000 stems/ha) to sparse (
AUTHORS: Scott G. Burman*, Jingya Gao, Dipak Ghosal, Gregory B. Pasternack – University of California, Davis
ABSTRACT: The lower Yuba River (LYR) is a regulated, gravel-bed river in Northern California. While relatively cold, the LYR converges with the warmer and larger Feather River. Recent work has found that juvenile salmonids are sensitive to temperature and are adapted to the temperatures in their home rivers. It stands to reason that the temperature regime of the LYR/Feather complex provides a unique opportunity to explore the adaptive potential of juvenile salmonids. To place this physiological adaptibility into an ecological context, we needed to understand the temperatures experienced by juveniles, which tend to avoid predation by staying in channel margins, away from the river centerline. These shallow margins have heterogeneous temperature profiles thanks to low water velocities, hyporheic flows, and variable shading. In addressing the suite of ecological conditions experienced by juveniles along a 3 km segment, we sought to measure temperatures across the channel and in backwater refugia. Sampling the diversity of flows and across the seasons that the river experiences required continuous sensing over multiple years. Yet, to capture the full diel fluctuation at each point, hourly sampling was needed. As the LYR is prone to floods, which can destroy sensors, data needed to be transmitted in real-time. For this, we developed a novel, expandable wireless network, which has multi-year battery-life while sampling water temperature at many locations multiple times per hour, and relaying data in near real-time to a remote server. We then generalized this networking technology to be robust to nearly any sensed data. From this highly resolved data, we observed unexpected temperature variability through both space and time. Some sensors in margins experienced considerably greater diel variability than previously documented. Over small cross-channel distances, we also found greater temperature variability than observed over many kilometers, longitudinally. This highlights the complex and anisotropic system that juveniles traverse.
AUTHORS: Andrew Strassman*, Kevin Hop – U.S. Geological Survey; Mark Hall, Shannon Menard, Ery Largay – NatureServe; Stephanie Sattler, Erin Hoy, Janis Ruhser, Enrika Hlavacek, Jennifer Dieck – U.S. Geological Survey
ABSTRACT: The integration of divergent datasets collected for differing purposes using differing methods poses unique challenges in vegetation mapping. Complicating this matter for the Appalachian National Scenic Trail is the 11 degrees of latitude and 15 degrees of longitude as it traverses the ecology of the eastern United States from Georgia to Maine. We will review how data and imagery sets collected over a decade were integrated into a consistent dataset to produce a seamless, U.S. National Vegetation Classification vegetation map for the 3,525-kilometer long footpath.
AUTHORS: Matt Unitis*, Jodi Brandt – Boise State University
ABSTRACT: Great Lakes coastal wetlands have an ecological importance disproportionate to their size, yet are extremely vulnerable to invasion by introduced plants. Plant invasions can be effectively controlled in early stages of invasion, but early detection of invasive wetland plants using traditional ground survey methods is time-prohibitive, and remote detection is challenging because of the heterogeneity of plant composition during early stages of invasion. New satellite data sources and analysis techniques offer promise for wetland and invasive plant remote sensing, and in this study we used Sentinel-1 C-band SAR from three different dates with RapidEye multispectral optical imagery to detect phenological and spectral differences between wetland plant communities in the Great Lakes. Of particular interest was detecting hybrid cattail (Typha x. glauca), which imperils the high quality coastal wetlands of the St. Mary’s River. We compared wetland classifications using Randomforest and Maximum Likelihood algorithms, and subsequently determined the best Randomforest model using various data combinations of optical and radar inputs. Both techniques produced classifications of similar accuracy (Random Forest achieved a 94.0% average overall accuracy and Maximum Likehood achieved 90.1% overall accuracy). The best-performing classification was a Randomforest model with multi-temporal SAR and optical bands as input variables, achieving a 97.4% producer’s accuracy for hybrid cattail. Randomforest variable importance demonstrated that the Near Infrared band of RapidEye and the August 22nd SAR were the two most important variables to discriminate between wetland plant communities. Our results indicate that by combining moderate resolution SAR and optical datasets, we can map detailed wetland communities at a scale and resolution to guide early detection and management of wetland plant invasions. Furthermore, our methods can be used for repeat monitoring of hybrid cattail, and are likely adaptable for remote monitoring in other wetland environments due to our exclusive use of spaceborne platforms with global coverage.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:45am - 12:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Brian Buma*, University of Alaska; Sarah Bisbing, University of Nevada Reno; John Krapek, University of Alaska Southeast; Greg Wiles, Wooster College; Allison Bidlack, Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center; Glenn Wright, University of Alaska Southeast
ABSTRACT: Understanding the drivers and patterns of primary and secondary succession are among the oldest questions in ecology, and integral to the study of landscape change, modeling, and ecosystem response to climate change. These processes are often examined via chronosequences, which carry the assumption that space can, in fact, be substituted for time. This assumption is rarely checked due to a lack of long-term data. In this study, we expanded the longest running primary succession study in the world (the William S. Cooper plots in Glacier Bay, Alaska, now running for 101 years) to examine successional trajectories and the role of spatial factors and stochasticity in community composition from both a regional and local perspective. After approximately 140 years since initiation, the ecological communities and dominant cover types better reflect variation in early (1916-1935) community composition rather than plot age. General cover type and richness appears to be primarily driven by location rather than time, and significant spatial structuring at the plot scale reflect exclusion of potential “later” successional species. The current communities appear stable, reflecting multiple generations and little to no establishment of other canopy species, despite available seed and ample time. At the plot scale, variation in species is related to stochastic establishment in the early landscape. Soil development, carbon, and nitrogen stocks are spatially consistent, with little spatial structure. These results indicate that space and stochastic effects early in a plot's history shape community composition for at least 140 years, and that alternate, apparently stable regimes can persist for long-periods of time in the early successional environment driven by stochastic establishment and spatial constraints.
Pre-registration and fee required. Sign up early, space is limited! Cost per person: $43; includes admission fees and guided narration
Hosted by: Amelie Davis
Chicago is known for world-class architecture and the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) River Cruise is “one of the top ten tours in the U.S.” (TripAdvisor). CAF-certified volunteer tour guides will interpret more than 50 buildings along the Chicago River. You’ll find out how Chicago grew from a small settlement into one of the world’s largest cities in less than 100 years. On this tour, you will get the real story on Chicago architecture and its history. A full-service bar and snack bar are available onboard (at own expense).
We’ll depart The Palmer House Hotel for a short (0.8 mile) walk to the boat dock. Tour departs rain or shine, and the boat ride is 90 minutes long. Please plan attire accordingly (although note that the boat does have an indoor space with viewing windows and seating in case of inclement weather. After the boat ride you are free to explore the city and walk back to the hotel on your own, or follow your fearless leader back to the hotel. This field trip is a great opportunity to network and chat with US-IALE colleagues while learning about Chicago architecture!
Pre-registration and fee required. Sign up early, space is limited! Cost per person: $43; includes transportation, admission fee, guided tour (Space is limited to 22 people and is now at capacity)
Hosted by: Field Museum Researchers
The Field Museum of Natural History is one of the largest natural history museums in the world. It was founded in 1893 as the Columbian Museum of Chicago and includes 35 diverse, high-quality, permanent exhibits. More than 140 Field Museum researchers are conducting leading-edge research in its labs and around the globe. On this tour, participants will have a behind-the-scenes look at three different research collections (including fishes, birds, and insects). Additionally, participants will hear about the integrated social-ecological approach to urban conservation taken by researchers in the Keller Science Action Center
After the tour you’ll have some free time to visit the museum on your own before departure back to the hotel.
{pre-registration and additional fee required - $50 professional; $0 student}
Organizer: Justyna Jeziorska, Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University
Overview: Did you know that you can use the pictures taken by the drone’s camera and process them to get high-resolution spatial data? Now you can learn how to do that! This workshop will focus on the hands-on guidance in Unmanned Aerial Systems imagery processing using Agisoft Photoscan. It will include everything from the data collection (sample UAS data will be provided) to generating results – DSM, orthophoto, point cloud and 3D model of the earth’s surface. Additionally, the participants will be instructed what to do to operate a drone and collect data legally in the U.S. With the increasing demand for the high spatial and temporal resolution data, drones are a cheap alternative for data collection. The knowledge how to process the RGB imagery to produce reliable and accurate models becomes an invaluable skill for anyone who works with spatial data.
Intended Audience: students and professionals, or just a drone enthusiast!
This workshop is BYOD: bring your own device
Tuesday April 10, 2018 1:00pm - 5:00pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
{pre-registration and additional fee required - $50 professional; $0 student}
Organizers: Jianguo Liu, Francesco Tonini, Paul McCord, Min Gon Chung – Center for System Integrations and Sustainability, Michigan State University, USA
Overview: Landscapes across the world are increasingly interconnected, both ecologically and socioeconomically. To understand and manage such complex interconnections, a relatively new integrated framework of telecoupling is proposed (http://www.telecoupling.org). Telecouplings are socioeconomic and ecological interactions between multiple coupled human and natural systems (e.g., landscapes) over distances. They occur during trade, water transfer, payment for ecosystem services, foreign investment, migration, and tourism. They also emerge when information flows, organisms disperse, species invade, and diseases spread. The award-winning framework of telecoupling emphasizes reciprocal cross-scale and cross-border interactions (e.g., feedbacks). Telecouplings have profound implications for landscape sustainability as they can transform landscape structure, function, pattern, process, and dynamics. They pose new global challenges and offer exciting new opportunities for the landscape ecology community. In this workshop, we will introduce the telecoupling framework, present applications of the framework, and conduct hands-on exercises with the new Telecoupling GeoApp, a cloud-based application with a large collection of mapping and analysis tools to systematically study. Workshop participants will have an opportunity to apply the framework and web tools to their socio-environmental issues of interest.
Intended Audience: The target audience encompasses attendees at any career stage (e.g. students, postdoctoral scholars, professors, resource managers) and with a variety of interests, such as landscape change, climate change, natural resource policy and governance, biodiversity, ecology, and landscape patterns (e.g. connectivity) and processes (e.g. disturbance, dispersal, migration).
{pre-registration and additional fee required - $50 professional; $0 student}
Organizers: Bruce Roll, Ph.D., Director of Watershed Management for Clean Water Services (CWS) and the nonprofit Clean Water Institute (CWI) in Hillsboro, Oregon; Dr. Robert Emanuel, Water Resources Project Manager, Clean Water Services; Derek Godwin, Oregon State University, Extension Watershed Management faculty; Dr. Rebecca McLain, Research Assistant Professor, Institute for Sustainable Solutions, Portland State University
Overview: The Tualatin River Watershed in northwestern Oregon is home to one of the USA’s largest and most successful landscape conservation programs. Since 2005 this program called “Tree for All” (www.jointreeforall.org) has restored more than 120 river miles across more than 25,000 acres in the rural and urban landscapes of the watershed. Creating a landscape conservation program capable of acting on a watershed scale has been an interesting journey, and it becomes particularly inspiring when we consider the stressors of interesting weather events and rapid urbanization as well as the scale of action needed to create a resilient and healthy watershed. Looking back on this journey, we have identified the attributes that have guided Tree for All’s success, with the hope that they may help guide similar efforts (https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2017/08/27/tree-journey-rethinking-urban-growth-landscape-scale/). This workshop will provide participants with an opportunity learn about this program and the issues to consider when moving from pilot projects to a full scale landscape conservation program. This is an interactive workshop that will provide participants with examples and the technical and social considerations that help support the development of a landscape conservation program.
Intended Audience: Practitioners of landscape conservation programs, academic institutions, government agencies, social scientists. This workshop would be applicable to students as well.
{pre-registration and additional fee required - $50 professional; $0 student}
Organizers: Kunwar K. Singh, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; Sheila Saia, Center for Integrated Forest Science, United States Forest Service Southern Research Station, Raleigh, NC
Overview: Changes in land use and climate affect ecosystem sustainability by altering the availability of essential resources. Ecohydrological models can quantify the effect of these changes on hydrological and ecological processes. However, integrating various key ecohydrological model components is often difficult for many interdisciplinary students and researchers. This workshop will provide students and researchers with skills to efficiently integrate spatial, weather, and hydrology data for building an ecohydrological model using the open-access software programs QGIS and R. This half-day workshop is targeted at ecohydrological modeling beginners. We will introduce basic concepts of organizing data, knowledge of data inputs, and uses of necessary software interfaces. Participants will gain hands-on experience building, calibrating, validating, and visualizing ecohydrological model outcomes in QGIS and R. We will also leave time to discuss and provide hands-on support for potential and current model set up, calibration, and validation issues. Participants will bring their own personal laptops and will be alerted prior to the workshop via email of specific software requirements required for participation in the workshop.
Intended Audience: Graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers
This workshop is BYOD: bring your own *WINDOWS* device
{pre-registration and additional fee required - $50 professional; $0 student}
Organizer: Peter VOGT, European Commission
Overview: The adequate monitoring and assessment of landscape fragmentation is of high importance for the design and evaluation of ecological programs and landscape management in general. Fragmentation is often reported as a purely descriptive measure, conducted for a given species and accounting for species-specific habitat requirements. However, a given landscape will exhibit a different degree of fragmentation depending on the species under study and its operational scale. The scope of this workshop is to illustrate a methodology providing a generic measure of fragmentation, summarizing a multitude of patch attributes over a series of observation scales. The same approach is used to localize and quantify dominant land cover classes. The multi-scale fragmentation analysis provides spatially explicit maps and summary statistics showing fragmentation in six categories: intact, interior, dominant, transitional, patchy and rare. A dedicated fragmentation change analysis scheme shows gross gain and loss, net change and delivers details on the transition of fragmentation classes over time. The workshop will provide a feature overview and outline the added value of the multi-scale analysis scheme. Workshop participants will conduct hands-on exercises on provided sample data sets to learn using the software and discuss the various processing options within the free software GuidosToolbox.
Intended Audience: students/professionals, landscape ecologists, landscape planners, digital data analysts
Professionals can purchase drink tickets for random distribution to students at the social. To redeem their ticket, students must find who purchased the ticket and introduce themselves.
Tuesday April 10, 2018 6:00pm - 7:30pm CDT
Mezzanine
Master of Ceremonies: Ross Meentemeyer, President, US-IALE, College of Natural Resources and Director, CEnter for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University
Awards Presentation: US-IALE Best Student Presentation Award, Distinguished Service, Distinguished Landscape Practitioner, Distinguished Landscape Ecologist, Outstanding Paper, Certificates of Appreciation for Outgoing Officers, NASA-MSU Awards, US-IALE Student Travel and Foreign Scholar Travel Awards
Guest Speaker: Thirty Years of Landscape Ecology (1987-2017): Retrospects and Prospects - Jianguo (Jingle) Wu, School of Life Sciences and School of Sustainability, Arizona State University During the past 30 years, the journal, Landscape Ecology, has grown rapidly from a tiny new journal with fewer than 20 articles per year at the beginning to a major research journal producing more than 160 articles per year. During the same time period, the field of landscape ecology has also developed tremendously from a newly revitalized conflation of ecology and geography to a fully-fledged interdisciplinary scientific enterprise that cuts across a wide range of natural and social sciences. Here I examine how the journal has grown during the 30 years, with numbers and personal reflections. No, numbers cannot account for everything, but they do help us make better sense of changing patterns. In addition, I will discuss several research priorities for further advancing landscape ecology and landscape sustainability science in the coming decades.
PLENARY PRESENTATION: A ‘How To’ Guide for Researchers Engaging in Landscape Change - Dr. Lisa Schulte Moore, Iowa State University
To be an ecologist in this age is to live in “a world of wounds:” our Earth has been widely trampled by people and threats to the things we love far outnumber causes for celebration. While some choose to harden their shells to the reality of environmental degradation, many more of us are engaged in efforts to preserve, conserve, and restore what we can. Here I present my story of engaging in with farmers, rural communities, businesses, and government to preserve biodiversity, conserve soil, and restore ecological function to agricultural landscapes in Iowa, a leading agricultural state with disproportionate influence on US farm bill legislation. I argue that the agricultural sector is a particularly important one for ecologists to engage because, worldwide, it has been responsible for more habitat conversion, water pollution, and global warming potential than any other segment of the economy, and the demand for food and other agricultural products is unlikely to subside. I furthermore argue that the concepts, knowledge, and tools of landscape ecologists are highly relevant to agriculture, but require expansion to more fully include the social in addition to the natural sciences to make more widespread progress toward achieving environmental outcomes. I share examples of how my research teams have done so to great effect in Iowa, and suggest lessons that may be more broadly applicable to landscape change efforts elsewhere.
Dr. Schulte Moore is a professor in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University. Her research is concentrated in human-landscape interactions in forested and agricultural landscapes, most recently on the ecological and social benefits of integrating... Read More →
Wednesday April 11, 2018 8:15am - 9:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Abigail Derby Lewis*, Mark Bouman, Erika Hasle, Mark Johnston, Marc Lambruschi, Doug Stotz, Lex Winter – The Field Museum; Craig Czarnecki, Kelley Meyers – U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
ABSTRACT: Monarch butterfly habitat—including milkweed host plants and nectar food sources—has declined drastically throughout most of the United States. Observed overwinter population levels have also exhibited a long-term downward trend that suggests a strong relationship between habitat loss and monarch population declines. Results from a U.S. Geological Survey led research effort indicate that we will need a conservation approach that includes all land types to stabilize monarch populations at levels necessary to adequately minimize extinction risk—and urban areas will likely play an important role. The Urban Monarch Conservation Design reflects a coordinated and strategic approach to help identify the best places and practices to put pollinator habitat on the ground at the local scale. A resulting product of this work is the Urban Monarch Conservation Guidebook planning tool (www.fieldmuseum.org/monarchs), which reflects an integrated social, ecological and geospatial approach to prioritizing monarch conservation efforts in metropolitan areas. We will share results from the four cities where the project has been piloted, and discuss how the tools and products can be applied and scaled to other municipalities across the United States.
ABSTRACT: The United States Department of Agriculture has established a Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network to provide a coordinated framework to, “Enable understanding and forecasting of regional landscape capacities to provide agricultural commodities and ecosystem services under changing conditions.” Each of the eighteen sites has an existing history of agroecological research, and is incorporating common objectives and common measurements into their studies of current and aspirational agricultural systems. The LTAR sites comprise cropland, rangeland, pasture, and both irrigated and rain-fed systems. These research sites collectively span the United States’ major agricultural areas, and produce our most important agricultural commodities, including: corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, vegetables; and on the livestock side, beef, dairy, swine, poultry and sheep. Ecologically, the current sites lie within most major ecoregions, and additional sites are planned. The agricultural systems now in place are the joint products of climate, soils, history, and infrastructure; long-term and broad-scale research is needed to better understand the current drivers, and to develop practices that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Geoffrey M. Henebry*, South Dakota State University
ABSTRACT: In our current era of abundant medium spatial resolution (10m-60m) multispectral data, it is a good time to take stock of change analysis techniques that are well suited to temporally dense subannual data. Here I review some helpful concepts about change analysis and theory about the seasonal development of spatial pattern. I pull examples of spatial-temporal change detection from earlier literature as well as provide a worked example of comparative landscape dynamics using USGS’s new Landsat Analysis Ready Data (ARD).
AUTHORS: Janet Silbernagel*, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Cranes and other waterbirds, some of our most iconic species of concern, often have specialized roosting and foraging habitat requirements related to dynamics of water depth, food availability, and local aquacultural practices, which present unique challenges to map and model. These presentations feature studies that capture the spatial dynamics of waterbird habitat for conservation. We will hear of studies in the US and Asia that involve mapping wetland habitats and change, modeling hydrological alterations, surveying local fishers, and engaging Earthwatch volunteers in crane habitat sampling. To begin, I present an example of waterbird habitat modeling through our work at Caohai Lake in southwestern China to examine habitat changes on black-necked crane habitat. Our study quantified available roosting and foraging habitat for cranes, land cover changes between 2007 and 2017, and the possible impact of a lake level increase. This research shows the importance of continued monitoring of landscape transformation and its effects on vulnerable species such as the black-necked crane. We also predict that a lake level increase would have detrimental impacts on crane habitat at Caohai, an important finding for conservation decision-making. Following the Caohai example, I will introduce the remaining speakers and talks, providing a brief context for the organization of this symposium.
AUTHORS: Kevin M. Potter, North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: The need to conserve forests and their constituent tree species is acute, widespread, and increasingly urgent, so prioritizing species and forests for conservation is an essential management goal. Two factors highly useful for informing conservation efforts at broad scales are the geographic rarity of species, as a general proxy for extinction risk, and their evolutionary distinctiveness (ED), an indicator of their potential to possess rare traits and provide unusual ecosystem services. In this analysis, Rarity and ED scores were calculated for 352 North American forest tree species. Because geographic rarity encompasses multiple facets that vary across scales and are associated with different extinction processes, the Rarity score incorporated national area of distribution as a broad-scale indicator of rarity, national rarity of occurrence as a medium-scale indicator of habitat specificity, and local rarity as a fine-scale indicator of species density. ED was determined based on each species’ location on a phylogenetic supertree of North American forest tree species constructed based on a review of 189 molecular systematics and paleobotanical studies. The Rarity and ED scores were used to weight species importance values on 133,000 Forest Inventory and Analysis plots across the conterminous United States. The resulting plot-level estimates of rarity and ED were employed to identify geographic hotspots of forests with high conservation value, and to assess whether forests with protected status effectively conserve rarity and ED. Rarity hotspots were detected in California, the Southwest, central Texas, and Florida. Hotspots of ED included locations along the Pacific Coast, in the Northern Rockies, and in scattered eastern locations. Protected forest areas effectively conserve ED, but not rarity. Rarity was lowest in areas with the highest protection, and highest in areas with no protected status. This spatially explicit assessment approach can guide which forests to target for monitoring efforts and pro-active management activities.
AUTHORS: Jalene M. LaMontagne*, DePaul University; Ian S Pearse, U.S. Geological Survey; David F. Greene, Humboldt State University; Walter D. Koenig, Cornell University
ABSTRACT: Mast seeding, the intermittent and synchronized production of large seed crops by a population of perennial plants, both has implications for forest regeneration and acts as a food source for a variety of species. Temporal variability and widespread spatial synchrony are two predominant characteristics of mast seeding. Mast seeding studies typically cover local areas and short time periods, which has limited our ability to examine widespread patterns of mast seeding across the landscape. Furthermore, cues for mast seeding in many species include temperature and precipitation, therefore climate change could impact mast seeding patterns. We focus on white spruce, a widespread, dominant species in the North American boreal forest, and asked the questions: 1. What are the spatial patterns of synchrony in both white spruce reproduction? 2. Is mast seeding becoming more variable over time? 3. Is the frequency of high reproduction (mast years) changing over time, and how synchronized are mast years across the boreal forest landscape? We compiled 95 white spruce mast seeding datasets at locations across the boreal forest, spanning 1985-2014. Reproductive synchrony was significantly positive across locations <1,000 km apart. The strength of mast seeding varied temporally and spatially, and while mast years have become more common over time, their prevalence varied among regions. Synchrony in mast years varied spatially in an East-West pattern with mast years in Eastern Canada not coinciding with mast years at sites in the northwestern boreal forest. Variation in the synchrony of mast seeding may impact mobile species of seed predators, for instance, boreal seed eating birds. Furthermore, the spatial extent of weather patterns, and regional intensity of climate change likely influence spatial and temporal mast seeding patterns.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Sarah Bisbing*, Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences, University of Nevada -Reno; Brian Buma, Department of Natural Sciences, University of Alaska-Southeast; Lauren Oakes, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment & Resources, Stanford University; John Krapek, Department of Natural Sciences, University of Alaska-Southeast; Allison Bidlack, Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center, University of Alaska-Southeast; Matthew Brousil, Department of Entomology, Washington State University
ABSTRACT: Climate change is altering the conditions for tree recruitment, growth, and survival, and range shifts are widely anticipated under novel temperature and precipitation regimes. Local adaptation to historical climate will leave species maladapted to ongoing and predicted changes in climate, and these mismatches are likely to be most extreme for seedlings, which have a narrower range of tolerance than mature individuals. The shifting climatological niche of mature trees and the regeneration niche relevant to recovery may lead to life-history mismatches. These mismatches may lead to significant changes in forest composition wherever climate change results in increased mortality. In a well-studied case, the decline of yellow cedar (Calliptropsis nootkatensis) across southeast Alaska and British Columbia has been linked to declining snow coverage and resultant root freezing. Little is known about regeneration dynamics across the area of decline nor on climatic drivers of mortality across varying spatial scales. To address these knowledge gaps, we sampled plots over a 5 degree latitude range to ask: 1) What climatic and community factors are associated with mortality and regeneration at fine scales?, 2) Does seedling community composition correlate with patterns of mortality?, and 3) Is forest composition stable, or in the process of a decline-induced shift? Mortality in mature individuals was closely tied to climate and slope, with proportion dead higher in areas with higher winter precipitation and higher temperatures. Regeneration was related to overstory health, and areas of high decline had the lowest abundances of yellow cedar regeneration. In these areas, yellow cedar regeneration was replaced by hemlock (Tsuga spp.), and seedling community composition was best explained by winter temperatures, slope, and regional climate. Our results also suggest that yellow cedar forests are experiencing a decline-induced shift in community composition, which is likely to lead to a directional shift from yellow cedar to hemlock dominance.
AUTHORS: Noé U. de la Sancha, Department of Biological Science, Chicago State University; Nancy E. McIntyre, Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University; Sarah A. Boyle, Department of Biology, Rhodes College
ABSTRACT: Loss of habitat has been identified as one of the main contributors to biodiversity loss and extinction. This is especially true for tropical and subtropical rainforests throughout the world, where forest fragmentation is compromising connectivity in formerly continuous habitats. The Atlantic Forest of eastern Paraguay has experienced extreme deforestation in the past 60 years, resulting in only 8-12% of its original forest cover. In this study, we present a network analysis to identify important forest remnant patches in eastern Paraguay. We quantified structural connectivity for forest remnants at five nested scales, with networks ranging from those remnants at least 5 ha (n = 27,804 remnants) up to remnants at least 25 ha (n = 7579 remnants). We used eight graph theory metrics to assess aspects of network complexity, dispersal-route efficiency, and individual remnant importance in supporting connectivity. Patterns of connectivity varied based on the network, but all analyses revealed that the Atlantic Forest remnants of eastern Paraguay comprise a complex network with high path redundancy. Furthermore, we found that connectivity was constrained for organisms incapable of traveling at least 12 km (farthest nearest-neighbor distance). We were able to identify a few remnants that were consistently recovered as valuable connectivity stepping-stones. We conclude that structural connectivity metrics can be examined at the regional scale to identify important forest remnants for conservation.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Hancock Parlor
ABSTRACT: In this presentation, I discuss how social scientific methods have been employed to shed light on the role of cities in monarch butterfly recovery efforts along the monarch's migration path in the American Midwest. Researchers from The Field Museum in Chicago and organizations in partner cities conducted interviews and surveys to understand the motivations, challenges, and strategies of those creating monarch habitat. Their findings were then integrated with geospatial and ecological data to create an urban monarch conservation model to help others set priorities and goals for future monarch recovery efforts, presented in the Urban Monarch Conservation Guidebook, published spring 2017. I discuss our results with a focus on the ways attitudes, concerns, needs, and interests vary across land use types in the urban context, and the ways in which monarch conservation actions can be integrated with community interests to develop strategies that benefit both people and pollinators. I conclude with a discussion of the engagement strategies we are currently exploring, as well as remaining questions and future directions for social scientists working on monarch conservation. key words: social science, urban, wildlife conservation
AUTHORS: Lindsey Yasarer, Jason Taylor, JR Rigby, Martin Locke – USDA Agricultural Research Service
ABSTRACT: The Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB) is one of 18 sites being studied as part of the United States Department of Agriculture Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network. The LMRB extends from Cairo, Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico and approximately 40% of the land area is cultivated. This rich agricultural landscape accounts for two-thirds of the total rice acreage and one-fourth of the cotton acreage in the United States. High agricultural production is sustained in part with groundwater irrigation from the Mississippi Alluvial Aquifer. Decreases in groundwater levels have been documented in the region as a result of increased row crop irrigation. Consequently, surficial hydrology has also been affected. This study utilizes a landscape-level approach to understand the relationships between land-use and management patterns throughout space and time, and long-term trends in surface hydrology records in both agricultural and non-agricultural watersheds. Preliminary results indicate that hydrologic patterns in surface water systems have been altered with decreasing trends in baseflow and increasing trends in extreme low flow. Simultaneously, agricultural census records indicate an increasing trend in irrigated cropland acreage and crop yield in agricultural watersheds. Through systems analysis of agronomic, hydrologic, and climatic data at the regional and watershed scales we can tease out patterns and understand drivers of landscape-wide change.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Lan H. Nguyen, Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence, South Dakota State University; Geoffrey M. Henebry, Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence and Department of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University
ABSTRACT: Despite its low population, the Northern Great Plains (NGP) region of the United States of America has been undergoing substantial land cover/land use change (LCLUC) over the past two decades, including conversion of grassland to cropland, urbanization, fossil fuel mining, and expansion of irrigation. Better detection of rapid land change is critical for management and conservation of diminishing prairie habitats and ecosystem services and for projecting crop and biofuels production and their impacts on rural transportation infrastructure. Most change detection strategies that have been commonly used in remote sensing studies were developed in an era of image scarcity and limited computation power, and thus focus on comparing just a few scenes. In the current era of abundant earth observations, the better approach takes advantage of all available data. Here, we demonstrate an approach to detect LCLUC using land surface phenology. Our study area spans multiple regions of interest across the NGP where land use transitions have been documented: near ethanol bio-refineries, major towns and cities, and fossil fuel mining sites. First, we compute accumulated growing degree-days (AGDD) from MODIS 8-day land surface temperature. Using EVI derived from Landsat surface reflectance, we then fit at each pixel a downward convex quadratic model to each year’s progression of AGDD (EVI = a+ß×AGDD-?×AGDD2). We then use information from the fitted model as input to two different classification techniques, e.g., linear mixture analysis (LMA) and random forest classifiers (RFC), to generate a land use/land cover map of the study area. We use the USDA Cropland Data Layer (CDL) as a reference for LMA (choose endmembers) and RFC (select training and validation dataset), while acknowledging the CDL’s limitations. By tracking the proportions (LMA output) or land cover map (RFC output) over the 2001-2011 period, we characterize and quantify various land change transitions across the NGP.
