Dataset Information

Relative Importance of Climate Variables to Population Vital Rates: A Quantitative Synthesis for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is expected to affect temperature and precipitation means and extremes, which can affect population vital rates. With the added complexity of accounting for both means and extremes, it is important to understand whether one aspect is sufficient to predict a particular vital rate or if both are necessary. To compare the predictive ability of climate means and extremes with geographic, individual, and habitat variables, we performed a quantitative synthesis on the vital rates of lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidictinus) across their geographic range. We used an information theoretic approach to rank models predicting vital rates. We were able to rank climate models for three vital rates: clutch size, nest success, and subadult/adult seasonal survival. Of these three vital rates, a climate model was never the best predictor even when accounting for potentially different relationships between climate variables and vital rates between different ecoregions. Clutch size and nest success were both influenced by nesting attempt with larger clutches and greater success for first nesting attempts than second nesting attempts. Clutch size also increased with latitude for first nesting attempts but decreased with latitude for second nesting attempts. This resulted in similar clutch sizes for first and second nest attempts at southern latitudes but larger clutches for first nest attempts than second nest attempts at northern latitudes. Survival was greater for subadults than adults, but there were few estimates of subadult survival for comparison. Our results show that individual characteristics and geographic variables are better for predicting vital rates than climate variables. This may due to low samples sizes, which restricted our statistical power, or lack of precision in climate estimates relative to microclimates actually experienced by individuals. Alternatively, relationships between climate variables and vital rates may be constrained by time lags or local adaptation.

SUBMITTER: Earl JE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5042413 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Relative Importance of Climate Variables to Population Vital Rates: A Quantitative Synthesis for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

Earl Julia E JE Fuhlendorf Samuel D SD

PloS one 20160929 9

Climate change is expected to affect temperature and precipitation means and extremes, which can affect population vital rates. With the added complexity of accounting for both means and extremes, it is important to understand whether one aspect is sufficient to predict a particular vital rate or if both are necessary. To compare the predictive ability of climate means and extremes with geographic, individual, and habitat variables, we performed a quantitative synthesis on the vital rates of les ...[more]

PMID: 27684075

Similar Datasets

Project description:Conservation translocations are frequently inhibited by extensive dispersal after release, which can expose animals to dispersal-related mortality or Allee effects due to a lack of nearby conspecifics. However, translocation-induced dispersals also provide opportunities to study how animals move across a novel landscape, and how their movements are influenced by landscape configuration and anthropogenic features. Translocation among populations is considered a potential conservation strategy for lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). We determined the influence of release area on dispersal frequency by translocated lesser prairie-chickens and measured how lesser prairie-chickens move through grassland landscapes through avoidance of anthropogenic features during their dispersal movements. We translocated 411 lesser prairie-chickens from northwest Kansas to southeastern Colorado and southwestern Kansas in 2016-2019. We used satellite GPS transmitters to track 115 lesser prairie-chickens throughout their post-release dispersal movements. We found that almost all lesser prairie-chickens that survived from their spring release date until June undergo post-translocation dispersal, and there was little variation in dispersal frequency by release area (96% of all tracked birds, 100% in Baca County, Colorado, 94% in Morton County, Kansas, n = 55). Dispersal movements (male: 103 ± 73 km, female: 175 ± 108 km, n = 62) led to diffusion across landscapes, with 69% of birds settling >5 km from their release site. During dispersal movements, translocated lesser prairie-chickens usually travel by a single 3.75 ± 4.95 km dispersal flight per day, selecting for steps that end far from roads and in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands. Due to this "stepping stone" method of transit, landscape connectivity is optimized when <5 km separates grassland patches on the landscape. Future persistence of lesser prairie-chicken populations can be aided through conservation of habitat and strategic placement of CRP to maximize habitat connectivity. Dispersal rates suggest that translocation is better suited to objectives for regional, rather than site-specific, population augmentation for this species.

Project description:The reduction and simplification of grasslands has led to the decline of numerous species of grassland fauna, particularly grassland-obligate birds. Prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus spp.) are an example of obligate grassland birds that have declined throughout most of their distribution and are species of conservation concern. Pyric herbivory has been suggested as a land management strategy for enhancing prairie-chicken habitat and stabilizing declining population trends. We assessed differences in vegetation structure created by pyric herbivory compared to fire-only treatments to determine whether pyric herbivory increased habitat heterogeneity for prairie-chickens, spatially or temporally. Our study was performed at four sites in the southern Great Plains, all within the current or historic distribution of either lesser (T. pallidicinctus), greater (T. cupido), or Attwater's (T. cupido attwateri) prairie-chickens. Key vegetation characteristics of grass cover