AUTHORS: Benjamin Sullender*, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Audubon Alaska; Jeb Barzen, International Crane Foundation and Private Lands Conservation LLC; Janet Silbernagel, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Seasonal inundation drives productivity in flood pulse ecosystems such as Poyang Lake. Summer hydrological connectivity promotes biological productivity, but the time-lags between productivity and habitat use by migratory wildlife make it difficult to assess the role of flooding solely through within-season observations. Especially as human-caused alterations threaten Poyang Lake’s natural flow regimes, it is essential to identify the ecological importance of flooding. We used a series of scan and focal sampling techniques coupled with spatial analysis of long-term observation datasets to define suitable habitat for Eurasian Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia) and determine inter-annual relationships between hydrology and habitat use. We developed a metric of summer connectivity using satellite imagery and field measurements to estimate the number of days in which summer overbank flow connected adjacent sub-lakes. We next constructed a series of regression models comparing habitat use across years with different levels of connectivity. Our results indicate clear foraging preferences, particularly in years with normal connectivity. In years with below-average and above-average summer connectivity, the relationship between spoonbill abundance and habitat extent becomes uncoupled. These results suggest that seasonal flood pulses have an important role in structuring Eurasian Spoonbill foraging habitat, and the duration of summer connectivity alters foraging conditions in the following winter.
AUTHORS: Chia Hsieh*, Mao-Ning Tuanmu – Academia Sinica
ABSTRACT: Human-induced environmental changes, including land use/cover change and climate change, are affecting biodiversity patterns at different temporal and spatial scales. Since environmental heterogeneity has long been recognized as a key landscape characteristic with strong relevance for biodiversity and its functions, changes in the heterogeneity may have profound impacts on the variation in species compositions among communities across space, i.e. beta-diversity. To understand how the heterogeneity in land cover and climates affect beta-diversity patterns of breeding birds across spatial scales in Taiwan, we measured the beta-diversity of ~200 bird communities based on Taiwan Breeding Bird Survey data collected from 2009-2015. We calculated the Sorensen index as a measure of overall beta-diversity for each community and split it into two components: turnover and nestedness. We then investigated the associations between the three measures of beta-diversity and environmental heterogeneity at three spatial scales. Results showed that the landcover and climatic heterogeneity generally had positive effects on the bird community dissimilarity. Although the beta-diversity was mostly contributed by turnover, the nontrivial contribution of nestedness suggested another pathway affecting breeding bird community dissimilarity in Taiwan. With increasing spatial scales, the climates had increasing effects on overall beta-diversity and turnover, while the land cover had increasing effects on nestedness. This study improves our understanding of the patterns and potential drivers of beta-diversity of birds across spatial scales. It also implies that continued changes in land use/cover and potential future changes in the climates, resulting in homogenization in the environment and climates, may lead to biotic homogenization in bird communities in Taiwan.
AUTHORS: Elizabeth A. LaRue, Purdue University; Jeff Atkins, Virginia Commonwealth University; Kyla Dahlin, Michigan State University; Robert Fahey, University of Connecticut; Songlin Fei, Purdue University; Chris Gough, Virginia Commonwealth University; Brady S. Hardiman, Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Forest canopy structure is closely coupled with ecosystem function, but traditional measures of horizontal canopy structure, such as leaf area index (LAI), do not fully explain light use efficiency and net primary production within forest ecosystems. Canopy structural complexity, which characterizes the cover and vegetation distribution within a canopy, together with LAI, may explain variation in forest ecosystem function more completely than LAI alone. Canopy structural complexity, is most effectively measured with below-canopy, upward-viewing terrestrial LIDAR, and thus has been restricted to small sub-hectare spatial scales. This limits quantification and understanding of canopy structural complexity at larger spatial scales important for inferring ecosystem functioning. Here, we examined associations between terrestrial LIDAR measurements of canopy structural complexity and Landsat spectral indices to evaluate the feasibility of scaling complexity. Canopy structural complexity measurements were obtained from plots within eight NEON forested sites across eastern North America, while spectral indices (NDVI, EVI, tasseled cap greenness/wetness/brightness) were calculated for the corresponding locations from Landsat 8 satellite imagery. Results showed that canopy greenness and brightness significantly predicted spatial variation in several categories of canopy structural complexity. We found that greener canopies were associated with a taller canopy, greater leaf area density and variability, a more fully covered and a less porous canopy. Among greenness indices, NDVI explained the largest fraction of variation in canopy structural complexity metrics (adj. R2 = 0.52 – 0.62 for six metrics), and robustly predicted six metrics with linear models. Additionally, we found that a brighter canopy was associated with greater leaf area density and variability, canopy cover, porosity, and lower leaf clumping. These results demonstrate the potential for the estimation of canopy structural complexity at regional scales using satellite imagery, and could greatly expand the scale at which these metrics can be incorporated into ecosystem and earth system models.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Caitlin Littlefield*, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington; Meade Krosby, Climate Impacts Group, University of Washington; Julia Michalak, Joshua Lawler – School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington
ABSTRACT: Under climate change, many species have already and will continue to respond by contracting and expanding range boundaries to track suitable climatic conditions. However, the rapid pace of climatic changes, coupled with habitat loss and fragmentation, challenges species’ abilities to track suitable climatic conditions and draws into question the effectiveness of this critical adaptive response. For this reason, enhancing landscape connectivity is the most frequently cited climate adaptation strategy for biodiversity conservation. And yet, most connectivity planning, even if done in the name of climate change, does not directly take climate change into account. In response, a wide range of approaches for explicitly addressing these challenges posed by climate change has emerged in recent years. These approaches vary in their complexity and reflect a diversity of analytical tactics and assumptions, which we review and critique here. These efforts can be classified into approaches that make use of: 1) projected future ranges, 2) climate trajectories and analogs, 3) environmental gradients, and 4) enduring features. In examining each of these types of approaches, we ask: Where and how does an approach define important areas for biodiversity in the future? How are important movement routes identified? How does the approach address uncertainties associated with model inputs and climate-induced range shifts? We then identify and explore conceptual and analytical frontiers in climate connectivity research. In so doing, we hope to stimulate further innovation that enhances our ability to identify and conserve important movement routes for species responding to climatic change.
AUTHORS: Xavier Haro-Carrión*, Bette Loiselle, Jane Southworth – University of Florida
ABSTRACT: We aimed to investigate how land-cover affects tree diversity in a fragmented landscape ( 19,000 ha) of tropical dry forest in coastal Ecuador. Our objectives were to understand the extent of land-cover types and to evaluate the impact of land-cover and forest fragmentation on tree species diversity. Landsat 2013 (dry season) and 2015 (wet season) images were used to classify the area into old-growth forest, plantation forest (mostly teak), secondary forest, pastureland, water, and built areas. We used a Random Forest Classifier (RF) with 94 predictor variables that included Landsat bands, band ratios, vegetation indices, and image transformations for each season. The proportion of correctly classified RF training points was 95%, and Kappa index was 94%, indicating high accuracy. Dry season variables were predominantly used to classify pastureland and forests. About equal numbers of dry and wet season variables were used to classify forestry plantations. We used the generated map and tree species inventories of old growth forest (N=8) and secondary forest (N=13) to evaluate the impact of land-cover and forest fragmentation on tree `diversity. First, we use RF to identify key patch, landscape composition, and plot variables that contribute to tree diversity as indicated by Hills Numbers. Results indicate that land management variables (e.g. proximity to plantations) are important indicators of species diversity numbers in old growth and secondary forests. We also tested the effect of patch, landscape, plot and species traits on endemic tree species occurrence using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). The GLMM used wood density as the only significant predictor. However, distance to road and land-cover successfully helped predict endemic tree species occurrence contingent to species, indicating a differential response of species to human disturbance.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:15am - 10:30am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Rebecca Tonietto*, University of Michigan-Flint; Paige Muñiz, Saint Louis University, Cornell University; Michael Arduser, Missouri Department of Conservation (retired); Gerardo Camilo, Saint Louis University
ABSTRACT: Many cities support diverse wild bee communities, including species indicative of high quality habitat. To this extent urban areas have recently been posed as potential refugia for pollinator conservation. In this study, we explored the value of different types of green space in a shrinking city for wild bee support and conservation. During the summer of 2016, we selected 18 sites across Detroit, Michigan, including 6 replicates each of farms, community gardens and vacant lots. We investigated the influences of plant community composition and surrounding land-use on wild bee community structure and the pollinator conservation potential of urban agriculture in shrinking cities. We found community gardens, urban farms and vacant lots support diverse and abundant wild bee communities in Detroit. Preliminary results indicate bee abundance was significantly predicted by bloom richness (p = 0.01) and the proportion of green space in the surrounding landscape (p = 0.03), but not by the type of urban agriculture (farm, vs. community garden).In collaboration with the growers, Keep Growing Detroit, Friends of the Rouge River, and Detroit-based landscape architects, we developed “Curb Appeal.” We present multiple designs at different scales and budgets for pollinator friendly, pocketbook friendly, storm water management optimized, and relatively salt tolerant living “fences” to serve as aesthetically pleasing street-side borders for gardens and farms in urban systems.
AUTHORS: Dawn M. Browning, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range; Guillermo Ponce, USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed; Russ Scott, USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed; Debra C. Peters, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range
ABSTRACT: Agroecosystems represent a gap in national research networks established to address ecological questions that site-level research cannot address. The Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network established by the U.S.D.A. Agriculture Research Service is intended to fill this gap. In this study, we combine data from two LTAR network sites in the arid southwestern U.S. spanning 18 site-years to evaluate relationships between greenness index values derived from near-surface phenocams (GCC) and MODIS satellite imagery (NDVI) with measures of ecosystem productivity. Two core data sets for sites in the LTAR network are aboveground net primary production (ANPP) estimated in the field and gross primary production (GPP) modeled from eddy covariance flux towers. We explore relationships between remotely-derived greenness using phenocam GCC and MODIS NDVI indices and ANPP and GPP from 2013 to 2016. We used ANPP at three camera sites on the Jornada Experimental Range (JER) in southern New Mexico and GPP at two camera sites at the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in southern Arizona. We calculated pairwise Pearson correlations between growing season integrals of GPP derived from CO2 flux measurements and remotely-sensed indicators (phenocam GCC and MODIS NDVI) at the two WGEW sites. At JER, we calculated correlations between ANPP and growing season integrals of GCC and NDVI. Our analysis showcases methods for comparing ANPP computed annually and GPP estimated daily with time series GCC and NDVI. As LTAR site locations accumulate phenocam imagery, analyses will be expanded across the network to quantitatively evaluate the role of growing season dynamics and climate on primary productivity in agroecosystems.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Ranjeet John*, Jiquan Chen, Wenjuan Ma, Hogeun Park, Sarah Hession – Michigan State University, USA; Vincenzo Giannico, The University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy
ABSTRACT: Rapid land cover/use (LCLU) has resulted in the degradation of structure and function of temperate, semiarid grassland ecosystems on the Mongolian Plateau (MP). The MP is a complex socio-ecological system which has undergone substantial changes following the post-1970s and post-1990s liberal reforms in Inner Mongolia and Mongolia, as well an increased frequency of drought and extreme winters. Mongolia and Inner Mongolia have similar ecological climatology and biodiversity, but have divergent trends owing to differences in political regimes and land management policies. Here we use the coupled natural human (CNH) system framework to explain cause and effect between the spatial and temporal variability of above ground biomass (AGB) across a precipitation gradient with trends in extreme climatic events as well as socioeconomic drivers. We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to integrate long term data records derived from MODIS (2000-2016) and GIMMS3g NDVI (1981-2015) which serve as proxies of productivity, MERRA-2 reanalysis climate data, and socioeconomic drivers at the county level that include total livestock density and population density and distance to towns and cities as a proxy of access to social goods and services. Our sampling units were stratified by the dominant steppe types, namely meadow, typical and desert steppe. We used SEM and geographically weighed regression (GWR) to explain AGB biomass degradation as a function of migration trends in response to push/pull factors including extreme events such as drought and global financial crisis. In this study, we seek to isolate the effects of human influence on AGB from the strong precipitation-driven trends on the MP. The AGB response to a combination of anthropogenic modification and extreme climate events as modeled by SEM and GWR showed significant spatio-temporal variability which was explained by extreme climate events, distance to urban/built-up areas and livestock density.
AUTHORS: Paul Senner*, Lincoln Park Zoo and the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jeb Barzen, Private Lands Conservation; Janet Silbernagel, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: The lower Mekong Delta has undergone decades of land use change and hydrological alteration resulting in the loss of floodplain grasslands which support a unique assemblage of grassland and wetland bird species. Reinstating historical flood pulse dynamics has been identified as one method for restoring biotic communities in altered riverine ecosystems. To explore the impacts of flood pulse management on wet grassland bird communities we used current and historical survey data to compare avian community composition and model avian habitat selection during different water management periods at the floodplain recessional grasslands of Tràm Chim National Park, Vietnam. Two surveys occurred during flood pulse water management (1994 and 2016), and the other followed a decade of year-round high water management (2006). We hypothesized that bird community composition would be more similar during flood pulse management, than during high water management, and that water depth and vegetation structure would be the major drivers of avian community composition at Tràm Chim. To test these hypotheses we used PERMANOVA to compare avian community composition between treatments and Redundancy Analysis to identify the habitat variables associated with avian site selection. We found that occupancy rates for species associated with ponded water, not grassland ecosystems, were highest during high water management. Additionally, survey year and vegetation composition, and not site level water depth, was the major determinant of avian community composition at our survey sites. Our findings support a continuation of flood pulse water management at Tràm Chim, and can serve as a model for floodplain grassland restoration in the face of ongoing hydropower development in the Mekong watershed.
AUTHORS: Hossam E. M. Abdel Moniem*, Department of Biology, University of Toronto & Zoology Department, Suez Canal University; Ronan Marrec, Université de Picardie Jules Verne; Majid Iravani; Jahan Kariyeva; Branko Hricko; Christine Gray; Péter Sólymos; Ermias Azeria, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, University of Alberta; Helene Wagner, Department of Biology, University of Toronto
ABSTRACT: Species-agonistic connectivity models based on how anthropogenic activities affect landscape features can add to our understanding of species assembly and community composition. These coarse-filter approaches rely on expert opinion to quantify the degree to which human activities affect habitat connectivity. Yet, such models have not been validated with biodiversity data at large spatial scales. We used the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute’s (ABMI) data on multi-taxa biodiversity and human footprint (information on anthropogenic land use patterns) to assess the power of species-agonistic connectivity models to explain community structure of vascular plants and birds. We aimed at: (1) quantifying landscape connectivity across Alberta and assessing local landscape context of key habitats; and (2) assessing the benefit of species-agonistic models for explaining community structure. We modeled landscape resistance to movement by categorizing 101 landscape feature types (due to physical human footprint and/or intensity of use), topography, and natural water bodies. We tested uncertainty around our metrics and compared 15 concurrent wall-to-wall resistance, and calculated connectivity maps computed with varying combinations of intensity indices. In the second part, we assessed the relative importance of our connectivity metrics, patch-level metrics, and landscape-level metrics, for explaining variation in community composition at 1100 sampling sites regularly distributed across Alberta. Results showed surprisingly low correlations (R2= 0.49–0.94) between connectivity maps. Within each map, correlations between different spatial resolutions (10m, 30m, and 100m) differed remarkably. Variance partitioning illustrated the power of species-agnostic connectivity maps as predictors of community structure, individually and when shared with both patch and landscape metrics. We conclude that the way resistance is conceptualized as a combined effect of the degree of human footprint and intensity of use matters for the validity of species-agnostic connectivity models. Our study could provide insights to land use planers and decision makers towards promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services.
AUTHORS: Louis R. Iverson*, Matthew P. Peters, Jarel Bartig, Joanne Rebbeck, Todd Hutchinson, Stephen N. Matthews, Susan Stout – US Forest Service
ABSTRACT: Oak (Quercus spp.) and hickory (Carya spp.) forests in the eastern United States provide a host of ecosystem services as their mast are extremely valuable for wildlife, the timber is valuable, and they are generally more tolerant of weather extremes under a changing climate. They are, however, undergoing a severe decline in prominence throughout the region, yielding to more mesic and shade tolerant, largely maple-dominated forests. Two decades of research in Ohio have shown that opening the canopy, through prescribed fire and thinning, can promote oak and hickory regeneration, most successfully on drier ridges and south- and southwest-facing slopes. We present a methodology to target areas across a 17-county region (~22,000 km2) that may be more receptive, and thus more cost effective, to successful regeneration following silvicultural treatment. The GIS model is based primarily on the topography (digital elevation model) as topography and soils drive the overall moisture regime. It uses transformed aspect, slope angle, topographic position index, and slope position as inputs, with outputs into six classes for landform: ridge, SW upper slopes, SW lower slopes, NE upper slopes, NE lower slopes, and bottomland. The first three were combined into the Dry Oak Forest class that forms the core of area that has a higher probability to be restored with silviculture, provided some understory oak-hickory seedlings and saplings are present. To determine whether sufficient stocking is present for adequate regeneration, we use small (SILVAH) plots distributed among the stands of interest which map out as classes of ‘oakiness’ in the overstory and understory. Managers use this information to help determine their ‘zones of investment’ for maximum value with their limited resources.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Andy Baltensperger*, National Park Service; Julie Hagelin, Alaska Department of Fish & Game; Paul Schuette, Alaska Center for Conservation Science
ABSTRACT: Climate change is shifting the distribution of species at both the leading and trailing edges of geographic ranges, where animals exist near their thermodynamic limits. Machine-learning based species distribution models that account for landscape characteristics and climate effects have been valuable tools for mapping changing wildlife distributions over time. Here we used RandomForests, with collections of museum records from 1900 to 2016 and 14 environmental predictors, to develop a series of distribution models for Northern bog lemmings (Synaptomys borealis) across North America. Six bidecadal models were validated using independent, temporally specific data. We also used IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) A2 scenario climate forecasts to predict the distribution of bog lemmings in the year 2040. Change-detection analyses were used to identify regions of distribution expansion and contraction during the past century and to predict regions of change over the coming decades. We also explored the associations between bog-lemming occurrence and several existing landcover models. Quantifying trends in rare species distributions at continental scales in the context of rapid climate change should help wildlife and land managers to develop adaptive strategies for listing imperiled species, to identify and conserve dispersal corridors, and to prepare for emerging and declining populations at continental scales.
AUTHORS: Żaneta Kaszta*, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Department of Zoology, University of Oxford; Samuel A. Cushman, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station; Andy Hearn, Dawn Burnham and David Macdonald - Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
ABSTRACT: Changes in land use/cover are the main drivers of global biodiversity loss, thus tools to evaluate effects of landscape change on biodiversity are crucial. However, landscape-level approaches are not widely implemented by the planning agencies, mainly due to lack of extensive species-specific data, complexity of ecological guidelines and lack of integrated protocols which would increase their usability. In this study we integrated spatial statistics, landscape ecology and landscape genetics into a GIS-based toolkit, to evaluate impact of development and forest restorations strategies on landscape connectivity and population dynamics of clouded leopard in Malaysian state Sabah. The toolkit was based on an existing clouded leopard habitat suitability model and a development plan for Sabah. Using the cumulative resistant kernel approach and individual-based spatial population genetics models, we evaluated the impacts of 59 scenarios (new segments of highways and railroads, upgraded roads and new forest restoration areas) on landscape connectivity and clouded leopard population dynamics. For most disruptive scenarios we proposed and evaluated alternatives. We found that applying all planned development strategies in Sabah without forest restoration will decrease landscape connectivity by 23% and significantly reduce population size. We therefore strongly advise that development of roads and railways should be paired with forest restorations in strategic places to mitigate negative impacts. Our study was based on clouded leopard in Sabah, however, the toolkit we developed can be applied to any landscapes, ecosystems and species/set of species.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:30am - 10:45am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Mary Gardiner, Frances Sivakoff, Katherine Todd, Scott Prajzner - The Ohio State University, Department of Entomology
ABSTRACT: Traditionally conservation has focused primarily on rural and natural landscapes, yet, with the Earth’s surface so significantly shaped by human activity it is critical to understand how to preserve and promote species in human-dominated ecosystems. Although we see a rise in urban living across the globe, due to protected economic downturn and the recent foreclosure crisis, many United States cities have lost substantial population in recent decades. This has left municipalities with the task of demolishing abandoned residential structures, creating parcels of vacant land. One such city is Cleveland, Ohio which has over 20,000 vacant lots covering 1,450 hectares of land area. These green spaces have the potential to serve multiple environmental functions including species conservation, storm water retention, and local food production. Worldwide urban agriculture has grown rapidly and requires the work of beneficial arthropods including wild bees for reliable crop pollination. We quantified the current ecological value of vacant land to support bee richness and determined how the conversion of these sites to urban agroecosystems influenced the value of urban greenspace for conservation. Within a network of eight vacant lots and eight community gardens we quantified bee communities using pan traps, left in each site for 24 h monthly (June, July and August 2011-2013). We also examined the structure of plant-pollinator networks in 2011 and 2014 within the same sites by observing all flowering plant species for 10 minute intervals, and colleting all bee visitors. We have documented 104 bee species from Cleveland urban ecosystems, which represents approximately 20% of Ohio’s fauna. We did not find a significant difference in the abundance or species richness of bees found within vacant lots versus urban farms, however, these habitats supported unique communities. Floral observations demonstrated that a similar number of floral resources were present within both habitats, but a greater richness of resources were visited in urban farms leading to reduced nice overlap among species. Our results demonstrate the importance of maintaining a diversity of greenspace within the urban landscape. Even small scale changes in patch composition and management can influence their conservation value for bee biodiveristy.
AUTHORS: Marguerite Madden*, Sergio Bernardes, David Cotton, Thomas Jordan – University of Georgia
ABSTRACT: We sense and learn about our environment in multiple dimensions. Traditional data sources for agricultural analysis, however, continue to rely predominantly on two-dimensional displays of maps, photographs, data graphs/histograms and conceptual diagrams. Advances in geospatial technologies enhance and innovate data sources available for improved geospatial analysis and decision support. Researchers at the Center for Geospatial Research (CGR) within the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia (UGA) are using geospatial technologies such as unmanned aerial systems (UAS), virtual/augmented reality devices and multi-dimensional geovisualization techniques to create a 3D Immersion and Geovisualization (3DIG) system for education, outreach and research. Combining data acquisition with Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetric analysis, image processing, geospatial query and fundamental principles of cartographic display, a powerful set of interactive and immersive initiatives were developed for agricultural applications. Specifically, the 3DIG system consists of: 1) low cost UAS image data collection and processing to create detailed image mosaics and 3D landscape models, 2) 3D modeling of real surfaces with interactive tangible landscapes (i.e., augmented reality sandboxes); 3) immersive experiences with virtual reality goggles and environments; and 4) large format display of high definition and multi-dimensional content using a multi-screen video wall. This paper will document the materials and methods used to create the 3DIG system. We apply the 3DIG to a variety of agricultural landscapes in order to demonstrate the value of advanced geospatial technologies for improved understanding of crop health, phenological expressions of crop genotypes and legacy evidence of historical agriculture in traditional crop and non-cropped forest timberlands.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:45am - 11:00am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Steve Norman*, William Hargrove – US Forest Service
ABSTRACT: In deciduous forests, remote sensing-based assessments of fire impacts are often confounded by the seasonal flux of land surface phenology (LSP). In the Southern Appalachians, USA, fires burn primarily in late winter/early spring and during or immediately after leaf abscission in the fall. This timing can make it challenging to recognize fire impacts apart from ongoing phenological transitions, particularly in cloudy regions where clear imagery is infrequent. More fundamentally, wildfire impacts, like those of low intensity prescribed fire, are often structurally isolated to just the understory, leaving overstories immeasurably affected. While such structurally selective impacts can have huge implications for wildlife and fuels management, the independent phenological detectability of these elements is routinely ignored. In this research, we use 10m seasonal maximum NDVI composites in both the growing season and winter to isolate deciduous and evergreen impacts separately for numerous fall 2016 wildfires that burned NC, SC, GA and TN. We then compare differences in season-specific impacts across topographic gradients. Results show greater winter than summer impacts, but spatial coherencies are consistent with fire behavior and impacts observed in the field. Insights suggest the value and need for formal incorporation of LSP into wildfire and forest monitoring and a reappraisal of how we conceptualize fire severity in this widespread forest type.
AUTHORS: Michael Wheeler*, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Jeb Barzen, International Crane Foundation; Shawn Crimmins, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point; Tim Van Deelen, University of Wisconsin, Madison
ABSTRACT: Long-term trends in Midwestern sandhill crane populations indicate positive growth despite much yearly variability, and continued monitoring will be required for effective management. This study was conducted to explore relationships between life-history stage and recruitment in sandhill crane populations, as well as to estimate the size of the study population. Since 1990, the International Crane Foundation (Baraboo, Wisconsin) has collected long-term re-sightings data on territorial and non-territorial sandhill cranes in southcentral Wisconsin. We used these data in a multi-state model to estimate survival and state-transition probabilities of different demographic groups. Results suggest high annual survival rates (~90%) and low annual rates of territory acquisition or loss (~5%). Stage-specific elasticities were calculated from mark-resighting transition rates. Survival of territorial adults and their continued tenure on territory have appreciable effects on growth rate (2.5 times the impact than the next most important stage class) – hence availability of suitable territories may regulate growth rates. Consequently, management of crane populations in the Midwest may depend on creating habitats that support territory establishment.Though this research is most relevant to crane management in Wisconsin, the information from these models is transferable. Many aspects of sandhill crane biology are shared with the other 14 crane species, many of which are threatened or endangered. The model’s information regarding territoriality dynamics could also be applied to other long-lived, territorial species such as swans and geese.
AUTHORS: Erica F. Stuber*, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Joseph J. Fontaine, U.S. Geological Survey, Nebraska Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
ABSTRACT: Environmental change is an ongoing global stressor that impacts the distribution and abundance of species. Cohesive shifts in distribution through habitat matching reveal the scope of such landscape-level change. Spatial mismatches may occur when environmental change outpaces the ability of populations to adjust, for example through dispersal. From 2012-2014 agricultural commodities prices and land values in Nebraska rose dramatically, resulting in rapid and expansive land-use conversion. Using two classified remote-sensing derived landuse products from 2011, before conversion, and 2016, after conversion, we document this land use change over time. We use hierarchical abundance models to estimate species-habitat relationships in a relatively dispersal-limited species, the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), across the state of Nebraska during time periods coinciding with landcover products. Prior to landcover conversion into agriculture we find strong relationships between pheasant counts and the amount of various important habitat-types in the surrounding matrix. However, after rapid landuse conversion these relationships dissolve, and we can no longer predict pheasant abundance using previously identified habitat relationships. These results highlight the importance of considering temporal dynamics in species-habitat relationships, particularly when developing species distribution models, and the potential consequences of human-induced rapid environmental change on future evolution and species persistence.
AUTHORS: James Dyer*, Ohio University; Todd Hutchinson, U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station
ABSTRACT: Euro-Americans settled Appalachian Ohio c. 1800. Like most of the eastern deciduous forest, the region has undergone dramatic changes in forest composition and structure following widespread clearing and subsequent reforestation; mesic species such as maples have increased at the expense of oak and hickory species. Changes in land use, climate, and fire regimes have been presented as drivers of these observed changes. This study focused on intra-landscape changes in forest composition across a 5000 km2 area. The topo-edaphic setting of 5765 witness trees was used to define fine-scale forest associations, which were then compared to contemporary associations based on data from 547 FIA subplots. Ridges continue to support a distinct forest assemblage, which is more distinctive from slopes and valleys than was the case in the presettlement forest. Shifts in the realized niches of dominant taxa are evident, with mesic species increasing in dominance across the landscape, while xeric species have become more restricted to higher-stress sites. This pattern is borne out in a water balance analysis of a recent tree survey. Land use and climate data are available at different spatial scales and suggest a causative role in the observed changes; size-class analysis of witness trees suggest the possibility of an 18th century mesophication event. Fire-scar studies dating to the presettlement era are not common in the region, but do indicate the occurrence of fire. Tree-ring data are limited by small sample size but provide annual resolution of fire events. In contrast, line descriptions from the original land survey cover an extensive area, but represent a snapshot in time. Fire was noted in the original land survey, but resurveyed lines reveal that direct evidence of fire is no longer observed within 10 years. Multiple drivers are likely responsible for the oak-to-maple transition.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:45am - 11:00am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Yan Boulanger, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Laurentian Forestry Centre, Québec; Junior A. Tremblay, Environment and Climate change Canada, Sciences and Technologies, Québec; Martin-Hugues Saint-Laurent, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, Québec, Canada; Anthony Taylor, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Atlantic Forestry Centre; David Price, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Northern Forestry Centre; Dominic Cyr, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Laurentian Forestry Centre, Québec; Diana Stralberg, University of Alberta, Department of Renewable Resources
ABSTRACT: Many studies project future species range by relying on species distribution models. This approach does not take into account the projected realized migration of the habitat (e.g., forest cover) as it fails to consider the interactions among stand- and landscape-level impacts of climate change, tree dispersal abilities, and effects of anthropogenic disturbances on forest structure and hence on habitat distribution. Forest landscape models, such as LANDIS II, simulate stand- (e.g., forest succession, growth) and landscape-scale processes (e.g., seed dispersal, natural and anthropogenic disturbances), enabling the projections of forest habitats at meaningful temporal and spatial scales by readily simulating the impact of climate change on these ecological processes. We are presenting here an overview of our modelling framework based on LANDIS-II that aims to project future habitats for various species at risk in Canada. Our simulation platform can readily take into account several anthropogenic climate forcing scenarios on forest growth as well as the impacts of spruce budworm outbreaks and climate-induced changes in fires. Also, it can simulate how different forest management strategies can interact with climate change to impact future habitats. Here we present three different case studies where we projected future habitats for i) woodland caribou, ii) black-backed woodpecker in central Quebec as well as iii) for eight bird species in northeastern Alberta. Our analyses helped identify which agent of change is the most important to shape future habitats. These also helped to identify adaptation strategies to help restore endangered species.
AUTHORS: Douglas J. Taron, Allen Lawrance – Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
ABSTRACT: Since the late 1980s, the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network has collected butterfly population data on a variety of natural and semi-natural areas. Data collection sites range from high-quality ecosystem remnants, to degraded open lands, to ecosystem reconstructions and urban parks. This long-term data set allows comparison of the effectiveness of these various land types in supporting populations of butterflies. Changes in butterfly diversity and abundance over time, have been observed. Certain observed changes to species composition may correlate with a variety of anthropogenic changes, including climate change.
ABSTRACT: The USDA Long Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network exists to build knowledge required for “sustainable intensification of agriculture, increasing yields from the current agricultural land base while minimizing or reversing agriculture’s adverse environmental impacts.” Of the 18 current LTAR locations, two lie in the southeastern Coastal Plain, a recognized global biodiversity hotspot. Agricultural working lands in the region include croplands, pastures, and rangeland, interspersed with planted pines, natural forests, and wetlands. The provisioning and regulating ecosystem services provided by these working landscapes are bounded spatially by: abiotic drivers related to soil texture and chemistry, water availability, climatic and meteorological factors; biotic drivers related to organismal biology; land use practices including prescribed fire; economic and environmental policies; and cultural patterns. Following the money, yields and productivity are quantified at the field, farm, county and state levels. Following the flow, water is quantified in reaches, subwatersheds, watersheds and basins. Following the gas, carbon is quantified in soil cores, plant samples, flux towers, and broader marine and atmospheric sensors. And so on. Perturbations, changes, and threats that impact ecosystem services are, concomitantly, more heavily leveraged at particular scales. Research to identify shifts in agricultural practices from business-as-usual to aspirational scenarios, which most effectively accomplish LTAR goals, requires the cross-referencing of ecological systems and scales. Practices and policies may have profound effects on ecosystem services at certain scales, while having little or no effect at other scales. LTAR research planning needs to address services at various scales that may not overlap nor always match the data collection unit. We will use the southeastern US to illustrate considerations for the spatial and temporal dynamics, and confluence of ecosystem services in these agro-ecosystems. LTAR research and analyses must be appropriately scaled to the services and their bounding drivers, examining synergies and tradeoffs at multiple scales.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Morgan A. Crowley*, Jeffrey A. Cardille – McGill University; Michael A. Wulder, Joanne C. White – Canadian Forest Service (Pacific Forestry Centre)
ABSTRACT: The 2017 fire season was the largest on record for British Columbia (BC) in terms of area burned, and mapping these fires is important for monitoring forest-disturbance impacts. Two data sources provide reliable estimates of post-fire perimeters: (1) the Composite-to-Change (C2C) protocol, which makes annual forest disturbance mapping possible for Canada using annual best-available-pixel composites; and (2) the Canadian National Fire Database (CFDB), which identifies fire perimeters using data from fire management agencies. These resources are vital records of fire locations and extents, but are not intended to map active fire growth and patterns through time. The purpose of this project is to determine how these data sources can inform mapping the fire’s active phase. In addition to the observations provided by Landsat, imagery from sensors such as Sentinel-2, ASTER, and MODIS can be used to increase the temporal resolution and data density. We used the Bayesian Updating of Land Cover Classifications (BULC) algorithm to merge initial classifications while tolerating occasional smoke and clouds. Working in areas identified by the CFDB, we compared each source data’s post-fire Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) against the expected NBR of a pre-fire best-available-pixel image from C2C. This approach enabled the classification into fire/no-fire using the large-scale processing power of Google Earth Engine. BULC then fused these classified images in Earth Engine, producing a series of updated fire extent maps for the 2017 fire season in BC. The increased temporal density allows us to retrospectively synthesize and, analyze the dynamics and growth of individual fire events, which was not possible using previously established methods. This capacity can support reconstructing the progression of active fire lifespans to better understand fire growth and underlying drivers. Methods from the case study could be scaled-up for nation-wide fire mapping at intermediate time-steps for past and future fire seasons.
AUTHORS: Sulong Zhou*, Janet Silbernagel – University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Poyang Lake is a complex wetland ecosystem that not only serves as important wintering habitat for threatened migratory waterbirds but also offers many resources to a wide array of community interests and activities in Asia. Consistent with the other coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) studies, Poyang lake research faces challenges in understanding the linkages between ecosystems and human livelihoods, and in capturing citizen knowledge over long distance to support and validate our research. We piloted the mobile spatial survey tool, Survey 123, in 10 sub-lakes between Poyang Lake Reserve and Nanjishan Reserve with 20 designed questions on fishing, economic, hydrologic, and crane observation. The reports verify the rapid seasonal fluctuation of sub-lake water level, show revenue balance of local fishermen, identify changes of crane populations, and reflect their preferences to crane conservation. This study can help bridge scientific researchers and local community through public involvement in spatial data collection. Furthermore, these responses will inform our subsequent hydrological modeling at Poyang Lake.
AUTHORS: William Fields*, Jinelle Sperry, Todd Swannack, Wade Wall – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
ABSTRACT: Prioritizing management actions to protect endangered species presents a significant challenge because the manner in which demographic and dispersal processes scale up from habitat patches to whole landscapes is complex. This study created a spatially explicit population model of a listed species that is being considered for delisting, the black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla), to better understand how variation in demographic rates and habitat dynamics affect the relative importance of habitat patches for the persistence of this species. This species utilizes early successional habitat that does not persist indefinitely in the landscape, and its reproductive success is negatively impacted by predation and brood parasitism. To assess the contribution of habitat patches to black-capped vireo population dynamics, we constructed a stage-structured population model from field data on survival and movement of individuals. We incorporated patch dynamics to a landscape model to simulate habitat succession, and we tracked the number of individuals produced within habitat patches as well as the number of individuals that dispersed to other patches. Our model shows that population growth is can be limited by both predation and brood parasitism. Continued efforts to reduce brood parasitism should improve the prospects for this species persisting at levels that do not require relisting. Results also indicate areas that are more likely to contribute more individuals to the surrounding landscape and regions within the landscape that are likely to interact more strongly with one another. This information can guide continued efforts to protect this species as its listing status changes.
AUTHORS: Craig Fergus*, Iara Lacher, Bill McShea, Tom Akre – Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
ABSTRACT: Non-native invasive plants can aggressively colonize forest habitat, with detrimental impacts to native biodiversity and ecosystem function. Unfortunately, maintaining native forest plant communities in the face of non-native plant invasions is a difficult and costly task, especially for managers with limited resources. The ability to identify areas vulnerable to invasion would enable managers to limit the spread of invasive plants through proactive surveillance and mitigation. To investigate the spread of invasive plants, we created species distribution models (SDMs) for 14 invasive forest plant species, grouped by functional traits, in Northwestern Virginia using physiographic and land use data. An SDM can project potential suitable habitat based on an improved understanding of the relationship between environmental variables and species distributions. However, unlike SDMs for native species, we cannot assume that occurrences for invasive species in the study area capture a broad enough range of environmental variables to precisely estimate their suitable but uncolonized habitat. We could utilize occurrences from native ranges but this approach is resource intensive and contains additional assumptions. Instead, our models account for actively colonizing species by including components for both propagule pressure and limitations on where each species has had the opportunity to disperse. We related occurrence data from publicly available data sets (8770 records) and two seasons of field surveys (5240 records) to habitat and landscape variables including patch size, soil productivity, and surrounding land use. We used the resulting relationships to map the relative vulnerability of forested areas to each invasive species group. By identifying high and low risk areas, our maps aid decision making for land managers and allows them to make proactive decisions by focusing resources on vulnerable high priority regions.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Kevin M. Potter, North Carolina State University; Kurt Riitters, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station
ABSTRACT: Genetic diversity is essential for forest tree species because it provides a basis for adaptation and resilience to environmental stress and change. The loss of the option value conveyed by genetic variation could be particularly detrimental to the future survival of tree species in the face of numerous severe stresses. The fundamental importance of genetic variation is recognized by its incorporation in the Montréal Process, which the USDA Forest Service uses as a forest sustainability assessment framework. One Montréal Process indicator for the conservation of biological diversity is the “Number and Geographic Distribution of Forest-Associated Species at Risk of Losing Genetic Variation and Locally Adapted Genotypes.” This indicator has been difficult to address in a systematic fashion, however. We leverage two broad-scale datasets to assess this indicator: (1) species occurrence data from the nationally systematic Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot network and (2) climatically and edaphically defined provisional seed zones, which encompass geographic areas with similar geology, climate, vegetation, soils and hydrology. Specifically, we intersect the FIA data with the provisional seed zones, which are used as proxies for among-population adaptive variation under the assumption that adaptive genetic variation within species is associated with the kind of environmental conditions that define the seed zones. We then determine, for each species, the ratio of mature trees to saplings within each seed zone as an indicator of insufficient regeneration that could lead to the loss of genetic variation. The results offer insights into which species and which areas of the country may be experiencing degradation of genetic diversity. Such erosion of genetic variation makes species less able to adapt to environmental change, increases the risk of extinction, and lowers the overall resilience of forest ecosystems.
AUTHORS: Maxwell C. Wilson*, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University; Guang Hu, Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University; Lin Jiang, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology; Mingjian Yu, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University; Jianguo Wu, School of Life Sciences and School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability, State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University
ABSTRACT: Habitat fragmentation, the loss of habitat in the landscape and spatial isolation of habitat patches, has long been considered a serious threat to biodiversity on global and regional scales. However, the study of fragmentation has been haunted by definitional and conceptual challenges. In particular, few studies have implemented multi-scale approaches or studied the impacts of habitat fragmentation beyond the species level. Here we perform such an analysis, studying the impacts of habitat fragmentation on both species diversity and functional composition of woody plants at local, patch, and regional scales using the Hierarchical Patch Dynamics Paradigm. We find that fragmentation significantly affects plant communities at and between all scales, specifically altering alpha diversity at the patch and landscape scales while driving variation in functional composition across all scales. Further, we find that many of these effects are scale-dependent and that the scale-dependence of fragmentation-biodiversity relationships necessitates the use of multi-scale approaches. We conclude by calling for the increased understanding of scale-dependence in conservation planning and for the continued study of habitat fragmentation beyond the species level.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:00am - 11:15am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Georgia Basso, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
ABSTRACT: In partnership with Common Ground High School, an environmentally-focused charter school in New Haven CT, the USFWS and Audubon Connecticut worked with students to restore habitat in New Haven, CT. The project started small, with a few vacant lots, but quickly expanded to numerous, strategically designed restoration projects across the city. These urban restoration sites were developed and cared for, in large part, by the local high school students at Common Ground.Several of the students wanted to study the ecological impact of this restoration effort. Working side by side with professionals from USFWS and Audubon Connecticut, the students designed a 5 year study to measure changes in plant, insect, and bird diversity at the urban restoration sites. Within the first 3 years of the study the students identified over 5,000 insects, uncovered data that prompted them to modify their restoration design, and published their findings in one regional and one national publication. Projects like this demonstrate how urban restoration can bring a measurable positive gains to pollinators and people living in urban areas like New Haven, CT.Does Urban Habitat Restoration Work? Wrack Lines, University of Connecticut. (2015) 15:2. (http://media.ctseagrant.uconn.edu/publications/magazines/wracklines/fallwinter15/urban.pdf)Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership Gives Connecticut Students a Taste of Science. Refuge Update, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (2015) 12:6. (http://www.fws.gov/refuges/RefugeUpdate/pdfs/refUp_NovDec_2015.pdf)
AUTHORS: David Huggins*, USDA-ARS; Harsimran Kaur, Washington State University
ABSTRACT: Land use is a dynamic, emergent property of multiple socio-economic and bio-physical determinants and highly relevant to complex issues such as land change science, climate change and agricultural sustainability. Agro-ecological classification has primarily relied on methods that integrate multiple geo-spatial layers of relatively stable bio-physical drivers such as climate, physiography, geology, soil and native vegetation to create unique zones with specific ranges of land use constraints and potentials. We use a contrasting approach to define dynamic agro-ecological classes (AECs) based on actual land uses that have emerged as consequences of bio-physical and socio-economic drivers. Here, USDA NASS cropland datalayers (2007-2016) were employed to derive dynamic cropping system AECs of the inland Pacific Northwest and to further define the agro-ecoregion of the R.J. Cook Agronomy Farm, USDA Long Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) site. Resultant AECs are subject to annual changes as various bio-physical and socio-economic perturbations impact cropping systems. Using dynamic AECs we: (1) enable the capacity to evaluate shifts in AECs over time; (2) assess the bio-physical (e.g. climate, soils, terrain) and socio-economic factors (e.g. commodity prices) that are impacting current AECs or potential future shifts; and (3) develop AEC-relevant sustainable land use research and practices. Following development of dynamic AECs, we applied the concept to quantify empirical relationships between bio-climatic variables and the current geo-spatial distribution of six cropping system AECs. We then applied bio-climatic projections from downscaled climate models to assess geo-spatial shifts of AECs that could result from climate change. Here, projected climate change would potentially shift AECs from stable to more dynamic, resulting in more annual fallow, greater hazards for soil erosion, greater cropping system uncertainty, and less cropping system flexibility. These adverse projections are being incorporated into current research to develop climate change adaptation strategies and more sustainable agricultural systems.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Forrest M. Hoffman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Zachary L. Langford, University of Tennessee Knoxville; Jitendra Kumar, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Steve Norman, USDA Forest Service Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC); William W. Hargrove, USDA Forest Service Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC)
ABSTRACT: The Arctic landscape is changing at unprecedented rates due to climate change, natural disturbances, and anthropogenic development. Moreover, the Arctic is also projected to warm at a rate twice that of the global average in the coming century, accelerating climate feedbacks, including those from wildfire disturbances. Wildfires are the dominant disturbance impacting boreal forests, and climate-driven shifts in fire frequency, intensity, and extent produce large changes in fire regimes. To understand changing fire regimes, we applied a random forest machine learning algorithm to estimate wildfire locations based on 500-m resoluton MODIS and 1-km resolution Daymet variables in the State of Alaska. We employed the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform and its inventory of satellite imagery, meteorology, elevation, and atmospheric data to detect and map the 70 large boreal fires of the 2004 Alaska wildfire season. Using the national Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) data for validation, our random forest method achieved scores of 0.87, 0.95, and 0.91 for the precision, recall, and F1-score metrics when multiple vegetation indices, elevation, and individual spectral bands were incoporated into the analysis. Inclusion of Daymet data with no time lags did not significantly improve the performance of the detection method. The EVI and SAVI indices, plus the NIR spectral band, were the most significant inputs to the random forest algorithm. Results suggest that large burned areas may not be reported and included in the MTBS database. In future work, we plan to extend this methodology to higher resolution observations (15 m to 30 m) from Landsat.
AUTHORS: Claire Mirande and Li Fengshan, International Crane Foundation, Baraboo, Wisconsin
ABSTRACT: The Siberian Crane is listed as Critically Endangered under the IUCN Red List. The total population size is estimated at 3,600-4,000. Although currently stable to slightly increasing, the cranes must migrate the length of eastern China, one of the most heavily populated and rapidly developing areas on earth. Securing species’ survival will require addressing threats at all stages of the annual cycle. In 2015 the Disney Conservation Fund launched an ambitious Reverse the Decline program aimed to make a difference for ten endangered taxa over ten years. The Siberian Crane was selected and ICF was invited to coordinate the effort in cooperation with Chinese and Russian colleagues. Our vision is to ensure high quality and resilient ecosystems are managed to provide multiple habitats in each stage of the annual migration cycle supporting a stable to growing population of Siberian Cranes. The Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation have been used for conservation planning and effectively incorporate adaptive management practices for the Siberian Cranes at species and habitat levels. We identified key threats and assessed underlying causes. Most threats are to wetland habitat and the most significant threats are found in China including dams and water diversions, conversion of wetlands to agriculture or aquaculture, human disturbance, economic development, pollution, and climate change. Conservation action now focuses on the following geographic regions and strategies: (1) Flyway level – population monitoring and community awareness; (2) China wintering site at Poyang Lake – sub-lakes management, visitor management, and community awareness; (3) China long-term staging and short-term stopover sites – applied research and application of best management practices for key wetlands; and (4) Russia breeding area – applied research and legal protection. This talk will review our efforts to develop sub-lake management strategies at Poyang Lake and to incorporate spatial aspects into the Open Standards planning tools.
AUTHORS: Tegan Padgett*, Memorial Univerisity of Newfoundland
ABSTRACT: Forested wetlands are among the most understudied ecosystems in the world despite being common on many landscapes. Wetlands provide ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling, flood mitigation, and forested wetlands provide unique habitats for lichens. Macrolichens, the larger fruticose and foliose lichens, are an important ecological feature of forested wetlands and certain macrolichen species within these systems can be used as indicators of ecosystem integrity and function. However, we lack important baseline information on macrolichen community structure in forest wetland systems. Many studies have focused on macrolichens or forested wetlands separately, but few have used macrolichen diversity as a tool to study forested wetland ecosystems. This knowledge gap presents an opportunity to research ecosystem patterns across spatial scales at various extents. By asking questions of how macrolichen diversity varies within and between forested wetland types and across ecoregions, we can start to disentangle the drivers of spatial variation in macrolichen diversity. To address these questions, I selected study sites for three forested wetland types (fen, bog, swamp) across three ecoregions on the island of Newfoundland, Canada (111,390 km2). Within each study site, I identified three sample plots for each forested wetland type for a total of 36 sample plots. At each sample plot, I surveyed black spruce (Picea mariana) trees between 0.9-1.9 meters on the trunk and documented the number of individuals present for each macrolichen species encountered. I also collected habitat information such as soil pH, canopy closure, ground and shrub cover. I found a significant difference in macrolichen diversity between ecoregions. However, there was no statistically significant difference between forested wetland types, indicating that geographic location is a more dominant driver of macrolichen community. This research will strengthen our understanding of macrolichen communities and forested wetland ecology which can be used to inform land management, forestry, and conservation.
AUTHORS: Anantha Prasad, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service
ABSTRACT: An important aspect of understanding climatic impacts on tree species originating in the eastern United States is to evaluate the redistribution of suitable habitats considering the entire range of the species. Unfortunately, the analysis so far had to be truncated to the eastern US owing to the lack of availability of Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) equivalent data in Canada. In order to bypass this thorny issue, I used a multi-model classification approach (variants of random forest and boosting) to model the entire range of six economically important tree species (white pine, eastern hemlock, red maple, sugar maple, black cherry and northern red oak) using Little’s range maps and 20 climatic variables (AdaptWest Project). A similar analysis was done using FIA data in the eastern United States using both classification and regression approaches. The combined evaluation of suitable habitats in multiple regions revealed some interesting trends that are of importance to future seed-zone delineations and silvicultural management in the United States and Canada.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Jonathan Knott*, Benjamin Taylor, Songlin Fei – Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Many species shift their phenology as a response to climate change, but the mechanisms by which these shifts occur are relatively understudied. By using a common garden, we are able to assess the contribution of both historic climate of the seed source and the local environmental factors that drive phenological transitions. Here, we observed red oak phenology with different seed origin (32 populations across the eastern US) at a common garden in West Lafayette, Indiana, from 2013 through 2017. We assessed how populations vary in their phenology, and how this variability can be explained by climate conditions of their seed origin. We also assessed how local environmental conditions can drive annual species-level shifts in phenology. In general, we found that the timing of spring phenology events is associated with local environmental factors. Accumulated growing degree days account for most of the variability in spring phenology (R-squared = 62-91%), whereas the timing of leaf out is only weakly explained by seed source climate (such as mean annual precipitation, R-squared = 6-25%). However, the timing of leaf senescence is strongly linked to seed source climate (such as mean annual temperature, R-squared = 59-72%). In general, northern populations begin their growing season slightly earlier but are more limited at the end of season, leading to an overall shorter growing season compared to southern populations.
AUTHORS: Matthew E. Fagan*, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Douglas C. Morton, Bruce D. Cook, Jeffrey Masek – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Feng Zhao, Xi'an University of Science and Technology; Ross F. Nelson, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Chengquan Huang, University of Maryland, College Park
ABSTRACT: Commercial pine plantation monocultures in the southeast U.S. annually produce the greatest volume of industrial roundwood in the world. The area of industrial forest has expanded dramatically in recent years, but the potential impact of pine monocultures on the remaining natural forest habitat has not been widely examined. Pine plantations are regularly harvested every 10 to 15 years and may not function as habitat for many species of interest. Here, we integrate a novel map of plantation forest extent in 2011 with historical maps of forest disturbance to assess the fragmentation of natural habitat in the southeastern U.S. If pine plantations are not considered to be forest habitat, forest area decreases by 28%, core forest area decreases by a third, and the area within 30 m of a forest edge increases by 50%. Because of the rapid harvesting and regrowth of pine monocultures, we further characterized the age and intermittency of current forest-plantation and forest-nonforest edges across the region. We found that repeated disturbance and regrowth of regional forests has caused intermittent edges to be the dominant edge type, and that the majority of intermittent edges are associated with extant pine plantations. We conclude that edge effects in regions dominated by industrial forests are potentially widespread, but their magnitude is likely to be contingent on complex historical dynamics of disturbance and regrowth.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:15am - 11:30am CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Jessica S. Kurylo*, Caragh G. Threlfall – School of Ecosystem of Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne; Karl L. Evans, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield; Nicholas S.G. Williams, Kirsten M. Parris – School of Ecosystem of Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne
ABSTRACT: Variability in urbanization intensity across the landscape generates spatial heterogeneity in urban plant communities. This may influence the fauna dependant on specific plant resources, but outcomes are understudied. We evaluate i) how larval host plant (LHP) richness and cover vary with urbanization, and ii) how these factors influence urban butterfly communities. We use Australia’s 2nd largest city, Melbourne, as a case study. Sixty 1-km transects selected using random stratification across the urbanization gradient were sampled for LHPs and butterflies. Generalized linear models were used to evaluate LHP response along an impervious gradient, the butterfly community response to LHP richness and cover, and to assess the relationship between individual butterfly species and their LHP abundance. Redundancy analysis was also used to understand how much of the variation within the butterfly community was explained by variation in LHP distribution.LHP richness and cover declined with increasing impervious surface cover. Butterfly richness and abundance had a stronger relationship with LHP richness than cover. Impervious surface cover had a negative effect on butterfly richness and abundance, but this effect was than that of LHP richness or cover. Variation in LHP cover explained 57% of the variation in the abundance of the four most common butterflies. Among these, three butterflies had a positive, significant relationship with the cover of one or two of their LHPs. Our study shows the local butterfly community was positively impacted by available LHPs, with LHP richness having more of an effect than either cover or impervious surface cover. The community’s structure was partly influenced by certain exotic LHPs more than natives. Thus, LHPs are providing an important resource for butterflies to complete their life cycle and maintain populations in an altered city landscape. This suggests that increases in certain LHPs may mitigate the negative impacts of urbanization on urban butterflies.
AUTHORS: Alisa Coffin*, Tim Strickland, Sheri Spiegal, Brandon Bestelmeyer, David Huggins, Guillermo Ponce, Chandra Holifield Collins – USDA-Agricultural Research Service
ABSTRACT: The LTAR network exists to examine questions of agricultural sustainability in working lands across the continental US. To effectively address agricultural sustainability at this scale, experimental designs must be placed into the context of a regional framework that can extrapolate site-specific results to broader spatial scales. The goals of such a framework include: helping to communicate the potential of LTAR research by estimating the “reach” (or "representativeness") of each site’s plot and field based experimental designs; providing comparable benchmarks for cross-site comparisons; describing and predicting significant changes within regions that affect sustainability; and, informing decisions about where gaps exist in this continental-scale agro-ecological research network. Past spatial models defining regions for the continental US are not necessarily well-suited to assessing outcomes of LTAR research. An approach to defining the boundaries of individual LTAR network regions must integrate spatio-temporal characteristics operating at multiple scales, including temperature, precipitation, soils and physiography, landscape function, ecosystem services, transportation systems, and agricultural production, management and markets. Regional boundaries and the patterns of production within each region, are postulated to respond dynamically to biophysical, socio-economic and policy drivers of land use and landscape ecological function, which include the adoption of new research integrating genetics, environmental and management technologies (e.g. the USDA “G x E x M” approach). Each LTAR site is evaluating land use and ecosystem services outcome scenarios likely to result from the nexus of these drivers. This talk will review selected examples, demonstrating the range and variability of outcomes targeted by LTAR sites, and discuss the concept of comparable benchmarks for cross-site comparisons, with a focus on how the spatial extent and variation of agro-ecological regions intersect with these outcomes.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:30am - 11:45am CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Jitendra Kumar, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN; William W. Hargrove, USDA Forest Service, Asheville, NC; Steven P. Norman, USDA Forest Service, Asheville, NC; Forrest M. Hoffman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN
ABSTRACT: Fire Regimes are conceptually useful to land managers and are qualitatively understood, but few quantitative techniques exist for empirically delineating geographic regions whose wildfire spatial and temporal characteristics, re-visitation frequency and intensities are similar. We present a comprehensive effort which considers the extensive and consistent thermal “hotspot” data which are collected globally by the two MODIS sensors during their 17-year orbital history. Such consistent and ubiquitous remote sensing data provides an opportunity to produce a nearly two-decade quantitative discrimination of different global fire regimes, including tele-connections across hemispheres. We do not filter or remove human-caused fires from wildfires, instead considering and classifying both types of fire regimes holistically. To appropriately address opposing seasonal juxtaposition across northern and southern hemispheres we develop a special transformation of fire dates which allows statistical identification and discrimination of, say, “summer” fires, regardless of the calendar month in which they occurred across the hemispheres. This date transform permits the delineation of similar fire regimes which occur in both the northern and southern hemispheres, without causing any discontinuities at the equator. On the basis of about 20 descriptive “hotspot” variables, we produced a series of global maps at multiple levels of fire regime discrimination. By applying principal component analysis on the 20 “hotspots” variables we also quantify the degree of similarities among the different global fire regimes and quantitatively identify the reasons, or characteristics, for the similarity or the differences. Several examples of geographically distant locations which share similar fire regime characteristics were found, and some of these fire “tele-connections” span across different hemispheres. Locations experiencing the same or similar global fire regimes may have similar ecological effects and impacts from fire, and similar management knowledge and successful adaptation strategies might be borrowed, shared, or adopted. Regularly occurring human-caused fires can also be easily identified globally.
AUTHORS: Lindsey A. Tiegs*, Jeffrey R. Wozniak – Sam Houston State University
ABSTRACT: The last remaining natural flock of endangered Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) exclusively overwinters along the Texas Gulf Coast. Six research expeditions funded by the Earthwatch Institute in 2016 and 2017 incorporated a total of 52 citizen scientist volunteers into our investigation of wintering Whooping Crane behavior and habitat quality at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Behavior was analyzed through the employment of 20 minute observation surveys with the behavior of individual birds recorded every 15 second interval. Habitat quality was assessed through Carolina Wolfberry fruit (Lycium carolinianum), Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus), and water quality surveys in sites where behavioral surveys had occurred. Pond salinity varied significantly across saltmarsh sites, while wolfberry fruit and crab density did not. Marsh pond salinity across sites fluctuated within and across sampling years in response to shifts in mean sea level and salinity of the adjacent San Antonio Bay. Whooping Crane behavior was not statistically similar at sites comparable in habitat quality, nor did their behavior consistently reflect shifts in habitat quality in a similar fashion. An increase in the number of sampling years is likely necessary to better understand how environmental conditions influence Whooping Crane behavior. The refinement of Blue Crab distribution modeling in reference to shifts in estuarine hydrology through time and space in the coastal marshes utilized by the cranes could be key to future population management decisions. The inclusion of 52 citizen scientists from across the world in this project allowed us to collect expansive data sets each sampling year, as well as increase the reach of the broader impacts of this project to the general public.
AUTHORS: Michael J. Cunningham-Minnick*, Thomas O. Crist – Miami University
ABSTRACT: Intensively managed agricultural lands are generally considered detrimental to native bees. Large production areas, pesticide use, and reduction of natural habitats are agricultural practices that remove favorable nesting sites and food resources required for diverse, abundant bee communities. Moreover, habitat remnants such as forests are often vulnerable to invasive species, especially along edge habitats between forests and agricultural fields. We studied the roles of local habitat characteristics in forest-crop edges and the surrounding land use and land cover in determining bee species diversity, composition and abundance in Midwestern agricultural landscapes. At the local scale, we predicted that forest edges with greater native floral resources and fewer invasive plants would support more diverse and abundant bee communities. At the landscape level, we predicted that greater areas or connectivity of natural (forest) or semi-natural (grassland and pasture) land cover would lead to greater bee diversity and abundance in forest edge habitats. We sampled the bee community, floral resources, tree species composition, soil texture, and invasive shrub density along 100 x 5-m edges of 12 forest fragments adjacent to corn and soybean agriculture in southern Ohio and Indiana. Mixed effects models containing these habitat variables were compared to those with area and connectivity of land use and land cover within the surrounding 500, 1000, 2500, and 5000-m radius buffers surrounding each forest to predict bee community metrics. Contrary to our hypothesis, invasive flowering shrub density explained 29% and 28% of the variation in bee species richness and abundance, respectively, despite its strong negative association with native floral availability. Land-use and land cover models may suggest important roles for neighboring natural and semi-natural habitats in supporting these forest edge bee communities, or may emphasize that supplemental floral resources of invasive shrubs can play a role in increasing bee diversity and abundance.
AUTHORS: David M. Bell*, USDA Forest Service; Matthew J. Gregory; Oregon State University; Robert E. Kennedy, Oregon State University; John J. Battles, University of California at Berkley; Brandon M. Collins, University of California at Berkley; David S. Saah, University of San Francisco; Robert A. York, University of California at Berkley
ABSTRACT: Future increases in the prevalence of drought may alter forested landscapes globally, indicating a need to monitor the magnitude and distribution of forest ecosystem change across scales. We leveraged an integrated disturbance and vegetation mapping approach to map annual live tree aboveground biomass (AGB) across all forest lands in California and western Oregon from 1990-2016. First, we used the Landsat-based detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery (LandTrendr) to identify forest disturbances and extract fitted spectral trajectories based on annual time-series of 30-m multispectral satellite imagery from Landsat 5, 7, and 8. Second, we incorporated fitted Landsat imagery from LandTrendr and US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis plot data into a nearest neighbor imputation framework to generate 30-m predictions of AGB across all forest lands. We then used model-based techniques to estimate AGB means and confidence intervals for 6349 landscape-level hexagons (8672 ha) distributed across the study area. At the landscape-level, model precision was high, with coefficients of variation in AGB estimates being less than 5% in hexagons with more than 4300 ha of forest. During the study period, landscapes accumulating AGB (i.e., positive change) decreased from 80% of hexagons (1990-1994) to 50% of hexagons (2011-2016). From 2011-2016, annual rates of change in AGB decreased in 66% of landscapes compared to the previous two decades (1990-2010). In some cases, these changes resulted in a shift from accumulating to losing live tree biomass. Areas diverging most strongly during 2011-2016 experienced numerous large wildfires and episodes of drought-induced tree mortality, especially during 2015 and 2016. These results imply that the multi-year drought in California beginning in 2012 may have contributed to a substantial shift in landscape ecosystem function.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:30am - 11:45am CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Helen R. Sofaer*, U.S. Geological Survey; Catherine S. Jarnevich, U.S. Geological Survey; Jennifer A. Hoeting, Colorado State University; Curtis H. Flather, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service
ABSTRACT: Species distribution models are an important source of information used to guide conservation and management decisions. The decisions guided by distribution model outputs include management prioritization in space and among species, and the design of search and surveillance efforts. Regardless of their intended use, models are typically assessed based on discrimination performance, which is the ability to differentiate between occupied and unoccupied locations. Our work evaluates whether discrimination performance is an effective indicator of a model’s utility for decision-making in different contexts, and we consider additional, complementary metrics. In a validation study based on Breeding Bird Survey data, we show that species distribution models with excellent discrimination performance and overall temporal transferability nevertheless fail to accurately predict range expansion and contraction. These models therefore fail to identify the species that are most vulnerable to global change or that pose the greatest invasion risk. Using simulations, we evaluate precision-recall curves as an additional method of performance assessment, and consider variation with species prevalence. Precision is the probability that a species is present, given a prediction of presence, and so may be particularly useful for assessing model utility for guiding search and surveillance. We suggest that models should be assessed along the dimensions of their intended use, and that model developers communicate appropriate uses to decision makers.
AUTHORS: Sheri Spiegal*, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range, Range Management Research Unit; Peter J.A. Kleinman, USDA-ARS Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research Unit
ABSTRACT: The Long-Term Agroecosystem Research network is building a road map for the sustainable intensification of U.S. agriculture by designing strategies that are locally appropriate and applicable to multiple scales of agricultural organization. The 18 sites in the LTAR network represent a diversity of land use types and environmental, economic, and social opportunities for sustainable intensification, yet commonalities among strategies for sustainable intensification are evident across the sites. Explicit attention to spatial pattern and process are interwoven into these common sustainable intensification strategies, and that conceptualization is allowing for useful qualitative and quantitative comparisons among rangelands, croplands, and pasturelands at field, farm, and regional scales. For instance, at the field scale, GPS technologies are allowing western rangeland scientists and eastern pastureland scientists to compare the use of pasture resources by cattle, and to exchange ideas about management approaches that can help improve grazing distribution for improved economic and environmental outcomes in both types of systems. In this talk we illustrate the connection between LTAR’s research and various scales of agricultural organization and showcase one LTAR network initiative that integrates field, farm, region, and industry scales. With a focus on tightening resource cycles, this approach has the potential to advance sustainable intensification within and among the biogeographically diverse agroecosystems of the United States.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:45am - 12:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Richard Tran Mills, Argonne National Laboratory; Vamsi Sripathi, Intel Corporation; Sarat Sreepathi, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Forrest M. Hoffman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; William W. Hargrove, USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station
ABSTRACT: The increasing availability of high-resolution geospatiotemporal data sets from sources such as observatory networks, remote sensing platforms, and computational Earth system models has opened new possibilities for knowledge discovery using data sets fused from disparate sources. Traditional algorithms and computing platforms may be impractical for the analysis and synthesis of data sets of this size; however, new algorithmic approaches and implementations that can effectively utilize the complex memory hierarchies and the extremely high levels of available parallelism in state-of-the-art high-performance computing platforms can enable such analysis. We describe a hybrid parallelism (MPI-OpenMP) based implementation of accelerated k-means clustering and some optimizations to boost computational intensity and utilization of wide SIMD lanes and many hardware threads on state-of-the art multi- and manycore processors, including the second-generation Intel Xeon Phi ("Knights Landing") processor based on the Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture, and on cutting edge GPGPU architectures, and we explore several applications thereof to large-scale analysis of MODIS NDVI and LiDAR-derived forest ecosystem data sets.
AUTHORS: Janet Silbernagel*, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: The last remaining population of the critically endangered Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus) overwinters exclusively at Poyang Lake, the largest inland freshwater lake in China. Currently, the water levels of Poyang Lake and its many locally managed sub-lakes dramatically fluctuate in response to seasonal flood pulses. Adding to these dynamics, local fishers manage water levels of many sub-lakes with gates to time the release of water and fish harvest. Uncertainty about potential construction of larger dam at the lake’s outflow pathway led to questions about the effects of a fixed lake stage on the Siberian Crane and local livelihoods. Loss of the highly variable flooding regime could result in a shift in the spatial distribution of local vegetation, as well as a loss of foraging habitat. This study models basin-wide inundation under past variation and with altered hydrology scenarios. With results of our fisher surveys we can fine-tune the hydrological models to determine where water levels are likely to support suitable foraging habitat to sustain the critically endangered population of Siberian Crane. The ultimate goal of this research is to inform future water management decisions in reference to the needs of the Siberian Cranes overwintering at Poyang Lake. Together with a preview of this study, I will synthesize the previous seven talks on waterbird habitat modeling and use of citizen science to explore advances in our knowledge and conservation successes, and the uncertainties ahead.
AUTHORS: Jeffrey Hepinstall-Cymerman, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia; T. Prebyl, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia; B. Nuse, Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia; C. Moore, U.S. Geological Survey and Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia
ABSTRACT: Gopher tortoises require suitable soils and pine or mixed stands with open canopies where light penetrates to a ground layer of forbs and grasses maintained by prescribed fire or mechanical treatment. Movement is known to be an important process in tortoise populations, although much uncertainty remains regarding general features of dispersal. Because the gopher tortoise is currently being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act, however, there is immediate interest in predicting populations’ responses to future landscape changes and in identifying areas of habitat most conducive to population maintenance. Our objectives here were to determine the current and future extent and connectivity of habitat for gopher tortoises in Georgia. To map current habitat, we used SSURGO soil attributes, 2011 National Land Cover Data, Landsat-derived forest structure characteristics, and ecoregion layers and over 15,000 burrow locations to develop logistic regression models of burrow occurrence and ranked them with AIC. Our top model contained variables from two spatial scales and included variables describing soil suitability, forest structure, land cover, and ecoregion. From our model parameter estimates, we developed predictive maps of habitat suitability, which we then used the inverse of to estimate resistance to movement and quantified least cost paths and landscape connectivity with Linkage Mapper and Circuitscape. We compared connectivity of known populations against connectivity of large patches of predicted habitat to identify key areas to survey for gopher tortoises and key linkages between known and potential populations. We used predicted urbanization in 2050 to modify land cover and re-ran habitat and connectivity measures. While additional urbanization is not predicted to be extensive by 2050 in Georgia, some regions will likely experience increased isolation as urbanization creates barriers to dispersal and movement.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 11:45am - 12:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
ABSTRACT: Remote sensing approaches designed to spatially and temporally mapping seasonal inundation provide critical information for many applications which include water accounting, flood control and forecast and groundwater recharge estimation. Deep-learning algorithms have recently become a hotspot in the geoscience and remote sensing. In addition, as the most representative supervised DL model, convolutional neural network(CNN) have outperformed most algorithms in many fields. In this study, a framework of CNN for seasonal inundation mapping would be presented for South China-a key area of China historically, politically and economically. Available 8-day MODIS data from the year of 2000 would be used here. Firstly we labeled the fraction of water cover of a few training samples using higher resolution RS data. Then a convolutional neural network is trained with Tensorflow to generate a time-series of the fraction of water cover for Southeast China. Each pixel would be classified by annual and seasonal fraction of water cover for further analysis with physical and social data. Furthermore, the cross-validation would be implemented. And ground water flow observation would be also used for validation. The results of this study demonstrate the potential for the use of MODIS data for temporal and spatial detection of water inundation and help to understand the change of water inundation in regional scale from 2000. The impact of climate change and human activity on water inundation would be discussed here as well.
AUTHORS: Lydia Scott*, Chicago Region Trees Initiative, The Morton Arboretum; Lindsay Darling, The Morton Arboretum; Melissa Custic, The Morton Arboretum; Leslie Brandt, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, USDA Forest Service; Christopher Mulvaney, The Morton Arboretum, Chicago Wilderness
ABSTRACT: The Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI), founded by The Morton Arboretum is a collaboration of more than 160 organizations across the seven-county Chicago region. The region is comprised of 284 municipalities, 150 park districts, and 8.4 million people. The CRTI has completed a regional master plan for preservation and protection of the urban forest across all landuses and boundaries. This strategy required input of a wide range of landowners managers and users and is based on one of the most comprehensive data sets in the country on urban forestry, the people, and conditions in the Chicago region. This data set is comprised of a tree census conducted across the seven county Chicago region looking at landuse, ground cover, and tree size, condition and species; a LiDAR analysis determining seven landcover classes, including canopy cover, public and private tree inventories; United States 2010 Census, landowner/ manager capacity survey; remnant oak ecosystems; climate vulnerability assessment; and other environmental data. This data set informed the development of the strategy defining specific needs, goals and outcomes to be achieved by 2050 designed to result in improved health of the urban forest and quality of life for the 8.4 million people in the seven county Chicago region. These goals address a range of needs including expanded species and age diversity; education and training of public and private landowners; job training; ecosystem conservation; increased tree canopy; improved awareness and management of invasive species; increased production of trees and species diversity; and collaboration of public and private landowners across all landuses. This presentation will show how data and public input has been used to inform these goals and outcomes and define a strategy leading to improved tree canopy and quality of life 2050.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:30pm - 1:45pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Yolanda F. Wiersma*, Memorial University of Newfoundland; R. Troy McMullin, Canadian Museum of Nature
ABSTRACT: Understanding how rare species are distributed across their range can be difficult due to heterogeneity between landscape units. We propose that lichen thalli along the trunk of a tree are analogous to habitat patches in a kilometers-extent landscape and hence can function as a model system. Applying the patch-mosaic model at smaller spatial extents allows for increased statistical power. We use this system to test whether landscapes with rare species are different from those without. We sampled macrolichen diversity along the trunk of 24 balsam fir trees in a stand on the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada, along with microclimate variables. We analysed difference in pattern by aspect and along the gradient of 1 m up the trunk as well as between trees containing a species of globally rare lichen vs. those that did not. We found no difference in total patch richness or abundance between the micro-landscapes. We found significantly consistent patterns in lichen patches along the trunk when we controlled for aspect and by aspect when we controlled for height up the tree. These patterns were similar on the trees with the rare species. Lichen species richness did not differ between trees containing the rare species vs. those that did not. Thus, lichen patch pattern is statistically similar between trees and, as such, these can be considered replicate landscape units and be used as model systems for observational and manipulative experiments to test questions about spatial pattern and process, such as those concerning distribution of rare species.
ABSTRACT: EnviroAtlasis an online collection of data, tools, and other resources that can be used to inform decisions related to the places we live, work, and play. It has been built on a framework illustrating the benefits people receive from nature, also referred to as ecosystem goods and services (EGS). EGS underpin most aspects of human well-being, including water, security, and the economy. EnviroAtlas has been publicly available since 2014 and continues to inform decisions either directly through use by consultants or decision-makers, or indirectly through further research and education. A consequence of readily accessible tools, like EnviroAtlas, is that they broaden the audience familiar with landscape ecology principles albeit users may not necessarily recognize them as such. This presentation will quickly highlight some of the new resources added to EnviroAtlas since IALE 2016, including new data, a new interactive map, time series, materials for educators, a change analysis tool, ecosystem markets data, and other resources. It will also briefly show how EnviroAtlas is being used in the public domain, and will touch upon the direction in which EnviroAtlas is headed.
AUTHORS: Ho Yi Wan*, Northern Arizona University; Samuel A. Cushman, U.S. Forest Service
ABSTRACT: Globally, human-induced environmental change is degrading habitats and driving biodiversity loss and species extinctions across nearly all taxonomic groups. Threatened and endangered species are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and degradation. The 2015 IUCN red list identifies habitat loss and degradation as the main threat to 85% of all 79,837 species being assessed. Habitat loss and fragmentation increase spatial isolation of populations, reduce population size, and disrupt dispersal behavior and population connectivity. Protecting habitat that enhances broad-scale connectivity for landscape-level ecological processes such as dispersal and gene flow is a critical task for conserving rare species. Meanwhile, distribution and genetic data on rare species are often obscure because of small population size and low detection probability, and existing data are usually restricted to small or local region. As a result, identifying areas important for conservation over large landscapes can be challenging. In this study, we combined multi-scale optimization habitat selection model, resistance-based connectivity network (UNICOR), and landscape genetics simulation (CDPOP) into a single, spatially explicit framework for identifying broad-scale core habitats, long-distance species dispersal and gene flow patterns. We used the federally listed threatened Mexican spotted owl as an example to illustrate this framework. We identified potential suitable habitats and areas of high connectivity across a large portion of its range in Arizona, and tested how differences in species’ maximum dispersal distance affect prediction in connectivity corridor network and genetic diversity. Our analysis showed a strong positive relationship between landscape connectivity and genetic diversity, suggesting the importance of maintaining corridors and linkages between remnant habitats. We developed maps of suitable habitat, connectivity, and genetic diversity that inform broad-scale management and conservation planning. This framework provides a feasible and powerful solution for assessing effects of human and natural disturbances on species habitats and connectivity at the landscape level.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:30pm - 1:45pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Sarah Goslee, USDA Agricultural Research Service
ABSTRACT: Given an increasing human population but a stable land base available for agricultural production, more food must be produced from the same area, without increasing adverse environmental impacts. The site potential for such sustainable intensification depends on climate, soils, and socio-economic factors. Current crop distributions may provide some insight into future possibilities. Daily weather data, the USDA Census of Agriculture, and Cropland Data Layer cover information for 2014-2016 were used to characterize the climatic envelopes for irrigated and rain-fed distributions of several major crops in the eastern United States. Projected climate data were then used to identify the future spatial locations of those envelopes. The locations where rainfed agriculture is highly productive will shift, in some cases moving away from the areas of most productive soils. These novel combinations of climate and soils will require new agricultural management strategies. Increased irrigation could compensate in some cases, but water availability concerns may make increased irrigation infeasible. Shifting climate, soil fertility patterns, and water availability all must be taken into account when considering the future of US agriculture.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:30pm - 1:45pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Samuel Stickley*, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jennifer Fraterrigo, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT: Predicting microclimate temperatures over large extents is imperative for understanding how organisms with limited mobility may respond to climate change. In forests, vegetation structure and topographic factors can strongly influence near-surface temperature, resulting in a spatial mismatch between regional climate and the microclimate experienced by ground-dwelling organisms in particular. The direction and magnitude of such effects on near-surface temperatures are not well understood, however, making microclimate prediction at the forest floor challenging. We demonstrate an approach to downscaling regional temperatures to a fine-scale (< 3 m) for Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee and North Carolina) using previously collected temperature data from a spatially distributed network of microclimate loggers. We used linear mixed models within an information theoretic framework to assess the effects of regional weather station temperature measurements, LiDAR-derived vegetation characteristics and GIS-derived environmental characteristics on air temperature near the forest floor during the surface-active period of plethodontid salamanders from 2006-2010. The best supported models included regional weather station data, solar insolation, vegetation density at heights below 15 m, Soil Topographic Index (a proxy for cold-air drainage) and distance to stream. These findings reveal that the interactive effects of vegetation density at lower heights with certain topographic factors are important to consider when predicting microclimate temperatures in forested landscapes. In addition to increasing our understanding of microclimatic variation across heterogeneous landscapes, our results provide a fine-scale dataset of temperature near the forest floor for future use in modeling organismal responses to changes in microclimatic regimes.
AUTHORS: Jiangxiao Qiu*, School of Forest Resources & Conservation, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, University of Florida; Stephen R. Carpenter, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Eric G. Booth, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering & Department of Agronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Melissa Motew, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin-Madison & The Nature Conservancy; Samuel C. Zipper, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, McGill University & Department of Civil Engineering, University of Victoria; Christopher J. Kucharik, Department of Agronomy & Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Steven P. Loheide II, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Monica G. Turner, Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Sustaining ecosystem services, mitigating their tradeoffs and avoiding unfavorable future trajectories is a pressing challenge that requires enhanced understanding of their relationships across scales. Current knowledge of ecosystem service relationships is often constrained to one spatial scale or one snapshot in time. It remains unclear whether and how relationships among ecosystem services vary across spatial and temporal scales. In this research, we proposed a typology of factors that can drive changes in ecosystem service relationships across scales. We then integrated biophysical modeling with future scenarios to empirically test changes in relationships among indicators of eight ecosystem services from 2001 to 2070 across three spatial scales – grid cell, subwatershed, and watershed. We focused on the Yahara Watershed, Wisconsin in the Midwestern United States – an exemplar for many urbanizing agricultural landscapes. Our results revealed that relationships among ecosystem service indicators were not uniform over time; some exhibited high interannual variations (e.g., drainage vs. food production, nitrate leaching vs. net ecosystem exchange) and even reversed in their signs over time (e.g., perennial grass production vs. phosphorus yield). Across three spatial scales, although robust patterns exist for relationships among some regulating services (e.g., soil retention vs. water quality), not all have simple scaling rules. This is especially true for relationships of food production vs. water quality, and drainage vs. number of days with runoff >10-mm, which varied substantially across scales. Our results also showed that local tradeoffs between food production and water quality do not necessarily scale up, and thus reducing their local tradeoffs is insufficient to mitigate such tradeoffs at the watershed scale. We further explained these cross-scale patterns using our proposed typology, and concluded with management implications. Our study highlights importance of taking a dynamic perspective and accounting for spatial scales in monitoring and management to sustain future ecosystem services.
AUTHORS: Nicholas Kruskamp*, Joshua Gray, Ross Meentemeyer – North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Accurate maps of host plant species are essential for predicting disease spread in forest environments, but species-level vegetation data rarely exist at sufficiently high accuracies or spatial resolutions to model epidemiological processes. We examine the manner in which host map accuracy and resolution affect spatio-temporal models of disease spread. Sudden oak death is used as a case study of an emerging infectious disease requiring predictive models with reliable host maps for disease management and quarantine policy. We used field measurements, muli-temporal moderate resolution Sentinel-2 imagery, and a random forest algorithm to map the density and biomass of tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) - the reservoir host species undergoing substantial tree mortality at a new outbreak of international concern in southwest Oregon. Moderate-resolution remotely sensed images from Sentinel-2 provided spectrally-derived environmental covariates as predictor variables in the random forest model. Seventy-two field sites were surveyed for species density and composition. Elevation, G(reen)NDVI, solar illumination, and the first image principal component were the most important variables in the random forest model. Our mapping approach resulted in significantly less area of the landscape occupied by tanoak compared to existing vegetation datasets (CALVEG, LEMMA). Preliminary results suggest that the more accurate, highly resolved maps of tanoak density have a major impact on epidemiological modeling results, with slower rates of disease spread caused by the reduced extent of the host species. Our results have substantial implications for disease management. Results from this study suggest that remote sensing with machine learning techniques should be more commonly used to improve landscape epidemiological modeling inputs, and more critically examine the impact of input host species maps on model outputs.
AUTHORS: Leslie Brandt*, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, USDA Forest Service; Abigail Derby Lewis, Keller Science Action Center, The Field Museum; Lydia Scott, Chicago Region Trees Initiative, The Morton Arboretum; Lindsay Darling, The Morton Arboretum; Robert Fahey, University of Connecticut; Louis Iverson, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, USDA forest Service; Stephen Matthews, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, USDA Forest Service and The Ohio State University; Chris Swanston, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, USDA Forest Service
ABSTRACT: The urban forest of the Chicago Wilderness region, a 7-million-acre area covering portions of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, will face direct and indirect impacts from a changing climate over the 21st century. We developed the Urban Forestry Climate Change Response Framework to identify factors that contribute to vulnerability of the urban forest and develop strategies to adapt to those changes. An analysis of tree species vulnerability that combines model projections, shifts in hardiness and heat zones, and adaptive capacity showed that 15 percent of the trees currently present in the region have either moderate-high or high vulnerability to climate change, and many of those trees with low vulnerability are invasive species.We also developed a process for self-assessment of urban forest vulnerability that was tested by urban forestry professionals from four municipalities, three park districts, and three forest preserve districts in the region. The professionals generally rated the impacts of climate change on the places they managed as moderately negative, mostly driven by the potential effects of extreme storms and heavy precipitation on trees in the area. The capacity of organizations to adapt to climate change ranged widely based on economic, social, and organizational factors, as well as on the species and genetic diversity in the area. These organizations also developed adaptation projects using a structured adaptation process we developed. Adaptation actions selected in these locations tended to focus on increased biodiversity and restoration of natural disturbance regimes. However, adaptation actions in more developed sites also included incorporating new species or cultivars. Lessons learned from the Chicago framework are now being applied to other urban areas in the Midwest and Northeast.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:45pm - 2:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Joel S. Brown1,2, Audrey R. Freischel1,2, and Mehdi Damaghi3Moffitt Cancer Center, 12902 USF Magnolia Drive, Tampa, FL 1Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology2Cancer Biology and Evolution Program3Department of Cancer Physiology
ABSTRACT: Tumors are ecosystems populated by normal and cancer cells. Both can exhibit considerable diversity and spatial heterogeneity. Cancer cells vary in their resource uptake, modes of metabolism (glycolytic and acid producing versus more efficient oxidative phosphorylation), motility and susceptibility to the immune system. Distance to vasculature establishes gradients in cell densities and nutrients. Like riparian ecosystems, near blood may lead to denser packing of cancer cells under essentially “mesic” environments. Farther away, cells become less dense and subject to hypoxia, low glucose and acidic conditions (“xeric” environments). To examine competition between cancer cell types, we grew labeled MDA-mb-231 (viewed as highly glycolytic, aggressive, and glucose profligate) and MCF-7 breast cancer cells (viewed as less aggressive but more glucose efficient) in 96 well plates. The former were expected to do best under high glucose and low Ph; the latter under low glucose and normal Ph. Spheroids were established under all combinations of high and no glucose, low and normal Ph, and six different starting ratios. Microspheres were 3-D imaged every 24 hours. Unexpectedly, the MDA-mb-231 outcompeted the MCF-7 under all conditions. Spatially, MDA-mb-231cells were more uniformly distributed throughout the spheroid with highest densities at the outer edge where nutrients will be richest and toxic metabolites lowest. The MCF-7 formed a dense clustered ring inside the microsphere away from both the edge and center. This ring broke up into smaller clusters as they declined in numbers. MCF-7 cells’ need to adhere to each other may disadvantage them from accessing nutrients and from moving to the richer edge of the tumor. Competition assays within the context of landscape ecology permitted a more sophisticated and detailed measure of what makes for “aggressive” and successful cancer cells.
AUTHORS: James Wickham*, U.S. EPA, Kurt Riitters, U.S. Forest Service, Peter Vogt, Joint Research Centre, Jennifer Costanza, North Carolina State University, Anne Neale, U.S. EPA
ABSTRACT: Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) has been widely adopted by landscape ecologists over the past decade. A few examples of its many uses include: 1) quantifying landscape indicators and fragmentation in continental forest assessments, 2) explaining interior-exterior phase transitions on neutral maps, 3) mapping green infrastructure over large regions, and 4) ranking conservation potential. In this analysis, we use MSPA to identify candidate areas for ecological restoration. The methodological approach is based on the principle that landscape context is an important determinant of restoration success, and that a priori information on the likelihood of restoration success is an important component of site prioritization. We identified candidate areas for ecological restoration by applying MSPA to a binary representation (natural vegetation or not) of the 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) for the continental United States followed by a series of GIS routines to identify proximal but disjunct networks of natural vegetation. The non-vegetated areas separating proximal but disjunct networks were the candidate ecological restoration areas. Seventeen (17) attributes, primarily based on geographic data available from the U.S. EPA EnviroAtlas project, were developed for the candidate ecological restoration areas. The attributes, related to site content (e.g., soil productivity) and site context (e.g., surrounding natural vegetation), were included to support use of the dataset for site prioritization. Further, the number and type of attributes included should support prioritization for many different restoration objectives. We identified over 1,000,000 candidate areas across the continental United States. We discuss examples of how the database can be used to support site prioritization, including using the dataset with information from other data portals to further customize the analysis for a more localized area. The dataset is posted on the U.S. EPA EnviroAtlas website (https://enviroatlas.epa.gov/).
AUTHORS: Damilola Eyitayo*, Brian C. McCarthy – Ohio University
ABSTRACT: Habitat modification remains one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and achievement of conservation goals require an understanding of how pervasive forms of landscape modification such as utility right-of-way impact plant communities. While most studies on habitat modification have focused on animal species, particularly insects and birds, fewer studies have investigated this topic with respect to plants. In this study, I investigated the impact of utility right-of-way on plant community composition and how changes in environmental variables account for differences in species composition. By sampling vegetation along a 14-km electricity transmission right-of-way in Zaleski State Forest and in an old-field, data on plant species composition and abiotic variables such as soil pH, litter depth, organic matter content and topographic position were collected based on stratified sampling techniques. The utility right-of-way corridor had greater diversity of plant species than adjacent forest and edge habitat areas, while open areas in the old-field were dominated by a few herbaceous species. Differences in species richness between powerline corridors and open old-field areas may be due to disturbance frequency and type of management regime of these areas. In addition, site variables such as aspect and soil organic matter were significant predictors of species richness. These results support a growing sense that powerline corridors can be considered novel habitats, that if properly managed could help achieve biodiversity goals.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:45pm - 2:00pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Ashley E Larsen, UC Santa Barbara; Frederik Noack, University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT: Over the past 50 years, agricultural systems have become more simplified with fewer, high-yielding crops grown in shorter rotations on larger fields with less non-crop habitat interspersed. The trend towards simplified agricultural systems has undoubtedly led to increases in yields. Yet, there are concerns that more simplified agricultural landscapes result in increased use of pesticides and associated environmental degradation due to reduced natural enemy populations and more homogeneous crop resources. Here we elucidate how different aspects of landscape simplification at different spatial scales drive insecticide use. Using a fixed-effects panel data approach and unique data on crop production and insecticide use from over 100,000 field-level observations from Kern County, CA encompassing 2005-2013, we parse apart if and how crop diversity, field size and cropland extent affect insecticide use in practice. We show that the existence and magnitude of the effect of landscape simplification is strongly dependent on crop type and the proximity of surrounding agriculture to the focal field. These results indicate that neither the traditionally conceived ‘simplified’ nor ‘complex’ agricultural landscape is most beneficial to reducing insecticide inputs; reality is far more nuanced.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:45pm - 2:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Donald McKenzie*, US Forest Service; Maureen C. Kennedy, University of Washington; Erica A. Newman, University of Arizona
ABSTRACT: Predicting the future is hard. Landscape models face many obstacles and uncertainties. There are practical limits to model projections, such as missing data and limits to computing power, but we focus on three intrinsic limitations that are less tractable to expected ongoing improvements in modeling and data processing. (1) the “coarse-graining” problem: how to aggregate fine-scale processes to larger scales in an unbiased manner. (2) the “middle-number” problem: related to #1, but in particular affecting systems with enough elements to be intractable to brute force, but too few and too varied to be amenable to global averaging. (3) the “stationarity” problem: relationships that are valid in one environment, such as bioclimatic-envelope or other empirical models, or parameter choices in “process-based” models, change when projected onto future environments, such as a warming climate. In the context of landscape fire and vegetation models, we suggest approaches to each of these problems that involve explicit scaling laws that combine top-down and bottom-up perspectives of the dynamics. For example, coarse-graining, such as developing analogs to fire behavior and fire spread at broad spatial scales, requires quantitative metrics and algorithms that minimize error propagation across scales. This happens in both aggregation and “downscaling”: the latter being a way of representing the effects of emergent dynamics at broad scales using fine-scale physics. Similarly, addressing the stationarity problem involves understanding the interplay between top-down drivers (of fire) such as climate and bottom-up drivers such as ignitions, fuel patterns, and local topography. Quantitative scaling relationships are the key to moving forward with these difficult problems.
AUTHORS: Deyong Yu, Ruifang Hao – Beijing Normal University
ABSTRACT: The restoration of degraded vegetation can effectively improve ecosystem services, increase human well-being, and promote regional sustainable development. Understanding the dynamics, relationships, and their drivers is an important step in informing decision makers for promoting ecosystem service management and sustainable development. In this study, we analyzed the changing trends in five critical ecosystem services of net primary productivity, soil conservation, wind erosion, water yield and water retention in a typical of grasslands in North China, and quantified how climatic factors and landscape patterns affect the ecosystem services on both annual and seasonal time scales. Overall, the results indicated that vegetation restoration can effectively improve the five grassland ecosystem services, and precipitation is the most critical climatic factor. A win-win situation in terms of grassland ecosystem services can be achieved by increasing grassland aggregation, partitioning the largest grasslands, dividing larger areas of farmland into smaller patches, and increasing the area of appropriate forest stands. The relationships of ecosystem services were characterized as tradeoff and synergy in most of the current studies. Here, we found that there is another relationship, namely, constraint effect between ecosystem services, which was represented by extracting constraint line from the scatter plot. Selecting the agro-pastoral transitional zone of North China as the study area, we examined the relationships between paired ecosystem services through the method of segmented quantile regression on different levels. The results indicated that there are seven kinds of constraint effects between the ten paired ecosystem services, namely, (1) positive linear, (2) negative linear, (3) logarithmic, (4) negative concave, (5) backwards S-shaped, (6) hump-shaped, and (7) wave-shaped. The constraint line approach enriched the understanding of linkages between ecosystem services and the potential drivers and can be used by policy makers to detect and design the land use schemes in terms of ecosystem service optimization.
AUTHORS: William Hargrove*, Steve Norman – USDA Forest Service; Jitendra Kumar, Forrest Hoffman – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ABSTRACT: Interannual differences in timing of phenology make direct comparisons of vegetation health and performance between years difficult, whether at the same or different locations. By "sliding" the two phenologies in time using a Procrustean linear time shift, any particular phenological event or "completion milestone" can be synchronized, allowing direct comparison of differences in timing of other remaining milestones. Going beyond a simple linear translation, time can be "rubber-sheeted," compressed or dilated. Considering one phenology curve to be a reference, the second phenology can be "rubber-sheeted" to fit that baseline as well as possible by stretching or shrinking time to match multiple control points, which can be any recognizable phenological events or dates. Similar to "rubber sheeting" to georectify a map inside a GIS, rubber sheeting a phenology curve also yields a warping signature that shows at every time and location how many days the adjusted phenology is ahead or behind the phenological development of the reference vegetation. Using such temporal methods to "adjust" phenologies may help to quantify vegetation impacts from frost, drought, wildfire, insects and diseases by permitting the most commensurate quantitative comparisons with unaffected vegetation.
AUTHORS: Daniel Hale*, Anita T. Morzillo – University of Connecticut
ABSTRACT: Trimming or removing trees near roadside power lines is necessary to prevent power outages, but often leads to dissention among residents. Roadside vegetation management is part of a complex social-ecological decision-making system that takes place across all types of land use, and from urban to rural areas. However, little knowledge exists about resident attitudes toward vegetation management. Our objective is to understand the social and landscape factors that influence attitudes toward roadside vegetation management. Surveys were mailed to Connecticut residents in two study areas that range across urban-to-rural gradients. Survey data and other landscape factors (e.g., tree cover) were mapped and quantified at various scales. We used the machine-learning algorithm random forest to evaluate how attitudes toward vegetation management were influenced by social and landscape variables. Results suggest that the majority of respondents were favorable for the perception that those who do vegetation management are accountable, contribute to greater public safety, and minimize power outages. Respondents indicate a perception that vegetation management for reliable power is of great importance. These attitudes are influenced by social factors such as willingness to allow changes to roadside trees, prioritization of reduced outages, knowledge about trees, and patterns of basic beliefs about the environment. Results also suggest that although demographic variables vary according to urban and rural places, attitudes toward vegetation management may not be strongly predicted by landscape factors. This research offers insights on the complex factors linked with attitudes toward trees and their management across the heterogeneous landscape.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:00pm - 2:15pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Cathy D. Collins*, Bard College; Michelle H. Hersh, Sarah Lawrence College
ABSTRACT: Disease plays a key role in maintaining local plant diversity, but how and why pathogen pressure varies across landscapes is not well understood. Host and pathogen distributions in fragmented landscapes reflect not only the influence of area, isolation, and abiotic factors, but also the biotic interactions between the pathogen and its host. We examined plant richness and composition, fungal-mediated seed mortality, and seed-borne fungal diversity in an experimentally fragmented landscape in Kansas, U.S.A. We buried seeds of six plant species for a year in three landscape treatments: small patches, edges of large patches, and centers of large patches. Half of the seeds in each location were treated with fungicide. We measured germination success of exhumed seeds, and cultured fungi from seeds for identification using ribosomal DNA sequencing. If plant-pathogen interactions influence landscape-scale patterns of plant community structure in fragments, we expected to see: 1) patch size differences in the composition of seedbanks, above-ground plant communities, and seed fungal communities; and 2) pathogen-induced seed mortality that depended on where in landscape seeds were buried. For seeds buried without fungicide, landscape location was the strongest predictor of germination success. Across species, seed germination was lower in small patches, where soil temperatures were more extreme. In contrast, for seeds protected by fungicide, plant richness was a better predictor of seed mortality than patch size: fungicide provided the greatest benefits where host richness was high. Both plant and fungal community structure differed with fragment size. We also found that fungi show host preferences—a necessary condition for diversity-maintaining negative feedbacks. Our results suggest that by altering plant species richness and community composition, fragmentation alters pathogen pressure on seeds indirectly via changes in host community structure. Consequently, local plant-pathogen interactions may contribute to patterns of diversity in fragmented landscapes.
AUTHORS: Peter Cada, Michelle Schmidt – Tetra Tech, Inc.; Megan Mehaffey, Anne Neale – USEPA ORD
ABSTRACT: Planning for a sustainable future should include an accounting of services currently provided by ecosystems such as erosion control. Retention of soil not only maintains but improves soil fertility, improves water retention, and decreases sedimentation in streams and rivers thereby reducing the need for costly flood control, dredging of reservoirs and waterways, while maintaining habitat for fish and other species important to recreational and tourism industries. Previous efforts leveraged landscape-scale geospatial data available for the CONterminous United States (CONUS) to estimate sediment erosion (RUSLE-based, Renard, et al. 1997) employing recent geospatial techniques of sediment delivery ratio (SDR) estimation (Cavalli, et al. 2013). These efforts led to a quantitative approximation of the ecological services provided by vegetative cover type with respect to protecting soils from the erosion processes of detachment, transport, and deposition.Recent efforts have examined the potential impacts that changes in climate may have on sediment pollution by altering rainfall erosivity (R factor in RUSLE method). These alterations were developed using the late-21st century using Global Climate Model (GCM) data. GCM data from the aCMIP5 was statistically downscaled to the same temporal and spatial resolution as PRISM (4 km, daily) using the Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs (MACA) method (Abatzoglou and Brown, 2012). Daily precipitation and temperature data were retrieved for the CONUS from 5 GCMs with relatively low seasonal and regional biases (Mehran et al, 2014; Toreti et al, 2013; Zhu et al, 2014).Monthly hindcast (1990 – 2005) and futurecast (2070 – 2099) R factors were computed for each GCM. Relative change rasters were created for each GCM and were then used to generate future seasonal R rasters for each GCM, and subsequently seasonal sediment yields. Final products are HUC-12 scale outputs of estimated sediment loads associated with each future climate scenario for the CONUS.
AUTHORS: Andrea Santos Garcia*, Center of Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, University of São Paulo, and Global Landscape Initiative, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota; Ângela Lúcia Bagnatori Sartori, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul; Maria Victoria Ramos Ballester, Center of Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, University of São Paulo
ABSTRACT: Land use change impacts ecological processes due to both the modification of the biophysical component of the landscape and the interference on ecological interactions. Such impacts are well studied in temperate and tropical rain forests, but still poorly addressed in Neotropical Savannas -South America's second largest biome. In this study we aimed to estimate the effects of landscape changes on the reproductive activity of trees. We monitored 52 trees of the Hymenaea stignocarpa species in an area of 2000 ha for one year to analyse phenology, flowering and fruiting activity. This species presents a post-zygotic self-incompatibility and is highly associated with local fauna; thus, fruiting is not a direct product of flowering. The analysed population presented a marked reproductive seasonality. Flowering in edge areas was concentrated in January while in core areas it was in April. But no differences in seasonality between trees located in the fragment core and edge were observed for fruiting. We observed a significantly larger number of trees flowering outside core areas compared to those located inside it. However, overall fruiting activity rates also did not significantly differ between core and edge areas. Reproductive activity was related to landscape characteristics such as the distance to a fragment edge or canopy density. Larger trees located in areas with lower vegetation density were most likely to flower. On the other hand, trees surrounded by higher number of co-specifics and near forest edges were most likely to bear fruit. We argue that flowering and fruiting activity are directly or indirectly related to landscape characteristics and thus, varied spatially. Reproduction activities are dependent on the physiology of each plant. However, flowering is also modelled by availability of light while fruiting is modelled by disperser behaviour. Finally, we emphasize that attention should be paid to such patterns when managing multifunctional landscapes due to the importance of reproduction patterns in biodiversity maintenance.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:00pm - 2:15pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Lucas J. Heintzman*, Nancy E. McIntyre – Texas Tech University
ABSTRACT: We examined impacts of land-use changes from 2008 to 2016 on functional connectivity among >80,000 wetlands (regionally called playas) of the south-central Great Plains. Playas are critical habitats for amphibians, and changes in surrounding agricultural practices in terms of crop type and irrigation are likely to influence amphibian dispersal across the playa network. We examined potential challenges to amphibian dispersal by determining least-cost paths (LCP) with landscape resistance modelling approaches that incorporated USGS MIrAD-US and USDA NASS CropScape land-cover data coupled with literature-based estimates of species-specific dispersal capabilities. To assess model sensitivity we developed three scenarios that varied in their assigned resistance values among land-cover classes, using Linkage Mapper and Circuitscape software extensions in ArcMap 10.4. We then used FRAGSTATS to calculate 12 metrics to compare dispersal path configurations across years and scenarios. LCPs varied spatially across the landscape, which resulted in topological differences in LCP length and cost-weighted distance allocations by scenario and year. Overall, LCPs occupied ~25% of the landscape, with a trend toward compaction of LCPs in more resistive scenarios. However, despite these differences our study indicated that the playa network as a whole was rather insensitive to assigning different resistance values because 81% of LCP locations overlapped with at least one other scenario, and 57% of LCP locations overlapped among all three scenarios. Our findings support previous graph-based assessments of playa structural connectivity that indicated high levels of path redundancy within the network. However, although LCPs showed extensive overlap among scenarios, the vast majority of these linkages were at distances well beyond the individual lifetime dispersal maxima for regional amphibians. Thus, functional connectivity is achieved in this landscape only by spanning scales from daily movements to inter-generational dispersal.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:00pm - 2:15pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Rebecca S. Snell*, Ohio University; Ché Elkin, University of Northern British Columbia; Sven Kotlarski, Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss; Harald Bugmann, ETH Zürich
ABSTRACT: Mountain forest landscapes provide a wide range of ecosystem goods and services (e.g., timber production, protection from natural hazards, maintaining biodiversity) and are especially sensitive to climate change. Dynamic vegetation models are commonly used to project climate change impacts on forests, but the sensitivity of process-based forest landscape models to uncertainties in climate input data has received little attention, especially regarding the response of ecosystem services. Using a dry inner-Alpine valley in Switzerland as a case study, we tested the sensitivity of a process-based forest landscape model (LandClim) to different sources of baseline climate data, lapse rates, and future climate change derived from different climate model combination chains and downscaling methods.Under the current climate, differences in baseline climate accounted for the majority of the variation at lower elevations, while differences in lapse rates caused large variability at higher elevations. Under climate change, differences between climate model chains were the greatest source of uncertainty. In general, the largest differences for species were found at their individual regional distribution limits, and the largest differences for ecosystem services were found at the highest elevations. Ecosystem services were generally less sensitive to the downscaling methodology. Thus, our results suggest that the greatest uncertainty when simulating how forest ecosystem service provisioning will respond to future climate change, is due to differences between climate model chains. Despite the high computation cost, we recommend using as many climate scenarios as possible when projecting future forest response to climate change. In addition, care should be taken when evaluating climate impacts at landscape locations that are known a priori to be sensitive to climate variation, such as high-elevation forests.
AUTHORS: Qinghua Liu*, Peking University; Yanxu Liuc, Beijing Normal University; Jian Peng, Peking University; Tian Zhang, Peking University; Yingru Li, University of Central Florida; Yi’na Hu, Peking University
ABSTRACT: Land resources in mountainous areas have become severely inadequate because of accelerated urbanization and industrialization, rational land exploitation in low-slope hilly areas can solve this issue. Under the protection of ecological security, this study applied a new method that combined generalized regression neural network (GRNN) and neighborhood selection algorithm (NSA) to evaluate the land suitability with a case study in Dali Prefecture, China. Land development potential was also measured and mapped according to the area proportion of land suitable to be exploited in each township. The results demonstrated that 2139 km2 and 871 km2 of low-slope hilly land were suitable for development of farmland and construction land, respectively. Of this resource, 1687 km2 and 419 km2 were identified as single-suitability area for farmland and construction land respectively, with 452 km2 of multi-suitability area. After trade-off analysis based on NSA, the final area suitable for development of farmland and construction land were 1909 km2 and 387 km2 respectively, with 4600 km2 restricted to development. The township development priority was determined according to the land development potential, which helped for local development planning. The methodology applied in this study provides an effective way to make decisions on land development and management in mountainous areas.
AUTHORS: Matthew Garcia*, Philip A. Townsend – Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Brian R. Sturtevant, Institute for Applied Ecosystem Studies, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service
ABSTRACT: We developed novel methods for processing dense Landsat time series over the 1984-2013 period for the forests of the western Lake Superior region, USA. These methods allow us to derive mean annual phenology, to attribute deviations from that mean phenology to interannual variability in climatological conditions, and to examine further deviations from the expected phenoclimatology attributable to disturbance. The heavily-forested area of northeastern Minnesota along Lake Superior has seen numerous disturbance events within our study period: large and small fires, severe wind events, drought periods, and both focused and widespread insect outbreaks. While the more severe disturbances are often easier to identify and attribute to known causes, potentially mild and often slow-building events such as insect defoliation and drought stress can be more challenging to assess from the remote sensing perspective. We have documented observations of outbreaks of two defoliating insects, the eastern spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) and the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria), within our study area and period. Outbreak events for both of these agents were identified in the Landsat image record and led to clear departures from typical or expected interannual variability in their respective host phenology. These disturbances can be tracked from the initial event through the forest regeneration period, helping us better understand the cycles of forest disturbance and recovery that result from quasi-periodic defoliating insect outbreaks that are comparatively mild relative to stand-replacing disturbances such as fire or logging.
AUTHORS: Jeffrey D. Kline, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station
ABSTRACT: One potential research avenue to advance understanding of metropolitan-region forest socio-ecological systems involves characterizing and examining reciprocal interactions (or feedbacks) between biophysical and socioeconomic system components. Such research can help to explain system dynamics and identify potential ways to effect change through public policies to promote resilience. In this presentation, I propose a generalizable conceptual framework of urban and exurban socio-ecological systems that encompasses both internal and external, and fast and slow influencing factors. The framework provides a potential analytical structure for examining human behavior as an agent of interaction and change within socio-ecological systems. I will illustrate the conceptual framework by describing two examples of my past research that involve analysis of two different natural resource issues conducted at two different spatial scales and for two different geographies. The first example highlights landscape-level empirical analysis of landowners’ propensity to conduct wildfire risk mitigation activities as a function of landowners’ wildfire risk perceptions, past wildfire experience, and other socioeconomic factors. These interactions feature influencing factors that are mostly fast and largely internal to the relevant landscape (or socio-ecological system) of interest. A second example highlights nationwide empirical analysis of the prevalence of voter referenda providing open space conservation funding in the US as a function of open space scarcity and key socioeconomic characteristics of voters. These interactions feature influencing factors that might be considered internal to the relevant socio-ecological as perceived from a national perspective, but slow and largely external to the socio-ecological system as perceived at a more local or landscape-level spatial scales. The conceptual framework provides a plausible roadmap for designing multi- and interdisciplinary research intended to examine human behavior and its influence within urban and exurban socio-ecological systems, including evaluating potential policy approaches toward mitigating adverse impacts and incentivizing human behaviors that lead to socially desired outcomes.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:15pm - 2:30pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Kimberly A. With*, Kansas State University
ABSTRACT: Although habitat loss and fragmentation occur at a landscape scale, their effects are typically studied at a patch scale (patch area and isolation effects), thereby agitating debate over whether it is the amount or configuration of habitat that has the greater ecological effect. This patch-based view is reflected in the design of most fragmentation experiments, where the size and relative isolation of patches are manipulated to create landscape patterns (a “bottom-up” approach). Conversely, one can adopt a landscape perspective, in which the total habitat amount and overall fragmentation of the entire landscape are the focus of study (a “top-down” approach). Using fractal neutral landscape models, in which both the amount and fragmentation of habitat are adjusted independently, I created an experimental model landscape system (EMLS) in the field to investigate the relative effects of habitat amount versus fragmentation on arthropod diversity and species interactions. The EMLS comprised a replicated series of plots (16 m x 16 m) that consisted of different amounts of red clover (10-80%) arrayed as either a clumped or fragmented distribution. Although habitat amount generally had a greater effect on patterns of species diversity in this system, the effect of fragmentation was more nuanced and complex, involving both direct and indirect effects. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the effect of fragmentation was not always greatest when habitat was limiting. Furthermore, the scaling of diversity in this system demonstrates why it is not always possible to scale-up from patches to make inferences about fragmentation effects at the landscape scale. This results of this EMLS thus underscore the need for more landscape-based studies—at traditionally defined scales—that investigate the relative effects of habitat loss and fragmentation.
ABSTRACT: The U.S. National Land Cover Database (NLCD) encompasses three main products of landcover, urban imperviousness and tree canopy. NLCD was designed to provide five-year updates of product change. NLCD 2016 is expanding to include additional products of percent shrub, herbaceous and bare ground. NLCD 2016 land cover will also provide an increased frequency of two- to three-year product updates from 2001 to 2016, with new datasets that aid interpretation of the landcover change over time. The new NLCD landcover design incorporates four fundamental concepts of production including: spectral analysis, use of ancillary data with expert knowledge, shape and context, and succession and trajectory. These combine to create a land cover change product that is repeatable, consistent, and accurate, and that lays the foundation for the next generation of NLCD. In this talk, the NLCD 2016 design and product offerings will be overviewed, with special emphasis on what users can expect with the new landcover product.
AUTHORS: Samuel A. Cushman, US Forest Service; David W. Macdonald, University of Oxford; Andrew J. Loveridge, University of Oxford; Laila Bahaa-el-din, University of Kwazulu Natal; Dominic Bauer, University of Oxford; Kristen Kesch, University of Oxford; Helen Bothwell, Northern Arizona University; Nic Elliot, Kenya Wildlife Trust
ABSTRACT: Habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict are major drivers of population decline and extinction, particularly in large carnivores, such as the African lion. Landscape connectivity is critical for maintaining gene flow and reducing demographic stochasticity. While the status of National Parks is relatively secure, areas adjacent to them that link to other protected areas face the threat of conversion to land-uses that exclude wildlife. We used an empirically optimized resistance surface to calculate resistant kernel and factorial least cost path predictions of population connectivity across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area and surrounding landscape. We mapped and ranked the relative importance of (1) dispersal areas outside National Parks, (2) corridors between the key areas, and (3) areas of highest human-lion conflict risk. To increase overall connectivity of the population and reduce human-lion conflict, efforts should be made to minimize anthropogenic disturbance in the identified dispersal areas and corridors, and wildlife-related activities should be encouraged to prevent land-use conversion.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:15pm - 2:30pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Dr. Wendy McWilliam, Lincoln University, New Zealand
ABSTRACT: In some wine regions vineyard landscapes have thrived over long periods of time as biodiverse vegetation communities. Changing policies and market conditions have led to their simplification, and, although more productive, these systems are criticised for their negative social, cultural and ecological consequences. Two alternative production strategies have been debated (for intensive agricultural systems in general) to conserve or restore at least some of the ecosystem services of traditional systems. In a land sparing strategy, large areas of monoculture vineyards are focused on the most capable land and marginal areas are set aside for nature conservation. However, this system is criticised for mitigating few intensive system environmental impacts and for its infrequent implementation among landowners who see few benefits to setting aside their land for nature conservation. A second alternative is the conservation or restoration of some of the elements of traditional land sharing strategies that integrate green infrastructure (non-vine vegetation) into the vineyard production systems rather than segregate it. However, these systems may to be less productive, less efficient, and riskier. They also may not be implemented if they do not provide sufficient benefit to vineyard owners. There is a need for studies that evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of alternative systems toward the identification of more sustainable alternatives. Toward that end, in-depth, semi-structured, face to face interviews were conducted with vineyard owners and managers of Willamette valley, Oregon, U.S. vineyards to evaluate their combined sparing and sharing strategy. Questions answered include: What green infrastructure is in place? What services/disservices does it provide? Why do vineyards conserve and restore it? What are the enablers and barriers to its conservation and restoration? And, what lessons can be learned to advance the conservation and restoration of more biodiverse vineyard systems while ensuring an acceptable level of production?
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:15pm - 2:30pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Matthew Peters, Louis Iverson – USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station
ABSTRACT: Downscaled climate projections from general circulation models (GCM) are widely used to evaluate potential scenarios of climate change. However, many evaluations focus on changes in precipitation and temperature, but rarely examine the potential interactions of the two. We calculated monthly self-calibrated Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) values for the period 1980 – 2099 using interpolated climate and downscaled GCM data under the representative concentration pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 for the conterminous United States. A snowmelt function was used to account for precipitation occurring during the winter, and soil moisture to a depth of 150 cm allows us to better examine drought and moisture conditions for trees, which have deep root systems that can access water well below the surface. The time-series PDSI were evaluated among three future periods (2010 – 2039, 2040 – 2069, 2070 – 2099) against the calibration period (1981 – 2010) to formulate a cumulative drought severity index (CDSI) and a cumulative moisture severity index (CMSI). The CDSI and CMSI weight the intensity of conditions by the frequency for a period (e.g., 30 years), resulting in a single value. Results from the GCMs evaluated indicate that for much of the U.S., more intense or frequent drought conditions are expected as compared to the calibration period, though differences are apparent among the two RCPs by the end of the century.
AUTHORS: Caitlin Cunningham*, Peter Tyedmers, Kate Sherren – Dalhousie University
ABSTRACT: This study utilized the InVEST pollination model to investigate the impacts of using field data on ecosystem services mapping studies by using potential pollination services in Cumberland and Colchester counties in Nova Scotia, Canada as a case study. The model was run using two different sources of data to inform the floral resource component of the model. First, the model was driven by proxies and approximate values gathered from the literature. The second iteration of the model utilized field-based data to generate floral resource abundance and distribution values. Both models utilized honey bee-specific species preference data drawn from field observations and expert opinion in the literature. Results indicated an 8.1% increase in the amount of land designated as high quality when the model was informed by field-based data. Such discrepancies are important when considering the potential implications of ecosystem services mapping studies on policy. As a tool, ecosystem services mapping provides the opportunity to spatially evaluate the impact that different land use planning regimes could have on the supply and provision of various ecosystem services. However, as its popularity rises it is important to keep in mind the accuracy and resolution of the data used to inform the modelling process.
AUTHORS: Zhiyue Xia, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, The Pennsylvania State University; Laura Leites, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, The Pennsylvania State University; Douglas Miller, Department of Geography and Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, The Pennsylvania State University; Andrew Liebhold, US Forest Service Northern Research Station, Morgantown, WV
ABSTRACT: The Gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, is an exotic forest pest that was introduced to the USA in 1869. Since then it has spread continuously across the majority of the northeastern US. Larvae of this insect prefer feeding on oak species, although other species also serve as host trees. During outbreak, larvae defoliate forests across large regions and repeated defoliation can predispose the trees to attacks by secondary insect pests or fungal infections causing tree mortality. Gypsy moth outbreaks are episodic and are difficult to predict. Development of forecasting models remains a challenge despite their potential usefulness in effectively mobilizing resources to deal with the outbreaks. Previous studies indicate that vegetation attributes measured through remote sensing, as well as terrain, and climate characteristics influence the likelihood gypsy moth outbreaks. In addition, temporal and spatial variables describing the cyclic and spatial patterns of the outbreaks could be very valuable in forecasting outbreaks.In this study, we develop a model that forecasts gypsy moth outbreaks using Pennsylvania as a case study. We use systematic sampling and locate 8,424 sampling points across forest areas of Pennsylvania and focus on outbreaks during the time period 200-2016 to train the model. For each point, a large suite of temporal and spatial predictor variables are derived from remote sensing, climate, topographic and inventory data, while the occurrence of the outbreak is obtained from annual outbreak sketch maps. We use the machine learning modeling algorithm Random Forests which has a well-documented predictive ability and can deal with a large number of variables. We present modeling results and an assessment of the model performance that focuses on hindcasting outbreaks during the period 1980-1990. An accurate forecasting model will be of critical importance for projecting the spatial extent of future outbreaks and for forest management planning.
AUTHORS: Kristin Floress*, US Forest Service; Allison Frederick, Lake County Forest Preserves; Paul Gobster, US Forest Service
ABSTRACT: The Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois is engaging in strategic projects to eradicate common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) – a woody invasive plant that crowds out and replaces native plants - from the county. One such project is located at Middlefork Savanna, a Forest Preserve property in Lake Forest that is surrounded by private property. Recognizing that buckthorn eradication must occur beyond public land boundaries in order to be successful, the Forest Preserves partnered with US Forest Service Northern Research Station social scientists to understand the best ways of working with residents to control buckthorn at a landscape scale. The Forest Preserves surveyed nearby landowners to understand the extent to which buckthorn exists on residential properties, owners’ past actions and future intent with regard to removal, and factors that could constrain or facilitate these actions. In this presentation, we discuss results of the survey along with how Lake County Forest Preserves is using the information to inform their outreach efforts and support behavior change related to buckthorn among private landowners in the county.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:30pm - 2:45pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Amanda E Martin*, Lenore Fahrig – Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Research Laboratory, Carleton University
ABSTRACT: Human land use intensification – including urbanization, intensive agriculture, and increasing road density – can put wildlife species at risk of extinction. Most researchers expect that sedentary species are more sensitive to land use intensification than dispersive species, because dispersive species can recolonize or rescue local populations in a patchy landscape. This has led some conservation biologists and land managers to prioritize conservation of sedentary over dispersive species. Here we ask whether this is a reasonable strategy. Should we expect that sedentary species are generally more sensitive to the negative effects of land use intensification than dispersive species? And, under what conditions (if any) should we expect the opposite? We conducted a quantitative review using the results from 83 cross-species observational, experimental, or meta-analytic studies reporting 486 effects of species dispersal ability on their responses to land use intensification. As expected, sedentary species were typically more sensitive to the negative effects of land use intensification than dispersive species. Nevertheless, ~30% of the time dispersive species were more sensitive than sedentary species. Our analyses also suggest that the effect of dispersal ability on species’ sensitivity to land use intensification varies among taxa. For invertebrates and plants, sedentary species were typically more sensitive than dispersive species. In contrast, for vertebrates, dispersive species were typically more sensitive than sedentary species, and the same was true when comparing across taxonomic groups. Our findings suggest that one cannot simply assume that sedentary species are more sensitive to land use intensification than dispersive species.
ABSTRACT: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been collecting and publishing data on the nation’s water resources for well over a century. Recently the USGS has teamed up with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to create a shallow groundwater model of the CONUS that is producing national-scale maps of water-table depth, vadose zone conditions, and stream base flow at a 250-m resolution. The groundwater-flow system, driven by a recent USGS estimate of the magnitude and distribution of groundwater recharge across the CONUS, was simulated using the USGS code MODFLOW. It currently uses a single model layer and simulates an average depth to the water table and base flow to streams. The model has been calibrated to several thousand water levels in wells and to base-flow estimates at several hundred stream gages. Other USGS nation-wide data sets used to create the model include the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), the NHD+ stream network, the National Wetlands Inventory, and a recent map of the surficial geology. A number of hydrologic variables and parameters have been calculated using the model, and are being made available for visualizing at, and downloading from, the USEPA EnviroAtlas. These include long-term averages of recharge, transmissivity, specific yield, soil-water content, water-table depth, residence time of water in the vadose zone, and base flow to streams and rivers. The data is being made available at the 250-m raster format or compiled and averaged at the HUC-12 watershed scale. An estimate of the groundwater age distribution of base flow in streams is also being currently mapped at the HUC-12 scale.
AUTHORS: Grant Paton*, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Alexandra Shoffner, Michigan State University; Andrew Wilson, Gettysburg College, Sara Gagné, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
ABSTRACT: As humans continue moving to urban areas, there is a growing need to understand the effects of urban intensification on native wildlife populations. Forest species in remnant habitat are particularly vulnerable to urban intensification, but the mechanisms behind these effects are poorly understood. The objective of our study was to identify the traits that best explained variation in the responses of forest bird species to urbanization intensity. To do so, we used occurrence data for 58 forest species derived from 16,541 forested point counts from the Second Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas. For each species, we estimated the effect of urbanization intensity on occurrence at each of ten landscape scales, controlling for other measures of landscape heterogeneity, local habitat attributes, and species detectability, using generalized linear models and an information theoretic approach. From these analyses we extracted the largest effect size for urbanization intensity across scales for each species. Effect sizes ranged from -1.49 to 0.90, with a mean ± SE of -0.36 ± 0.49. We then collated data on multiple traits for each species from field guides and published literature. We also collected song traits from species recordings. Trait data will be used as predictors of variation in urbanization intensity effect sizes among species in phylogenetic regression models. Preliminary results indicate that use of nest cavities, clutch size, clutches per year, fledgling success, sociality, frugivory, granivory, lifespan, nesting height, offspring’s duration in nest, omnivory, biparental nest construction, sedentarism, mean song frequency, and song length are positively associated with urbanization intensity effect sizes, whereas foraging height, song frequency range, and territory size are negatively associated. Our results will identify species traits that facilitate or hinder a species’ ability to utilize urban environments. Species with inhibiting traits can then be prioritized in urban conservation programs.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:30pm - 2:45pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Tyler N. Turner,* Karen Root – Bowling Green State University
ABSTRACT: Bats play an important role in the ecosystems they inhabit as pollinators, nutrient cyclers, and integral parts of food webs. Insectivorous bats are major sources of pest control and have great financial value to agriculture. Unfortunately, bats face numerous threats worldwide and habitat loss and degradation are the leading causes for species declines. Agricultural expansion is part of this loss and has increased rapidly over the last 35 years. It is imperative to know how bats are using human dominated landscapes to better manage these species. This study looked at three different landscape types and the features within them to see how they affected bat activity, diversity, and distribution. A 105 square kilometer study site was chosen in the Oak Openings Region of northwest Ohio, a biodiversity hotspot within a human modified landscape. This site included natural, agricultural and mosaic (mixed use with residential, small farms, and forest patches) habitat configurations. This study examined foraging activity of the region's eight native bat species using acoustic monitors to record feeding calls. We recorded 650 calls and all eight species utilizing mobile driving transects from May through September over the course of 35 nights (165 total transects driven). Individuals were mapped with ArcGIS using GPS coordinates associated with each call file. Both environmental (e.g. wind speed, temperature humidity) and habitat (e.g. distance to water, canopy cover, vegetation height) variables were measured. While bat activity was significantly lower in agricultural landscapes (p=0.04, Pearsons Test), we found there was only a slight decrease in activity between natural to mosaic landscapes. Furthermore, species diversity was greater (8 total species, Simpson's Diversity=0.615) in mosaic landscapes than in natural (6 species, Simpson's=0.588) or agricultural areas (5 species, Simpson's=0.415). This suggests that bats likely benefit from the heterogeneity of these mosaic landscapes.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:30pm - 2:45pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Sheila Saia, Kelly Suttles – ORISE U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station and North Carolina State University; David Wear, John Coulston, James Vose – U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station and North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT: Global Change Models project an increase in the frequency and magnitude of storm events in the Southeastern United States in the next several decades. Additionally, urban development in this region is expected to double by 2060 and this growth will likely intensify discrepancies between water supply and demand. Communities unable to adapt to climate-induced changes in water resources may experience adverse social and economic impacts. To address these concerns, we use the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to project future stream discharge under four future climate change scenarios. We combine SWAT results and 2010 socio-economic vulnerability data (i.e., the social vulnerability index; SoVI) derived from Census data to prioritize future (2050-2070) county-based climate change preparedness efforts in the Upper Yadkin-Pee Dee (UYPD) Watershed, North Carolina, USA. SWAT results indicate moderate variability in the percent change of low outlier flows (LOFs; daily stream discharge +3s from mean) between future climate scenarios. General trends suggest that lower parts of the UYPD are projected to have more HOFs as well as more days with no streamflow—this translates to more extreme streamflow events. SoVI data indicate that communities in lower parts of the UYPD lack permanent housing and have limited access to transportation. Therefore, by combining SWAT outcomes and SoVI data, this study offers a science-based decision support method to prioritize future (2050-2070) county-based climate change preparedness efforts.
AUTHORS: Jenna Narducci*, Boise State University; Cristina Quintas Soriano, Boise State University; Dainee Gibson, Idaho State University; Jodi Brandt, Boise State University
ABSTRACT: Urbanization poses complex challenges for balancing sustainable environmental management with human well-being. Many areas of the western US are experiencing rapid urbanization as people move to the region for a high quality of life. However, urbanization has major impacts on ecosystem services (ES), and therefore human well-being, making it important for decision-makers to understand the consequences and trade-offs that occur with urbanization. Given recent urbanization, the Treasure Valley, Idaho is a useful case study to explore a) what ES people value, and b) how those ES may change with future urbanization. We conducted a survey of over 400 people to gauge people’s perceived importance of ES and perceived impacts to ES by urbanization. We measured whether perceptions differ between social groups, particularly between the general public and decision-makers. We then applied urban growth projections to current land use-land cover (LULC), identifying trade-offs between groups based on people’s preferences for ES and associated LULC. For example, we found significant differences in preferences for ES between decision-makers and the general public, as well as differences in preferences based on political affiliation, residency length, and gender. Experts are three times more likely to choose regulating ES (e.g. water quality) as most important over all other ES. Experts and the general public similarly perceive urban areas as negatively affecting regulating ES — however, only 1% of experts perceive negative impacts to cultural ES (e.g. cultural heritage) by urban areas as opposed to over 25% of the general public. These observed differences indicate a need to elicit social values in order to appropriately incorporate diverse perspectives in planning to ensure policy resilience. Our social survey approach can be applied in other study areas to illuminate ES-human relationships across a variety of contexts where urbanization is the dominant land use change dynamic.
ABSTRACT: The pressures of the Anthropocene threaten the future of humanity: extraction of increasingly limited natural resources; pollution of air and water; loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services; rapidly increasing human populations; all compounded by a changing climate. Urban forests, trees, and greenspace make cities more pleasant and livable places for urban residents. Urban forests produce environmental benefits—e.g., carbon sequestration, stormwater management, air pollution reduction—and economic benefits—e.g., decreased energy costs—that can lessen the impacts of the stressors of the Anthropocene on cities. However, the social benefits of urban forests—e.g., increased social capital and social cohesion, community capacity—can also contribute to the ability of neighborhoods and urban residents to respond to the pressures of the Anthropocene. Social benefits accrue to individuals and groups as a result of trees and greenspace in cities, including benefits resulting from participation in acts of greening. In this talk, I review recent urban forestry research to make a case for how the social benefits of urban forestry contribute to the sustainability and resilience of urban areas in the Anthropocene.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:45pm - 3:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Paulson Des Brisay*, Patricia Rosa, Christoph Ng, Nicola Koper – University of Manitoba
ABSTRACT: Landscape ecology is often criticized for describing species distribution patterns, but failing to determine the mechanisms that explain those patterns. In addition, landscape ecology tends to focus on species distributions and coarse measures of productivity, to accommodate the vast spatial scales over which sampling must occur; however, this further compromises our abilities to understand mechanisms behind landscape-scale patterns. We illustrate how landscape-scale manipulative experiments can allow us to overcome these problems. As anthropogenic noise becomes more prevalent across habitats, its impacts on wildlife remain difficult to assess. To disentangle effects of industrial noise from confounding factors (i.e. well presence, human activity, roads), we developed a high-fidelity solar-powered broadcasting system to reproduce sound from wells in sites without wells. We are comparing these “noisy” sites with sites with no wells, sites containing broadcasting equipment that is turned off, sites with real and active wells, and sites with real wells that are turned off (silent); we are evaluating impacts of these treatments on abundance, nesting success, clutch size, age structure, body condition, stress physiology, adult and fledgling survival, communication, and parental care at nests of grassland songbirds. We found negative effects of noise exposure per se on nesting success of Chestnut-collared Longspurs, Savannah Sparrows and Sprague’s Pipits, and on abundance of Chestnut-collared Longspurs and Vesper Sparrows. Female Chestnut-collared Longspurs, but not males, showed elevated corticosterone levels near noise playbacks, and noise explains some but not all negative effects of wells on parental care. However, noise did not explain variation in age structure or body size. The experimental design was essential and effective in allowing us to quantify the reasons for edge effects from wells on diverse fitness-related parameters. Our results demonstrate that both noise reduction and minimizing the footprint of above-ground infrastructure are necessary for mitigating effects of oil and gas development.
AUTHORS: Jeffrey W. Hollister*, W. Bryan Milstead – US Environmental Protection Agency
ABSTRACT: In the last several years scientific reproducibility has been a hot topic with several fields openly struggling with reproducing and replicating research results. One of the key tools to address reproducibility is the use of open source software. Increasingly in ecology, the R language for statistical computing is the open source software of choice for analysis and programming tasks. Our research group has also made the choice to invest in the use of R for our work. In this poster we share examples of how we use R to help build an open foundation for our work on understanding how water quality, landscapes, and limnological processes interact to control cyanobacteria blooms. In particular we discuss three R packages - `lakemorpho`, `elevatr`, and `goatscape` - that we have developed to facilitate our research. The `lakemorpho` package provides the ability to more easily reproduce calculation of lake morphometry metrics. One of the data requirements for `lakemorpho` is access to elevation data. In response to this need, we developed `elevatr` to provide access to digital elevation models and point elevation estimates for anywhere in the world. Lastly, we are developing `goatscape` to provide the ability to reproducibly summarize key landscape metrics within an input landscape polygon. While these tools have direct applications to landscape and limnological research, they are more broadly conceived such that they can benefit the larger landscape ecology community and help facilitate openness and reproducibility of a variety of landscape ecological research efforts.
AUTHORS: Brandon MacDougall*, Heather Sander – University of Iowa
ABSTRACT: Urban habitats, however small, fragmented, or degraded they may be, are becoming increasingly important areas for species conservation. In recent years, patterns of urban biodiversity have been identified and described for many groups of organisms; however, these studies have generally been conducted in large urban conglomerates. Much less is known about these patterns of diversity for small cities, as well as for cities located where expansive, non-urban habitat degradation has occurred, such as the vast agricultural region of the American Midwest. This lack of knowledge is an impediment to species conservation in these cities, where a higher proportion of tree cover and a greater mix of habitat diversity (when compared to the surrounding landscape) may provide unique opportunities for native species that remain. This study strives to address the impacts of urbanization on meso-predator species presence in an urban area located within an agricultural matrix. We monitor the presence and distribution of these species using motion-detecting cameras, with sampling sites covering a wide spectrum of variability in landscape structure along an urban-rural gradient in Iowa City, Iowa. Meso-predator species in this area vary in their response to urbanization; however, overall species diversity is positively correlated with site variables such as patch size and distance to riparian corridors, and less related to attributes corresponding to urbanization intensity. These findings can support efforts to retain ecological balance in human-dominated landscapes through the preservation of a wide range of meso-predator species.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:45pm - 3:00pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Leroy Walston*, Shruti Mishra, Heidi Hartmann, Ihor Hlohowskyj – Argonne National Laboratory; James McCall, Jordan Macknick – National Renewable Energy Laboratory
ABSTRACT: Of the many roles insects serve for ecosystem function, plant pollination is possibly the most important service directly linked to human well-being. However, global land conversion associated with agricultural intensification and energy development has paradoxically contributed to the decline of pollinator habitat and their populations. In agricultural landscapes that also support renewable energy developments such as utility-scale solar energy (USSE) facilities, opportunities exist to conserve insect pollinators and restore their ecosystem services through vegetation management approaches that aim to provide and maintain pollinator habitat at USEE facilities ("solar-pollinator habitat"). As a first step towards understanding the potential agricultural benefits of solar-pollinator habitat, we developed a broad-scale GIS-based approach to identify areas of overlap between USSE facilities and surrounding pollinator-dependent crop types. Our results indicate that there are over 3,500 km2 of agricultural land near existing and planned USSE facilities that may benefit from insect pollinators. The following five most abundant pollinator-dependent crop types account for over 90% of the agriculture near USSE facilities that could benefit from pollinator habitat at existing and planned USSE facilities: soybeans, alfalfa, cotton, almonds, and citrus. We also discuss how our results may be used to understand potential agro-economic implications of solar-pollinator habitat. Our results suggest the potential for ecosystem service restoration at USSE facilities which could improve the landscape compatibility of these and other large-scale renewable energy developments.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 2:45pm - 3:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Bharat Sharma, Northeastern University; Jitendra Kumar, Forrest M. Hoffman, Nathan Collier – Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Auroop Ganguly, Northeastern University
ABSTRACT: Increasing trends in carbon dioxide concentration (CO2) has led to the increasing interest in understanding the sources and sinks of carbon. Land-based sink accounts for almost thirty percent of the total global CO2 uptake, most of which is taken up by plants through photosynthesis. Gross Primary Production (GPP) and Net Primary Production (NEP) are often used as a measure for the land-based sink. Previous studies have found the impacts of an increase in GPP and NPP to be diminishing towards the end of 21st century relative to the overall increase in the global carbon emission. However, not many studies look at model outputs beyond the 21st century.Recent observations show an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events due to changing climate. The traditional way of finding the extreme events after a definition of a threshold, focus on a spatial location and performing statistics on the time series on every pixel, but most extreme events have spatial continuity. A few studies have defined spatial-temporal continuous extreme events but in-depth analysis of the structuring element that defines feature connections is needed. The number of detected extreme events, the extent in space and time, and impact of the extreme event depends highly on the structuring element.Using the Community Earth Science Model – Biogeochemistry (CESM1-BGC), this study aims to detect spatial-temporal continuous extreme events based on different structuring elements that define feature connections. The scope of this study is focused on the detection of global spatial-temporal extreme events with consecutive 25-year time periods. The aim is to extend the analysis on the basis of plant-functional types as well. The results of this study would improve our understanding of spatial-temporal carbon cycle extreme events.
AUTHORS: Andrew B. Reinmann, Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center, CUNY*; Lucy R. Hutyra, Boston University; Ian A. Smith, Boston University; Jonathan R. Thompson, Harvard Forest
ABSTRACT: Twenty percent of the world’s remaining forests are within 100 m of a forest edge, yet much of our understanding of forest carbon balance and its environmental drivers is largely derived from intact forest ecosystems. This creates a mismatch between the landscapes we study and those we aim to characterize, particularly for urban and human-dominated landscapes where forest fragmentation is pervasive. Forest fragmentation profoundly impacts growing conditions through the creation of edge effects that produce gradients in microclimate, biogeochemistry, and stand structure. Using a combination of field measurements and data synthesis, we are quantifying the drivers of temperate forest carbon cycling response to edge effects, characterizing vegetative growth, respiration, and forest structure. We find large gradients in air and soil temperature, vapor pressure deficit, and soil moisture from the forest interior to edge and the magnitude of this gradient is inversely correlated to the size of the forest edge growth enhancement. Further, leaf area index increases with proximity to the forest edge. While we also find a ~20% increase in soil respiration between the forest interior and edge, this flux is small relative to the near-doubling of aboveground growth near the edge. Forest growth is also more sensitive to climate near the edge than in the interior, with projected increases in heat stress having the potential to substantially reduce the magnitude of the forest edge growth enhancement. These findings represent an important advancement in our understanding of forest C cycle response to edge effects and will greatly improve our capacity to constrain biogenic C fluxes in fragmented and heterogeneous landscapes.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 3:30pm - 3:45pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Jane Capozzelli*, Masters Student; Dr. Jim Miller, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies – Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT: Due to fire suppression and overgrazing, woody encroachment has emerged as the greatest contemporary source of habitat loss and degradation of grasslands in the region. One strategy that may reduce woody encroachment is the fire-grazing interaction, which has gained traction on large and small reserves because it restores ecosystem function by recoupling fire and grazing. To understand whether this practice reduces woody encroachment we surveyed the composition, abundance, and morphology of woody plants on 11 experimental pastures. We utilized a long-term experiment with three fire and grazing treatments (patch-burn-graze [n = 4], graze-and-burn [n = 4], and burn-only [n = 3]). Each pasture was divided into three patches. In the patch-burn-graze treatment, one patch was burned annually. Cattle had free access to the entire pasture, but preferentially grazed the most recently burned patch more intensively than the other patches. The graze-and-burn treatment had one pasture-wide burn every three years with free access for cattle. The burn-only treatment had one pasture-wide burn every three to five years and no grazing. We established 120 100-x-2-m belt transects (6 – 17 per pasture) and recorded the species, the number of stems, and the maximum height of every plant > 0.5 m tall. In 2017, we sampled 4983 plants of 37 species. The burn-only treatment had the highest abundance of woody plants, driven largely by sprawling patches of Rubus allegheniensis (Allegheny blackberry). Woody plants were slightly less abundant in the patch-burn-graze than in the graze-and-burn treatment. Based on plant morphology, we found that cattle consumed woody plants in the patch-burn-graze treatment, but avoided eating them in the graze-and-burn treatment. Grazing damage likely increases plants’ susceptibility to fire, which may maintain low densities of woody plants long-term.
AUTHORS: Sean A. Woznicki, Jeremy Baynes, Stephanie Panlasigui, Megan Mehaffey, Anne Neale – U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development/National Exposure Research Laboratory/Systems Exposure Division/Ecological and Human Community Analysis Branch
ABSTRACT: Floodplains perform several important ecosystem services, including storing water during precipitation events and reducing peak flows, thereby reducing flooding of adjacent communities. Understanding the relationship between flood inundation and floodplains is critical for ecosystems’ and communities’ health and well-being, as well as targeting floodplain and riparian restoration. Many communities in the United States, particularly those in rural areas, lack flood inundation maps due to the high cost of flood modeling. Only 60% of the conterminous United States has been mapped through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) program. Therefore, we developed a 30-meter resolution flood inundation map of the conterminous United States using random forests with existing FIRM 100-year floodplains as training data. Random forests are an ensemble machine learning method for classification, and have been used in the past for applications such as land cover classification and disaster identification. Input datasets included digital elevation model (DEM)-derived variables, flood-related soil characteristics, and land cover. Models were trained and tested at the hydrologic unit code level two (HUC-2) scale and each 30-m pixel in the CONUS was classified as floodplain or not-floodplain. The most important variables were typically vertical distance to channel and overland flow distance (both DEM derivatives) and soils’ dominant flood frequency class (e.g. rare, occasional, frequent), although their relative importance varied by HUC. Classification accuracy was used the F1 statistic, which balances precision and recall of the model when compared to the FIRMs. The models performed well in the eastern and Midwest CONUS, but were less robust in the arid southwest, likely due to greater topographic complexity, coarser soils data, and lack of quality model training data. However, the overall performance of the random forest models in this context demonstrates the method’s ability to complete the remaining unmapped floodplains in the CONUS. Keywords: floodplains, machine learning, random forest, ecosystem services
AUTHORS: Hayley R. Tumas*, Brian Shamblin, Nathan P. Nibbelink – University of Georgia; Mark Woodrey, Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve; Richard Chandler, Campbell J. Nairn – University of Georgia
ABSTRACT: Common species important for ecological restoration and ecosystem processes are understudied in landscape genetics, but stand to lose as much genetic diversity as rare species from habitat fragmentation. Genetic diversity, maintained in fragmented populations through gene flow, is critical for successful restoration and conserving adaptive potential in a changing climate. Salt marshes are ecosystems valuable to humans and wildlife that are in widespread decline nationally and globally. Black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus Scheele) is the dominant foundational plant species in northeastern Gulf of Mexico salt marshes, and a target species for restoration in the area. We used 19 microsatellite markers to measure levels of genetic and genotypic diversity and characterize population structure in this important clonal macrophyte. Least cost transect analysis (LCTA) was used within a model selection framework to delineate potential dispersal pathways and identify landscape factors (wetland, ocean, forest cover, developed land) influencing population connectivity. Genetic and genotypic diversity were greater than expected for a species believed to use predominantly clonal reproduction, and samples structured into two admixed clusters across the study area. The proportion of developed land across coastal transects and Euclidean distance had the greatest influence on population connectivity, and coastal transects were identified as important for dispersal. Results have important implications for restoration and management techniques that aim to preserve adaptive potential in J. roemerianus and sustain ecosystem processes throughout the salt marsh. This study expands upon an understudied taxon and ecosystem, and demonstrates methodology that could be applied to other common, understudied species.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 3:30pm - 3:45pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Scott M. Starr*, Nancy E. McIntyre – Texas Tech University
ABSTRACT: Over time humans have changed the landscape to suit their needs. In the Southern High Plains of North America, the main land-cover types are agricultural and native and replanted grassland. Scattered throughout this landscape are thousands of playa wetlands that are the primary source of aboveground freshwater. As runoff-fed wetlands, playas are susceptible to changes in the surrounding landscape, which can affect a playa’s ability to hold water (inundation). We used remotely sensed imagery and data from the USDA Census of Agriculture to assess land-use changes and playa inundation in 7874 playa basins in a ~34,000 km2 area of Texas during six years that contained higher than average precipitation for the region (1986, 1987, 1996, 1997, 2007, 2008). Land use during the late growing season (48-day window from late August through early October) was assessed for five categories (agriculture, rangeland/grassland, barren, developed, water) within 100 m of each playa as well as across the focal landscape. Changes across the landscape were observed over the surveyed time period. Significant differences among land uses were found between and within years around dry and wet playas. There were more dry playas classified as crop, rangeland/grassland, and barren during all years except 1986, when more wet playas were classified in these land-use categories. Over the 23-year period, a decrease in the number of wet playas was observed, with a loss of 45.5% of functioning playas (max: 59.8% (1986); min 14.3% (2008)). Mean patch size and overall area of rangeland/grassland increased over time, possibly due in part to conservation efforts in the area; other land-use types consequently decreased, but agriculture remained a dominant land-use type throughout. Finally, there was a switch to center-pivot irrigation and an overall increase in irrigated crop acreage. Because playas are crucial habitats, these changes have likely affected regional biodiversity.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 3:30pm - 3:45pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Yoganand Balagurunathan, Ph.D., Parra Andres Nestor, Ph.D. – Cancer Imaging and Metabolism, Radiology; Hong Li, MD, Cancer Imaging and Metabolism, Radiology and Tianjin Medical University and Cancer Hospital, China; Robert Gatenby, MD, H.L. Moffitt Cancer Center; Joel Brown, Ph.D., Department of Ecology, University of Chicago; Robert J. Gillies, Ph.D., Cancer Imaging and Metabolism, Radiology and H.L. Moffitt Cancer Center
ABSTRACT: Cancer Imaging provides a non-invasive diagnostic tool for disease identification and monitoring. Recently, quantification of tumor regions and sub-regions (Radiomics) provides an objective means for relating imaging to patient outcome. We see parallels between regions within tumors and the ecological concept of Biomes. Tumor regions vary in cell density, nutrient profusion, immune infiltration and “physical” characteristics such as hypoxia and pH. Genomics assists in identifying sub clonal populations. We see the structure of tumors as resulting from Darwinian evolution and ecological feedbacks between the evolving cancer cells and their environment including normal cells. Ultimately, intra-tumoral heterogeneities and the evolution of resistance limit the effectiveness of targeted therapies. Functional imaging, such as multi-parametric magnetic resonance (mpMRI) allows us to characterize the cancer tissues diffusion (cell density) and perfusion (blood flow); features are known to differ distinctly from the normal tissues. Limitation of targeted therapies driven by intra-tumoral heterogeneities has been a leading cause for proliferative cancers. We use principles of ecology and evolution to identify habitats in prostate cancer based on imaging of the cancer regions. The Image observed habitats (tumor like) are then characterized by imaging features across a patient population. After removing redundant features in the population, discriminant functional analysis on these features was used to relate the habitats to conventional grade of the cancer. Habitat features identify aggressive forms of prostate cancer (Gleason = 7) from the indolent forms (Gleason = 6), the Area under receiver operator characteristics was 0.72. Adding descriptors from the habitats onto the mpMRI characteristics (T2-weighted) improves the ability to discriminate between high grade prostate cancers (AUC of 0.84). The use of habitats in imaging shows promise in finding cancer sub-populations with distinct morphological characteristics. Which are analogically similar to ecological principals to find terrain suitable for sustenance of species of interest (aggressive cancer).
AUTHORS: Greg Gustafson*, Dr. Karen Root – Bowling Green State University
ABSTRACT: Oak savanna and its associated species in the Midwest United States are being depleted and degraded. Oak savanna, a globally rare ecosystem, is dwindling because of hardwood encroachment, agricultural conversion and fire suppression. Disturbance is critical in an oak savanna ecosystem to maintain proper habitat structures for native species. Land management practices like herbicide applications, mechanical vegetation removal, and prescribed fire are all utilized to restore and maintain these early successional and native habitats in Northwest Ohio by subduing tree encroachment. Land management plays a key role in altering the structure of the landscape and subsequently the abundance and diversity of the wildlife in those areas. To examine these relationships we surveyed 15 savannas in two parks in Lucas County, Northwest Ohio. Point counts were conducted to observe avian and mammalian species day and night, May to October. We also used camera traps to assess larger wildlife within sites. Management data, provided by land managers, was aggregated per site via GIS and compared to diversity and abundance measures. Our analysis, using a pairwise correlation test, found that increasing management instances per site yielded a significantly higher avian abundance per site (p=0.0417). We also found, using non-parametric Spearman's test, that sites with more instances of prescribed fires had a greater abundance of snags (p=0.025). These snags provide a critical resource for many wildlife species including Red-headed woodpeckers, which were significantly and positively related to snag density (Non-parametric Spearman's test, p=0.0475). GIS analysis yielded a relationship between percent savanna within 500 meters around each site and White-tailed Deer abundance followed by a pairwise correlation test (p=0.0432). At large scales landscape features appear to affect the abundance of larger vertebrates in these oak savanna habitats. Adaptive management practices are critical to sustaining the landscape structure of these globally rare oak savanna ecosystems.
AUTHORS: Colin Phifer*, Michigan Technological University
ABSTRACT: Ecosystem services (ES) provide essential goods and services to human communities, but many of these services can be impacted by land-use change. In Entre Ríos province, near the city of Concordia, in northeastern Argentina, large-scale eucalyptus plantations are replacing ranchlands and annual crops as the dominant land use. These afforested eucalyptus plantations represent a new land use in a region that was is part of the Pampas grassland. Favorable government policies and market conditions will likely result in the expansion of large-scale monocultures of even-aged eucalyptus stands with unknown consequences for multiple ecosystem services. To clarify and quantify the potential trade-offs between expanding plantations and ecosystem services, we modeled changes in carbon sequestration, pollination services, and avian biodiversity with InVEST ecosystem service software using both primary and secondary data sources. We first estimated these three ES for a 2013 baseline land use/land cover (LULC) map. We then considered the changes to ES for two future plausible scenarios, one representing a major expansion of eucalyptus and one that limits plantation expansion but increases fruit orchards, a plausible scenario based on interview and survey results with the community. Overall, community members valued the economic opportunities that plantations can provide but also were concerned about the scale of the plantations, changes in the environment, and changes in the culture and ways of life. Respondents were also aware of possible changes to ES and many reported seeing perceived changes in the environment as a result of the plantations. Our results suggest that the expansion of eucalyptus may cause potential declines of pollination service provided by wild bees and avian biodiversity, while increasing carbon sequestration. The degree of eucalyptus expansion drove much of the changes in ecosystem services. Overall, our study illuminates the trade-offs inherent in land-use change and the importance of valuing community perspectives.
AUTHORS: Justin Bowers, Helen Forgione, Clara Pregitzter – Natural Areas Conservancy, Kristen King, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; Sarah Charlop-Powers, Mina Kim – Natural Areas Conservancy
ABSTRACT: As atmospheric CO2 and average temperatures rise in coming years, climate change will impact the health and distribution of forests in the northeastern United States including range shifts of tree species northward. Local data on species abundance and composition in New York City Parks already shows changes in the species composition between tree seedling recruitment and tree canopy composition. Using our data collected in 1,124 forest plots we quantitatively characterized the abundance of species across different vegetation structural layers to analyze tree species distribution and abundance in NYC’s natural areas. We compared this data with climate models including the US Forest Service Climate Change Tree Atlas that predict the adaptability of tree species under future climate scenarios in urban forests. Here we present our process for developing planting lists that shift forest restoration planting palettes to species that are likely to thrive under future climate scenarios. We present preliminary results and restoration progress in natural area sites managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as an example of proactive management of urban forest to support climate resiliency. Specifically we present lists of species projected to be resilient to increased temperatures and elevated C02 levels, species list and planting density recommendations for all current NYC ecological communities, and planting palettes of resilient species that are ecologically appropriate in existing stands of at-risk species. These lists will be incorporated into tools that will guide practitioners and non-scientist decision-makers towards selecting species that are site-appropriate as well as resilient to future projected conditions to ensure healthy functional forests. The developed species lists will continue to be adjusted based on future monitoring and restoration success. The completed project will serve as a model applicable to many northeastern cities.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 3:45pm - 4:00pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Eric J. Gustafson*, Mark E. Kubiske, Brian R. Miranda – USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station
ABSTRACT: The Aspen-FACE experiment generated 11 years of empirical data on the effect of elevated CO2 and ozone (O3) (alone and in combination) on the growth productivity of model aspen communities (multiple aspen clones, aspen-birch, and aspen-maple) in northern Wisconsin (USA). Uncertainty remains about how these short-term plot-level responses might play out at the landscape scale over multiple decades where climate change, competition, succession and disturbances interact with tree species-level traits such as optimal temperature for photosynthesis and shade and drought tolerance. In this study we used a physiology-based approach (PnET-Succession) within the LANDIS-II forest landscape model to scale the FACE results to broader temporal and spatial scales by mechanistically accounting for the globally changing drivers of temperature, precipitation, CO2 and O3. We calibrated the model using experimental results for each treatment factor (CO2 and O3) alone, and validated the model using the treatment factors in combination. When the experiment was continued by simulation for 80 years, the model predicted if and when various taxa would die from competitive failure and the expected biomass of each taxa under each treatment. All taxa did not occur together in the experiment, but when they were simulated together, the dynamics of competitive exclusion varied by treatment combination. We also used the model to simulate the competitive dynamics of species not included in the Aspen-FACE experiment, both at the site and landscape scale, providing insight into the implications of elevated CO2 and O3 on the dynamics of real forest landscapes of north-central USA.
AUTHORS: Raquel A. Silva*, Steven Prince, Ferdouz Cochran, Maliha Nash, Anne Neale, Timothy Buckley – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency / Office of Research and Development
ABSTRACT: There is growing recognition that the natural environment has a critical role in promoting human health and well-being. However, we need to better characterize the magnitude of potential beneficial effects, at the individual level, and the factors that influence the association between exposure to natural environments and human health and well-being. We will present results from a project linking data from a nationwide US survey and EnviroAtlas. The goal of this research is to examine the associations, at the individual level, between objective measures of exposure to natural environments (presence of nearby natural areas, two metrics of tree cover and access to recreational public green spaces) and self-reported general health (“Health”) and subjective well-being (“Happiness”), taking into account demographics and socio-cultural factors. We use data from a sample of 7379 adults aged 18 and over, representative of the American population, who participated in the General Social Survey (GSS) from 2012 to 2016. An initial analysis applying multivariate logistic regression to binary transformations of the outcome variables (Health and Happiness) showed that, in a fully adjusted model, Happiness had a strong association with “Excellent” Health (and to a lesser extent “Good” Health), followed by Employment Status and Marital Status. The upper quartile of presence of nearby natural areas showed a statistically significant association with Happiness, with a comparable effect to that of spending an evening with relatives once a month or more. Additionally, we found an interaction effect between presence of nearby natural areas and tree cover that warrants further investigation. We did not find any statistically significant associations between self-reported general health and any of four EnviroAtlas metrics, after controlling for demographics and socio-cultural factors. Additional detailed analyses explore these preliminary findings and use ordinal logistic regression to more fully account for the outcome response categories in the survey data.
AUTHORS: Stephanie Burgess*, University of Mississippi; Ryan Garrick, University of Misssissippi
ABSTRACT: Knowledge of movement patterns and the manner in which wildlife interact with their landscape are crucial to wildlife management. Conventional methods of observing wildlife movement, including game cameras and drift fences, are costly, labor intensive, and difficult to conduct at a large scale. Landscape genetic analyses can be used to identify landscape features that cause resistance to wildlife movement with less sampling while encompassing large areas in a single analysis. However, there are several knowledge gaps within the field of landscape genetics that must be addressed before broad conservation application is possible. Specifically, little is known about the transferability, or applicability to nearby areas, of landscape genetics models. Using multispectral imaging, we created land cover classifications for two forests, Holly Springs National Forest (HSNF) and William B Bankhead National Forest (BNF), within the species range of Plethodon mississippi. We then used microsatellite genotypes from P. mississippi individuals within each forest to create landscape resistance models. To test the transferability of the models, the parameters of the HSNF model were applied to the BNF landscape and tested for significance against BNF genetic data, and vice versa.Land cover analysis has shown that although both forests are within the species range for P. mississippi, they have different land cover ratios. While the land cover within both forests is primarily pine and hardwood forest, BNF has 9% more wetlands than HSNF, and HSNF has 8% more agricultural land. Preliminary analyses have shown man-made structures impede salamander gene flow in HSNF, and agricultural lands increase gene flow. If, when applied to the BNF landscape, man-made and agricultural properties produce similar effects, it would support the use of amphibian landscape genetics models across the species’ variable range. Conversely, if they do not produce similar effects, it would indicate the models are location-specific.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 3:45pm - 4:00pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Kyle Taylor, Anne Bartuszevige, Meghan Bogearts, Mike Carter, Alex Daniels – Playa Lakes Joint Venture, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
ABSTRACT: Over the course of the 20th century, the North American Great Plains experienced large-scale conversion of many native grassland ecosystems into commodity crop production. Conversion has had a negative effect on regional biodiversity, particularly for populations of grassland birds, which experienced large population declines over this same period. A number of authors anticipate shifts in commodity crop production in the Great Plains over the course of the next century in response to climate and economic change. We hypothesize that any large changes in landscape configuration will negatively influence populations of grassland birds. To assess the potential influence of shifting agricultural production, we used distance sampling to calculate bird densities for twenty birds with declining or unknown population trends at 300 transects allocated within shortgrass, mixed-grass, and agricultural lands throughout the Great Plains. We relate density estimates for birds to fragmentation metrics derived from remotely-sensed vegetation data using a likelihood-based, hierarchical distance model. We use model-based inference of bird densities across an ensemble of landscape change predictions for different commodity crop price and human demographic scenarios for the Great Plains for 2050 and 2100 (for SRES-AR4, GCAM-RCP, BAU, BTU; taken from Sohl et al., 2017) in order to determine potential shifts in population size and breeding-season range for birds. We found that an increase in ‘fallow’ lands may contribute to population-stability or increases for common species, while populations of less-common species may decrease by as much as 20% . We observe divergent patterns in habitat selection, with some species selecting for/against “patchy” landscapes with a mixed grassland-agriculture component. Others selected for total area of grassland habitat available. We found a high degree of variation in landscape change predictions due to uncertainties about future crop prices and yields and explore the implications of uncertainty in land cover predictions for bird population modeling.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 3:45pm - 4:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Mary C. Henry, Jessica McCarty, John Maingi – Department of Geography, Miami University
ABSTRACT: Chyulu Hills in southeastern Kenya is a volcanic range that is shorter in stature (2188 m at highest peak) than other mountains in the region, but is nonetheless an important water source - including for Mzima Springs which is the freshwater supply for the coastal region of Kenya. Fire is prevalent in Chyulu Hills from May through October following the “long rains” and affects vegetation cover, runoff, and groundwater recharge. Monitoring fires in Chyulu Hills is also critical in this fire-maintained ecosystem for wildlife conservation and pastoralism. In this study, we use MODIS active fire detection data (MCD14ML product) and MODIS burned area data (MCD64 product) to identify locations and characteristics of fires (timing, vegetation zone) in Chyulu Hills from 2003 to 2017. Earlier work found MODIS fire data products captured more burned areas on Mount Kenya (250 km to the north) than annual Landsat data (which only detected more recent fires). The goal of this study is to 1) determine if these MODIS fire products are also well suited to fire monitoring in Chyulu Hills’ grassland dominated landscape and 2) characterize fire regimes within this part of the Tsavo Conservation Area.
AUTHORS: Andrew Mashintonio*, Kutztown University; Grant Harris, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Sean Farley, Alaska Department of Fish and Game; Gareth Russell, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University
ABSTRACT: Understanding animals’ use of habitat often steers their conservation and management. Recently, models of species-habitat relationships have begun to incorporate numerous spatial scales to account for the fact that individuals may perceive their environment at scales that differ from the available data (e.g., satellite imagery). Building these models becomes more challenging when individuals confront different habitat choices due to the heterogeneous nature of their surrounding environment. We identified habitat preferences and generated habitat quality maps for brown bears (Ursus arctos) on the Kenai Peninsula (Alaska, USA) by first generating multiple spatial scales for each environmental variable. We then ranked each predictor variable in order of importance using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso), which enabled us to fit models of increasing complexity and compare them using Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). Bears responded to their surroundings across multiple spatial scales in all seasons and regions. When information describing preferences was aggregated across multiple bears, it revealed patterns of spatial similarity useful for predicting the areas bears use and their habitat characteristics. Such predictions can help wildlife biologists manage bear populations by reducing encounters between bears and humans on the Peninsula. Our method of combining lasso with an information-theoretic approach via AIC is the preferable method for modeling animal habitat preferences when numerous variables are included in the modeling exercise. This method is widely applicable to studies incorporating many predictor variables.
AUTHORS: Keith L. Kline,* ORNL; Mudit Chordia, KTH, Stockholm; Miguel Brandao, KTH, Stockholm; Virginia H. Dale, ORNL; Hans Langeveld, Biomass Research Wageningen; Gbadebo Oladosu, ONRL; Annette Cowie, Government of NSW, Sydney Australia; Uwe Fritsche, IINAS, Darmstadt Germany
ABSTRACT: We present an updated conceptual framework to represent key effects of policy on drivers of land-use change. Theoretical drivers of indirect land-use change (ILUC) in current modeling are examined to provide a comparison of assumed relationships with historical observations for key drivers. We analyze data from 1990 to 2016 to illustrate trends pre- and post- biofuel policy implementation. The analysis includes linkages among cropland area and forest area, corn production and use for ethanol, commodity exports and prices, which are among the factors used in models to estimate indirect effects of biofuel policies. The Statistics on US bioethanol production highlight that the years of rapid growth occur between 2001 and 2011. We examine corn production and use, corn share of cropland area, yields, production of DDGS, and trade of maize and other US agricultural products. Results suggest that biofuel policies stimulated domestic corn production and investments that improved corn yields. While US corn and soy bean production areas increased, total agricultural area did not. We also documented historical variability in production, prices and exports. While many fluctuations can be explained by factors exogenous to biofuel policy, we discuss approaches to test for the effects of biofuel policy in terms of commodity prices, price and trade volatility, and productive system buffering capacity. Market growth and end-use diversification combine with flexibility in US renewable fuel mandates, may increase system buffering capacity and supply stability.
AUTHORS: Gunwoo Kim, Landscape Architecture Program, North Carolina A&T State University
ABSTRACT: Urban forests in cities across the country are important for improving numerous environmental and social aspects of cities, including human health, walkability, microclimate, culture, stormwater management, air quality, wildlife habitat, aesthetics and carbon sequestration. Challenge cities faced related to urban forestry include understand the values provide by trees and funding management programs. Assessments of the urban forest can be used to estimate environmental benefits, or ecosystem services, improving our understanding of the role trees play in creating healthy, livable and sustainable cities. Quantifying ecosystem services in urban areas is complex. However, existing ecosystem service typologies and the i-Tree model can provide a means towards understanding some key biophysical links between urban forest and ecosystem services. By utilizing the science-based i-Tree model, this work will identify and demonstrate multiple ecosystem services and values derived from urban vegetation.Urban Greening and Urban Forest Assessment will enhance city’s awareness of the urban forest effects and values and ability to develop better forest management plans for this city. The findings of this research will increase knowledge on the value of green infrastructure services provided by different types of urban vegetation and assist in the future design, planning and management of green infrastructure in cities.The methodology applied to assess ecosystem services in this study can also be used to assess ecosystem services of green infrastructure in other urban contexts and improve urban forest policies, planning, and the management of green infrastructure. The study findings support the inclusion of trees on green infrastructure as a valuable ecological resource by demonstrating how green infrastructure can be used to enhance ecosystem health and promote a better quality of life for city residents.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:00pm - 4:15pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Vince L. Butitta, Stephen R. Carpenter, Luke C. Loken – Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Michael L. Pace, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia; Emily H. Stanley, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Advancements in ecological theory have benefited greatly from whole-ecosystem experimentation, particularly in lakes. Lakes provide well-defined boundaries, are highly dynamic in time and space, and are relatively easy to replicate. Experimentation, however, has been an underutilized tool in the attempts to understand ecosystem resilience. Much recent work in ecosystem resilience has focused on detecting early warning signals of weakening resilience prior to experiencing an abrupt transition to an alternative ecosystem regime. In our study, we experimentally tested the detectability of theoretically predicted early warning signals during a whole-lake manipulation. We induced a cyanobacteria bloom by adding nutrients to an experimental lake and mapped fine-resolution spatial patterning of cyanobacteria using a mobile sensor platform. Prior to the bloom, we detected spatial early warning signals based on variance and spatial autocorrelation, as well as a new index based on the extreme values. This successful detection of spatial early warning indicators in a lake manipulation despite its fluid nature suggests the potential utility of spatial metrics for signaling ecological thresholds in other ecosystems.
AUTHORS: Wei-Lun Tsai*, ORISE/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Laura E. Jackson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
ABSTRACT: Obesity is one of the major public-health concerns in many countries today. In the United States, more than 70% of the U.S. adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese. The prevalence of obesity has been growing rapidly during the last three decades. Obesity prevalence is determined by many drivers including societal and environmental factors. Multiple studies have documented how natural and built environments influence weight status. With increasing urbanization, green land cover is particularly identified as an important factor in benefiting human health through a broad range of ecosystem services in urban areas. This study examined the associations between weight status and neighborhood greenery at the individual level for Portland, OR and Phoenix, AZ using geospatial data and indicators developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EnviroAtlas. The datasets included Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover, Park Proximity, Percent Greenspace Along Walkable Roads, Estimated Intersection Density of Walkable Roads, and Adjusted Quality of Life Threshold Income. The weight status was defined by Body Mass Index based on weight and height information requested from state DMVs. Network buffer was applied to capture the surrounding greenery from each individual’s residential address. Logistic regression was used to examine the associations. The preliminary findings included that having access to a park entrance within 2000m and higher percent tree cover along walkable roads were associated with lower risk of being overweight or obese after controlling for potential covariates. The findings will not only aid our understanding of the role of urban green land cover as a potential determinant for obesity prevention but also the influences of the types and allocation of urban green land cover on weight status.DisclaimerThis abstract has been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Agency.
AUTHORS: Indranil Mondal*, Pallavi Ghaskadbi, Zehidul Hussain, Gautam Talukdar, Parag Nigam, Bilal Habib – Wildlife Institute of India
ABSTRACT: The Eastern Vidarbha Landscape (EVL) is located in the centre of India. It has a human population of 11 million people, but at the same time, it has a tiger population of 150-200 individuals in forests that cover 45% of its total geographical area. Forests outside protected (PAs) areas are very fragmented and under continuous anthropogenic pressure. EVL has a very prominent human-wildlife interface, and a high number of conflict cases are reported every year, where losses are suffered by both humans and wildlife. Nonetheless, EVL, consisting of 6 protected areas, forms a pivotal role in connecting the Central Indian tiger populations. It harbours a large number of tigers even outside PAs and gives us a unique opportunity to study them in a human-dominated environment.We used data on tiger presence from outside PAs and habitat variables to model corridors (9,370 sq. km.) and 9 pinch-points using Circuit Theory. These corridors were validated (76% accurate) using tracking data from 5 dispersing radio-collared tigers. We used the data from radio-collars to study the time spent by the dispersing tigers using a Linear Time Density Function and identified pockets in the corridors where they were spending a considerable amount of time. Based on the habitat characteristics of these pockets we extrapolated the results to all corridor areas in entire landscape, to identify areas for prioritized conservation action. Several tiger mortalities are reported from EVL due to electrocution of individuals at illegally electrified guard fences around agricultural fields. Therefore we modelled the electrocution potential for the entire landscape and identified 121 and 1184 villages in Very High Risk and High-Risk categories respectively, to help managers tackle the issue. In the end, we propose a model of triage to raise funds from unconventional sources to aid corridor conservation in penny-scarce scenarios.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:00pm - 4:15pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Lei Yang*, Liding Chen, Fangkai Zhao, Shoujuan Li, Long Sun – State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
ABSTRACT: Antibiotics have been widely used in human medicine and animal husbandry, and wastewater irrigation and animal manure application in agriculture can introduce antibiotics into soils. This would threaten soil security, introduce antibiotics into food chain and emergence of antibiotic resistance genes. Identifying the relationship between land use and composition, spatial and temporal variations of antibiotics in soils can help understanding the distribution and migration processes of antibiotics in environment. This is especially important for peri-urban areas, where had complex land use pattern and high antibiotic concentrations. In this study, a typical peri-urban catchment in east China was selected. Soil samples in depth of 0-40 cm in 82 experimental sites (with different land use and geospatial locations) were collected for different seasons. The composition, quantity and seasonal dynamics of 4 main groups of antibiotics (tetracyclines, quinolones, macrolides, and sulfonamides) in soils were analyzed. Results showed that antibiotics concentrations in peri-urban soils were mainly determined by land use type. The antibiotic concentrations in cropland (0.05-395.55 µg/kg) were significantly higher than that of orchard and forestland in different seasons. The antibiotic concentrations in orchard (0.05-26.43 µg/kg) and forestland (0.07-3.65 µg/kg) had no significant differences in summer but significant differences in winter. The composition and concentration of soil antibiotics varies in different seasons, and winter had higher values than summer. The soil antibiotic concentrations and the proportion of farmland around showed a linear relationship by buffer analysis. The tetracyclines, quinolones, and sulfonamides in soils increased with increasing distance to town, distance to road, and soil C/N ratio. These indicated that most of soil antibiotic concentrations were influenced by land use pattern. Redundancy analysis show that over 60% of observed variation of soil antibiotics was explained by land use and its interactions with soil properties and bacterial communities.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:00pm - 4:15pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Andrew J. Elmore*, Matthew C. Fitzpatrick – University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science; Jeff Larkin, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Steven M. Guinn, Matthew Lisk – University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
ABSTRACT: Management of temperate forests of the central Appalachian Mountains has reached a crossroads. After over 100 years of post-harvest regrowth there exists today an impressive resource of mature forest stands, representing 22% of forests in the lower 48-states of the US. This gradual dominance of mature forests has occurred concurrently with declines in the abundance of species dependent on early successional habitat, particularly since the 1960’s. While the forest products industry prepares to cut these forests at a sustainable rate, conservation groups are trying to consider how forest harvest could be used as a tool to generate landscape patterns that enhance habitat area for species that depend on diverse forest structure. Of particular interest are forest dwelling birds that require mature and early successional habitat during different life stages, and are therefore sensitive to the interleaving of these different forest types on the landscape. Managing for such habitat at landscape scales requires continuous monitoring data on forest structure, ideally derived from remote sensing sources sensitive to the 3D-structure of vegetation and disturbance history. This presentation will describe remote sensing approaches to acquire such data and to use the data to calculate metrics of spatial heterogeneity and connectivity that could be leveraged to better estimate habitat suitability. Initial plans to integrate maps of forest structure and connectivity between forests of diverse structure into existing forest management plans will be discussed.
AUTHORS: Sander, Heather A.*, University of Iowa; Brandon MacDougall, University of Iowa
ABSTRACT: In today’s human dominated world, biodiversity conservation must occur in anthropogenic landscapes, including urban landscapes. Such conservation requires understanding of the patterns in urban biodiversity and factors underlying them. Recent studies identified many such patterns; but occurred primarily in large cities in heavily-urbanized settings. Patterns in smaller cities in other landscape contexts (e.g., agricultural) remain poorly understood. This study identifies patterns in nesting bird communities and relationships with urban habitat structure in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, small cities in an intensively-agricultural landscape in eastern Iowa, USA. We identify distributional patterns for vegetation-nesting birds (17 tree-nesting, 3 primary cavity-nesting, 8 secondary cavity-nesting, 7 shrub-nesting species) on sites with different vegetation and urban intensities and identify associations among species and urban habitats. We find significant differences in the composition and abundance of guilds among sites. Tree-nesting species exhibit higher abundance and species richness in settings with low urban intensity and high tree cover, while shrub-nesting species richness and abundance peak in settings with moderate tree cover and urban intensity. The highest abundance and richness of primary cavity-nesting species occurs on low urban intensity and high tree cover sites. Secondary-cavity nester abundance peaks on high urban intensity sites due to the influence of exotic House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) and European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). This guild exhibits low richness on high urban intensity and low tree-cover sites, but richness is similar among other sites. An analysis using detailed urban vegetation and built environmental attributes indicates differences in relationships with these attributes among guilds, but most show positive relationships between abundance and tree diameter-at-breast-height and canopy cover and negative relationships with building and lawn coverage, albeit of differing magnitudes. Shrub nesters exhibit positive relationships with understory vegetative cover. This work increases our understanding of species in agricultural cities, supporting conservation planning in these settings.
AUTHORS: Anna Duden*, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University; Matt Rubino, North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University; Nathan Tarr, North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University; Pita Verweij, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University; Andre Faaij, Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen; Floor van der Hilst, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University
ABSTRACT: Increasing wood pellet exports from the United States (US) are expected lead to changes in land use and forest management. A projected shift from natural forests to pine plantations is projected to impact biodiversity. These impacts are expected to be spatially variable due to spatial variation in species richness, abiotic factors and land use dynamics. This study assesses the impact of an increasing wood pellet demand on biodiversity in the southeastern US in a spatially explicit manner, while taking into account potential developments in other wood markets and trends in other land uses. Projections of land-use change under different scenarios of wood pellet demand were combined with high resolution species habitat maps (US-GAP). Urbanization and pine plantation establishment were identified as key drivers of projected species richness declines between 2010 and 2030 due to drivers other than increasing wood pellet demand (urbanization, demand for other wood products). These declines occurred in 80x103 km2, species richness increases were projected for 60x103 km2. Increased wood pellet demand enhanced changes in species richness in 2030, both positively and negatively. Positive changes due to wood pellet demand were projected for 40x103 km2 and were mainly due to regrowth of natural forests. Negative changes were projected for 40x103 km2 and were related to further expansion of pine plantations. Coastal parts of Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina were identified as potential hotspots for wood pellet demand driven biodiversity loss due to overlapping areas of species richness changes with species richness hotspots. Parts of coastal South Carolina were identified as locations of potential biodiversity gains. This study provides a first step to quantifying potential biodiversity impacts of wood pellet demand. This is vital to reaching the objectives of the European Renewable Energy Directive; to increase the renewable energy share while minimizing the biodiversity impacts of forest harvesting.
AUTHORS: Daniel M. Kashian*, Wayne State University
ABSTRACT: Tree cover has important benefits in urban areas, including pollutant filtration, cooling effects, increasing property values, and a host of human health benefits. Many American cities, including Detroit and its suburbs, experienced government-led categorization of neighborhoods based on perceived credit worthiness and risk for housing development during the Great Depression. This process, known as redlining, had the long-term effect of assigning economic value to neighborhoods that not only drove their future development and wealth but may have also had a strong influence on environmental factors such as the health of urban tree canopies. With its history of racial and socio-economic segregation and widespread insect and pathogen impacts on urban trees, the metropolitan Detroit area is the ideal location to examine the impact of neighborhood wealth on urban tree cover. I used current and historical aerial photography within the iTree Canopy platform to determine the association between the area’s historical socio-economic structure, major forest insect and pathogens, and current tree canopy. Initial analyses suggest a strong correlation between tree canopy cover in 2017 and redlining groups that were established in the late 1930s, with higher canopy cover in neighborhoods with more favorable designations. A main driver of this difference was the ability of neighborhoods along the socio-economic spectrum to recover their urban tree canopy from Dutch elm disease and emerald ash borer. These mortality drivers were found across metropolitan Detroit, and in some cases were more severe in wealthy neighborhoods, but poorer neighborhoods were unable to re-establish an urban tree canopy after mortality occurred. These results suggest that in addition to reinforcing the unequal distribution of wealth across major cities, redlining may have had an important, long-term effect on the ecology of American metropolitan areas as well.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:15pm - 4:30pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Carina Rauen Firkowski*, University of Toronto; Marc Cadotte, University of Toronto Scarborough; Marie-Josée Fortin, University of Toronto
ABSTRACT: Microcosm experiments are accepted as a tractable system that has been widely used to test ecological predictions, and provides biological validation for modelling approaches. Mathematical modelling provides a flexible and robust approach to test the generality of results through sensitivity analyses and incorporation of complexity, providing opportunity for a mechanistic understanding of observed ecological patterns.Here, we seek to determine a metacommunity’s ability to persist in the face of disturbance, while maintaining its structure and function. Since distinct environmental fluctuation regimes are important in defining metacommunity structure, one might predict a differential response between metacommunities to the combined effects of environmental fluctuation and disturbance impacts. Specifically, we investigate how the presence of environmental fluctuation influences the responses of metacommunities to the landscape disturbance of patch depletion.In a microcosm experiment, biological communities consisted of an initial species assemblage of nine protozoan species. Environmental fluctuation was implemented by manipulating light availability, where we compared the control of constant light to a treatment of “high” frequency of fluctuations. After an initial stabilizing period of 12 days, landscape disturbance treatments were applied through the depletion of 0% (control), 40% and 80% of the patches in the metacommunity. The experiment ran for an additional 30 days, allowing for a comprehensive time series assessment of ~50-300 generations. Each treatment level was replicated eight times. The dynamics of this microcosm experiment were simulated through a spatially explicit, species interaction metacommunity (SESIM) model. We assess the role of environmental fluctuations in defining the relative risk of metacommunities to disturbance, and which food web properties are good predictors/promoters of robustness and resilience. The presented methodological approach provides a flexible framework to understand how species respond to multiple disturbances.
AUTHORS: Derek Van Berkel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
ABSTRACT: While the United States is home to many special places that deliver numerous cultural ecosystem services (CES), there has yet to be a national assessment of these benefits. Identifying and characterizing locations that are appreciated for their beauty, opportunities for outdoor activities, and sense of places can help in conservation prioritization and the development of management standards for preserving the unique qualities that make these locations attractive. In this presentation, we describe a new initiative by the EPA for assessing CES across the US using social media. Approximately 6 million photographs and their volunteered locations are analyzed to understand valued locations, dominate activities and the spatial characteristics associated with these places. We classify photographic content from Flikr and Panoramio using Google Vision, a machine learning algorithm that allows for distinguishing between relevant CES and other content. Based on the calculated viewsheds of these filtered locations, we model the characteristics associated with highly photographed and visited areas. Mapping model results contributes to identifying special locations, while also characterizing both synergistic qualities that enhance CES and the built and environmental characteristics that conflict with these benefits.
AUTHORS: Hongbo Yang, Jianguo Liu – Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Protected areas have long been considered as the cornerstone of ecological conservation and have been expanding rapidly around the world. While designating more land as protected areas is important, there is a growing concern about the degree to which existing protected areas are effective in achieving desirable ecological outcomes and how their effectiveness is affected by socio-ecological factors. However, at large spatial scales, the ecological effectiveness of protected areas and the underlying determinants remain unclear. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of each of the protected areas in China established before 2000 in reducing deforestation – one of the biggest threats to global ecosystem health – between 2000 and 2015. We found that, at varying degrees, the majority of protected areas were identified as effective in reducing deforestation. Without their establishment, an area of about 160,000 hectares would have been deforested, an amount of forest that can sequestrate about 120 Megaton of carbon annually. Protected areas in regions with high deforestation pressures often contribute more to reducing deforestation. Some other attributes of protected areas, such as protection strictness, are also correlated with their effectiveness in reducing deforestation. These results provide important information to improve the effectiveness of protected areas and fully realize the promise they provide for biodiversity conservation in China and beyond.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:15pm - 4:30pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Quercus Hamlin*, Syracuse University; Anthony Kendall, Sherry Martin, David Hyndman – Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Anthropogenic alteration of nitrogen and phosphorus cycling is a worldwide problem affecting water bodies at all scales. Landscape inputs such as fertilizer, livestock manure, and human waste have led to eutrophication creating biologically, economically, and environmentally hazardous harmful algal blooms (HABs). Management plans for nutrient load reduction would benefit from regionally-consistent, locally-relevant, fine scale nutrient application maps. We developed the Spatially Explicit Nutrient Source Map (SENSMap), a series of high resolution (30 m) N and P landscape application maps, to understand the composition and magnitude of landscape nutrient applications across the Great Lakes Basin. These maps model and distribute 6 nonpoint nutrient sources along with point sources using broadly available data. Nonpoint sources modeled include chemical agricultural fertilizer, chemical non-agricultural fertilizer, atmospheric deposition, septic tanks, manure, and nitrogen fixation from legumes. We combine data from government, literature, and remote sensing platforms using statistical and machine learning methods to distribute loads across the landscape. Once placed, applications can be aggregated and analyzed at any management scale across the Great Lakes Basin (GLB).Here, we describe the SENSMap methodology and identify key trends and relationships within and across land use categories. For instance, we find that 60-80% of N and P inputs in the GLB are from agricultural sources, and that the dominant source within watersheds varies among chemical fertilizers, manure, and nitrogen fixation. This has relevance for biogeochemical cycling, as each of these sources vary greatly in terms of N speciation, N to P ratios, and organic carbon.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:15pm - 4:30pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Qiangzi Li*, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences
ABSTRACT: Rapid, accurate, and reliable crop acreage estimation is significant for the macro cropping structure adjustment and the national agricultural policy development. Remote sensing techniques can provide substantive and timely crop information, and have been used in crop identification and crop acreage estimation since 1970s. It has been found that crop classification accuracies rely greatly on the crop distribution patterns in the study area. This study developed crop landscape models to quantify crop distribution and use these models to improve the accuracy of crop identification and acreage estimation. The effects of crop spatial distribution on crop identification and acreage estimation with remote sensing were explored in two experimental sites in eastern Ontario, Canada and northeastern China. Firstly, exploratory analysis was conducted to investigate the influence of classification features and classifiers on the classification accuracy, and the optimal features and classifiers were identified. Secondly, four landscape metrics were selected based on conceptual crop landscape models, and six landscape sub-regions were delineated accordingly. Lastly, optimal classification features and classifiers were determined for each landscape sub-region, in order to develop improved crop acreage estimation models. The improved crop acreage estimation models were applied in Hunan province, China for regional rice acreage estimation. The results demonstrated that acreage accuracy can be increased in five out of six landscape sub-regions, by approximately 4% in sub-region 3, 5, and 6, and by over 6% in sub-region 1 and 2.
AUTHORS: Morgan B. Pfeiffer, USDA APHIS WS, National Wildlife Research Center and School of Natural Resource Management, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, George Campus, George, Western Cape Province, South Africa; Jason D. Kougher, USDA APHIS WS, Airports Wildlife Hazards Program; Travis L. DeVault, USDA APHIS WS, National Wildlife Research Center
ABSTRACT: Collisions between birds and aircraft are a global problem that jeopardizes human safety and causes economic losses. Although these events are assumed to be related to landscape features surrounding the airport, no evidence exists. We investigated the effects of landscape structure on the adverse effect (AE) bird strike rate at 100 civil airports in the United States. The number of reported AE bird strikes was standardized by air carrier movements between 2009 and 2015. Land use structure and composition were quantified within 3, 8, and 13 km radii extents from airports using the National Land Cover Database and the Crop Data Layers. We predicted large amounts and close arrangements of aquatic habitat, open space, and high landscape diversity would positively influence the AE strike rate based on the habitat requirements of many species hazardous to aviation. The rate of AE bird strikes was positively influenced by large areas and close proximity of wetlands, water, and cultivated crops at the 8- and 13-km extents. Within 3 km of an airport, increasing landscape diversity and the amount of crop area increased the strike rate. We conclude that landscape structure and composition are predictors of the AE bird strike rate at multiple spatial scales. Our results can be used to promote collaborative management among wildlife professionals, airport planners, and landowners near airports to create an environment with a low probability of an AE bird strike. Specific priorities are to minimize the area of crops and increase the distances between patches of open water. Keywords landscape structure; land use; spatial patterns; urban ecology; wildlife damage
AUTHORS: Colleen Zumpf*, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Argonne National Laboratory; M. Cristina Negri, Argonne National Laboratory; D.K. Lee, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Jules Cacho, Patty Campbell, John Quinn – Argonne National Laboratory
ABSTRACT: In the interest of converting from a fossil fuel based energy system to renewable sources, sustainability in energy production is an important goal. The application of perennial bioenergy crop production in multifunctional landscapes can serve both the purpose of producing biomass feedstock for bioenergy as well as providing ecosystem services including reduction in greenhouse gases and nutrient loss, soil health improvement, and habitat provision for beneficial species. Short-rotation shrub willow grown as buffers on marginal land in an agricultural field was evaluated over four years of growth. After the first harvest cycle, harvestable biomass from marginal land was comparable to production on non-marginal land at 5.6 Mg ha-1 yr-1, however, future work will be focused on how plant density affects willow productivity across soil conditions. In terms of ecosystem service provision, the strategic placement of willow within the agricultural landscape reduced nitrate leaching from the neighboring grain crop by 74% by year three. Nitrate concentrations in soil under willow were lower than under the grain crop, as were emissions of nitrous oxide from soil respiration, suggesting willows were successfully removing reactive nitrogen from the soil. In addition, subsurface soil organic carbon was found to increase under willow as compared to under the grain crop which suggests improvement in subsurface soil conditions. Biodiversity was also found to be improved by willow introduction. At the soil microbial level, differences in community composition were already apparent one year after willow planting. In addition, assessment of canopy-dwelling insects present four years after willow establishment, revealed a wide diversity of pollinators and beneficial pest control species, potentially indicating the positive benefits willow introduction has on biodiversity. As the willow stands mature and crop management practices change, the effect of willow on ecosystem service provisions will continue to be monitored to determine whether these trends continue.
AUTHORS: E. Gregory McPherson, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station; Qingfu Xiao, University of California, Davis; Natalie S. van Doorn*, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station; John de Goede, Jacquelyn Bjorkman, Allan Hollander, Ryan M. Boynton, James F. Quinn, James H. Thorne – University of California, Davis
ABSTRACT: Healthy urban forests can provide ecosystem functions and services that benefit humans such as energy conservation, carbon storage and air quality improvement. However, trees in cities face a plethora of threats that can reduce these benefits. The primary purpose of this study is to provide baseline data on the structure, function and value of urban forests in California communities as a basis for change detection. The structure of the urban forest in urban areas (e.g., tree density, basal area, species composition) was summarized for six land use categories in six California climate zones using tree data from field plots. The effects of city trees on air quality, building energy use, atmospheric carbon dioxide, rainfall interception and property values were calculated using plot data and numerical models. To scale-up results from the plot to the landscape, transfer functions (e.g., kWh of air conditioning energy saved annually per hectare urban tree canopy (UTC)) were calculated using UTC mapped at 1-m resolution. Although California’s UTC covered 15% of the urban area and was composed of 173.2 million trees, the UTC per capita was the lowest among U.S. states (90.8 m2). Quercus was the most abundant genera state-wide (22%) while Pinus had the highest basal area (10%). Overall, the tree population was youthful, with 50% of trees in the smallest diameter class. California’s urban forests provide $8.3 billion in annual ecosystem services and as a total asset are valued at $181 billion, which amounts to $2.52 in benefits returned for every dollar spent (assuming an average per tree management cost of $19). The risk of catastrophic tree loss is discussed using as an example the threat posed by Invasive Shot Hole Borer (Euwallacea sp.) currently infesting multiple tree species in Southern California.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:30pm - 4:45pm CDT
Spire Parlor
AUTHORS: Arig Ibrahim-Hashim*, Robert Gillies, Robert Gatenby, Joel Brown – H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center
ABSTRACT: Malignant cells in solid tumors export metabolically derived acid into surrounding stroma. This micro-environmental acidification can be viewed as a “niche construction”. As an evolutionary strategy, acid-production benefits the cancer cell by decreasing the fitness of non-adapted competitors. At the scale of the tumor ecosystem, acidity promotes the transition from in situ to invasive and metastatic cancer. However, there are significant costs to being an acid-producing/adapted cancer cell including reduced efficiency in energy production and increased energy demands for survival in low Ph. We suggest exploiting these costs as a novel therapeutic intervention. A spatially-explicit, agent-based model of the associated non-linear dynamics demonstrates that small increases in tumor pH, appropriately timed, can reduce the fitness advantage of the aggressive cancer cell, and maintain a non-invasive phenotype as the dominant population. We tested this in a genetically modified (TRAMP) mouse model of prostate cancer, wherein we could identify two competing cell types: C2 and C3. C2 cells exhibited the properties of the niche construction phenotype with significantly increased aerobic glycolysis, glycolytic capacity, acid production, glucose uptake, and invasion. In contrast, C3 cells retained a near-normal metabolic profile. Adding 200 mM NaHCO3 to the drinking water of TRAMP mice at age 4 weeks increased intra-prostatic pHe by 0.2 pH units and prevented transition from in situ to invasive cancer. In established tumors, an increase of intratumoral pH significantly decreased primary tumor growth and dramatically reduced metastases. Furthermore, using an experimental tumor construct, MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were co-injected into the mammary fat pad of mice. C2-like MDA-MB-231 cells dominated in untreated animals but C3-like MCF7 cells were selected and tumor growth slowed when intratumoral pH was increased. Our results demonstrate a novel strategy for using perturbations of complex tumor landscapes to steer the system into a less invasive eco-evolutionary trajectory.
AUTHORS: Marc Russell, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
ABSTRACT: One of the challenges remaining before ecosystem services assessments can become part of mainstream decision making is the need for a way to spatially represent the interplay of nature and humans. Nature’s ecosystems act as natural capital by producing “things” (i.e. stocks and or conditions) that are beneficial to human welfare in the same way that machinery produces traditional economic goods. Here we refer to those things, which are transferred from ecosystems to human economic processes, as final ecosystem services (FES). While at coarse scales there appear to be some FES that are produced by nature and used by humans within the same spatial area (e.g. recreational viewing of flowering trees, canopy cover shade reduced temperatures, wild picked berries), these and other FES rely on specific spatial pathways (e.g. sightlines; hydrologic, atmospheric, transportation or knowledge networks etc.), to connect to human users. We review existing geospatial methods for connecting an ecosystem to its resulting FES and to human users in those locations where the FES are accessed by people. We then compare which of those connections are adequately represented by datasets available to the public via EPA’s EnviroAtlas application. We then consider what layers could be added with future data availability or analytical capability to complete a set that would allow spatial assessment of ecosystem service production, delivery and use. By representing the spatially specific interplays between natural capital production and human use we are able to move towards incorporation of realized human benefits derived from nature into decisions. We can assess potential changes in both production of supply and how accessible that production is to human beneficiaries. This moves us beyond the consideration of ecosystem changes without coupling them to information on human use/demand and should result in decisions that lead to more impactful human welfare results.
AUTHORS: Mason Fidino and Seth Magle - Institution: Urban Wildlife Institute, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago
ABSTRACT: Habitat fragmentation via urbanization can significantly alter connectivity for wildlife populations, and therefore the collective ability of a species to persist in urban habitat remnants. To explore this relationship, we used a long-term dataset spanning 15 years to assess trends in the metapopulation dynamics of the black-tailed prairie dog, a potential keystone species, in 384 urban habitat remnants in Denver, Colorado, USA. We developed a Bayesian multi-state model to predict the annual probability that 1) prairie dogs locally colonize an undeveloped habitat remnant, 2) prairie dogs go locally extinct in an undeveloped habitat remnant and 3) a habitat remnant is developed. Both available habitat remnants and number of prairie dog colonies declined precipitously over the course of study, though we also monitored new colonization events, which were most correlated to habitat connectivity. Between 2002 – 2007 an average of 7.74% of sites were developed annually, however, observed trends indicate that this development rate may be slowing. Despite this, the rate of decline of urban prairie dogs estimated by our model closely reflected the observed data, and extinction rates generally exceeded colonization rates for this species across all years. Using data on declines during the study we project a 40% probability that prairie dogs will be extirpated from this area by 2067, though that probability could range as high as 50% or as low as 20% based on differing development scenarios. We suggest that prairie dog fulfill important ecological roles in urban landscapes, and could persist in the Denver area with appropriate management and habitat protections.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:30pm - 4:45pm CDT
Hancock Parlor
AUTHORS: Jaime J. Coon*, Scott B. Nelson – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences; Lois Wright Morton, Iowa State University, Department of Sociology; James R. Miller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
ABSTRACT: Prairie and pastureland loss in the central U.S. has accelerated in recent decades, and the negative effects of this are amplified by exotic grass invasions. One such grass–tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus)—is valued for drought tolerance but is potentially problematic for cattle and wildlife. However, managing grasses like fescue is complicated by private land ownership that requires coordination across parcel boundaries. Therefore, we are studying tall fescue management using integrative agricultural, social, and ecological research. We first examined the effects of tall fescue on cattle and wildlife. Given negative health consequences reported in lab studies, we tested whether cattle avoid grazing fescue at broad (pasture-level) and fine (0.1m2 quadrats) scales. We found that they do avoid fescue, but this avoidance is moderated by prescribed fire management. We then examined the effects of fescue on the nest ecology of a grassland bird, the dickcissel (Spiza americana), and found that fescue abundance near nests reduces nest survival. Given these problems, we are currently investigating how to improve habitat quality with a landscape-scale fescue-removal experiment using herbicide, grazing, and fire. While herbicide treatment initially led to increased abundances for some bird species and decreased abundances for others, all species returned to baseline abundances or greater three years after treatment. To gauge willingness to use these management practices on private land, we implemented two surveys on grassland management in 2007 (N=81) and 2017 (N=149). While we found more negative attitudes toward habitat restoration in 2017 vs. 2007, more landowners now implement management that benefits wildlife, including prescribed fire and removing non-native plants. Despite the well-known difficulties associated with managing non-natives on private land, our results indicate a synergy in benefits between social, agricultural, and ecological spheres. This illustrates the importance of investigating and emphasizing co-benefits when coordinating management in private-land dominated landscapes.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:30pm - 4:45pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Bina Thapa*, Peter Wolter – Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management, Iowa State University; Brian Sturtevant, Institute for Applied Ecosystem Studies, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service; Phil Townsend, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Recurrence of wide-spread biological disturbances in North American boreal and sub-boreal forests results in substantial economic loses annually and generates biological feedbacks that are not yet fully understood. Defoliator insect outbreaks and associated feedback dynamics are influenced by forest conditions at landscape scales. Effective forecast modeling of future defoliator disturbance dynamics dictates that we must first be able to “hindcast” past insect disturbance events. To perform the latter, we need to know the forest state prior to a disturbance event. Here, we use the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data from three periods (1970s, 1990s, and 2003-2006) to calibrate forest structure models. Near concurrent Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor data were used with these FIA data to recreate forest state conditions leading up to past insect disturbance events in northern Minnesota. Model calibration results between Landsat reflectance and FIA data for both total forest basal area and relative basal area of preferred host species (Abies balsamea) were poor to moderate (R^2 values 0.27 and 0.43 respectively). Results for relative BA of aspen (Populous tremuloides) and remaining host species (spruce: Picea glauca and P. mariana) yielded substantially better accuracies (R^2 values 0.64 and 0.78; RMSE values 15.56 m^2 ha^-1 and 10.65 m^2 ha^-1, respectively). We determined that FIA data from the early 1990s generated stronger model calibration results compare to models calibrated using late 1970s and 2003-2006 FIA data. We posit four potential contributing factors: 1) differences in time-lag between FIA and Landsat dates used, 2) change in FIA plot design after 1995s, 3) poor spatial accuracy associated with FIA plot center locations and 4) species abundance. Nevertheless, in combining these historical FIA and Landsat data to recreate spatially explicit maps of past forest states we bridge a critical data gap in spruce budworm disturbance dynamics research.
AUTHORS: Michael Wheeler*, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Jeb Barzen, International Crane Foundation; Shawn Crimmins, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point; Tim Van Deelen, University of Wisconsin, Madison
ABSTRACT: There have been several discussions of having a sandhill crane hunt in Wisconsin, however, more information is needed to guide a sustainable harvest. Long-term trends in Midwestern sandhill crane populations indicate positive growth despite much yearly variability, and continued monitoring will be required for effective management. This study was conducted to determine how sandhill crane populations might respond if harvested. Since 1990, the International Crane Foundation (Baraboo, Wisconsin) has collected long-term re-sightings data on territorial and non-territorial sandhill cranes in southcentral Wisconsin. We used these data in a multi-state model to estimate survival and state-transition probabilities of different demographic groups. With this stage-specific information, we simulated potential harvest scenarios over a 50 year period. Though this research is most relevant to crane management in Wisconsin, the information from these models is transferable. There are currently 13 states that hunt sandhill cranes, yet there is limited information regarding how well sandhill cranes can sustain annual harvest. This study provides important information for future studies.
AUTHORS: Caitlin Lucas, Wetland Studies and Solutions; Claire Jantz*, Shippensburg University
ABSTRACT: Due to the growing demand for electricity, energy “sprawl” has become the number one driver of land use change in the United States. As part of a larger study of land use change in the Delaware River Basin (DRB), this study aims to provide baseline estimation of the land area occupied by energy infrastructure and associated right-of-way. Our assessment addressed electric infrastructure, pipelines, transmission lines, wind farms, and commercial solar farms. The calculations from this study relate to the land area currently associated with energy infrastructure, including underground infrastructure. The analysis reveals that the current land occupied by energy infrastructure in the DRB totals 1,121 km2. The highest contributor to the total is the electric transmission infrastructure needed to support energy distribution. There are over 27,000 km of transmission lines alone, which occupy a land area of 885 km2, while natural gas pipelines make up the second highest land area devoted to transmission services (over 9,000 km of pipeline, occupying 128 km2 of land). Renewables, especially solar energy, are rapidly expanding in the region. There is currently 5 km2 of land covered with solar panels in the Basin, while wind infrastructure is negligible (0.08 km2) – most large-scale wind farms in the region are located just outside of the Basin. Within the basin, new transmission lines and gas pipelines, and the rapid expansion of commercial solar energy (still in its nascent phase), make energy infrastructure a primary land use issue in the DRB. As such, this baseline analysis is an important step to support Basin-wide planning.
AUTHORS: G. Darrel Jenerette*, University of California Riverside
ABSTRACT: The history, current practice, and future needs of landscape ecological research strongly support an expanded role of experimental approaches that complements the rich observational and modeling strengths of the field. Throughout the history of landscape ecology, researchers have used diverse experimental approaches that feature controlled manipulations to answer a broad range of questions. In many cases experiments can provide powerful information on relationships between spatial pattern and ecological functioning. Here I provide an overview of how experiments are used, explore case studies that highlight success with landscape ecological experiments, and suggest new directions for future experiments. In a recent literature survey fifteen different types of landscape ecological experiments were identified. Among these types they included research that identify landscape structure, evaluate how landscape structure influences ecological processes, and evaluate causes of landscape pattern formation. Approaches for conducting landscape experiments vary along multiple axes that represent continuums that reflect constraints from scalability to real landscapes, statistical treatment, and resources for implementation. The next generation of experiments are benefitting from explicit uses of scaling theories and harnessing extensive cyberinfrastructure. Future opportunities for landscape ecologists include expanded collaborations among distributed experiments, better representations of microbial-scale experiments, and direct evaluations of landscape interactions with global changes. Notably, the recent expansion of macrosystem research is providing increased need and opportunities for new landscape experimental designs.
AUTHORS: Andrea Santos Garcia*, Center of Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, University of São Paulo, and Landscape initiative, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota; Maria Victoria Ramos Ballester, The Center of Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, University of São Paulo
ABSTRACT: Deforestation is the removal of a forest stand, while forest degradation corresponds to the loss of forest quality rather than forest area. Deforestation is normally the consequence of land use change, which replaces native vegetation for agricultural areas. Forest degradation is caused by logging activities, uncontrolled fires, fuel wood collection, livestock grazing in forests, and fragmentation. We are studying these two processes in the Xingu River Basin aiming to figure out the relationship between these process and different land uses. We have mapped deforestation and forest degradation from 1985 to 2015 in area of around 17 mi hectares through multitemporal spectral mixture analysis using the CLASlite software. Here, we present preliminary analyses based on the observations made from 2010 to 2015 for the entire study area at municipality level. The area of forest that have been cleaned or degraded between 2010 and 2015 in each municipality is positively correlated with the remaining forest area as expected. In other words, the trend line indicates that while there is forest to be cleared, the process will not stop. Forest degradation presented a smaller variability than deforestation when comparing each municipality rate with its area used for agriculture, pastureland, double cropping, single cropping, or degraded pasturelands. When analyzing correlation between deforestation or forest degradation and land uses, the overall correlation is weak. However, it becomes much higher when building different models for municipalities in different states of agricultural development demonstrating that factors those processes do not act on the entire Basin with the same intensity. Clearly, each state of agricultural development implies in different drivers. In a next step we will (i) evaluate the spatial pattern between deforestation/forest degradation and different land uses, and (ii) the relationship with socioeconomic dynamics.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 4:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Adams Room
AUTHORS: Alexander Sacco*, University of Central Florida; Nathan Putman, LGL Ecological Research Associates Inc.; Lance Garrison, Southeast Fisheries Science Center National Marine Fisheries Service; Christopher Sasso, Southeast Fisheries Science Center National Marine Fisheries Service; Erin Seney, University of Central Florida; Kate Mansfield, University of Central Florida
ABSTRACT: Five species of sea turtles spend at least part of their life in the Gulf of Mexico. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil blowout affected marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, including all sea turtle life history stages. A major challenge during and after the oil spill was estimating the areas of highest impact on marine turtles, primarily due to the lack of data on abundance and habitat preferences in marine ecosystems. We analyzed aerial survey data collected during spring (April–May), summer (July–September), and fall (October–December) 2011, and winter (January–March) 2012 to estimate the abundance and density of four species of sea turtles (loggerhead (Caretta caretta), green (Chelonia mydas), leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), and Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) sea turtles; SCL>40cm) over the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. Double-observer distance sampling was used to collect turtle observations. After correcting for availability bias, as turtles spend large amounts of time below the sea surface, detection typically range from 1.1–10.5% for all seasons surveyed and turtle abundance estimates indicate significant seasonal variation. Ensemble niche models (ENM) were used to predict density probabilities for all turtles observed during the non-nesting and nesting seasons, extrapolated throughout the Gulf of Mexico region. Environmental predictors include bathymetry and daily modeled oceanographic outputs from the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM; freshwater flux, mixed-layer depth, salinity, sea-surface height, sea-surface temperature, and ocean current vectors) centered on presence-pseudoabsence turtle observations. ENM AUC were all above 0.830 and distribution exhibited species-specific and seasonal variation, delineated mainly by bathymetry, sea-surface temperature, and freshwater flux. These data will aid research on post-disaster baseline distribution variance, help assess future anthropogenic impacts, and inform ecosystem models for the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.
Lorenzo Di Lucia*, Jeremy Woods – Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London The design of socio-ecological landscapes to provide simultaneously multiple benefits has become a key concept in current sustainable development thinking and an attractive goal for policy makers. However, its application in the practice of landscape management has proved difficult. In this study, we develop an approach for practical application of landscape design to advance multifunctionality and sustainable outcomes. We combine ideas of landscape ecology with methods for collaborative decision-making to deal with the practice of designing landscapes. Our approach consists of six components including (a) definition of boundaries and scales, (b) assessment of local values and concerns, (c) knowledge development, (d) stakeholders participation, (e) collaborative decision-making and (d) monitoring. We test the approach on the case of advanced transport biofuels. These technologies have attracted attention in recent years as a means to achieve climate, energy and development goals avoiding the environmental and socio-economic risks of conventional biofuel technologies. The findings suggest that the landscape design approach has the potential to guide the planning of complex biofuel projects for sustainable outcomes improving local acceptability of potentially controversial projects.
{pre-registration and additional fee required - $50 professional; $0 student}
Organizer: Vijay Ramesh, PhD Student, Columbia University
Overview: In recent years, the usage of Spatial Analyses for Ecology has increased tremendously. Open source platforms such as QGIS and R have contributed to an increase in the usage of tools for such analyses. In this workshop, we will be using the programming environment in R to carry out spatial analyses. Topics covered include basic spatial operations and storage of data, vector and raster manipulation, packages and functions that offer tools analogous to ones offered in QGIS/ArcGIS and basics of static mapping. Basic knowledge of R and ArcGIS/QGIS is required. (Optional: Participants are encouraged to bring their own spatial datasets and manipulate them during the workshop).
Intended Audience: Students / Professionals (Beginner to Intermediate user in R)
Pre-registration and fee required. Sign up early, space is limited! Cost per person: $70; includes transportation, lunch/bottled water, state park entry fee, gratuities (Space is limited to 52 participants)
Hosted by: Emily Minor, accompanied by ecological researchers from the local USGS office.
The Indiana Dunes extend nearly 15 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, just an hour away from downtown Chicago. Considered by some to be the ‘birth place of ecology’ because of Henry Cowles’ 1899 classic paper on plant succession, the Dunes are still among the most significant landscapes in America. We will take the bus and explore both the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the Indiana Dunes State Park. At the National Lakeshore, we will view a short movie about the Dunes, explore the visitor center, and take a hike with a National Park Ranger. We will have lunch at a local restaurant and then spend the afternoon at the State Park. Here we will enjoy some time at the nature center and then separate into groups for another (optional) hike according to interests and abilities. Among the hikes will be the 3-dune challenge (http://www.indianadunes.com/3dc/), which incorporates the three tallest dunes in the park. Other options will include easy (i.e., flat) and moderate trails. If nature cooperates, we should see spring wildflowers.
This is a full day field trip. Tour departs rain or shine, please plan attire accordingly.
Thursday April 12, 2018 8:00am - 6:00pm CDT
Offsite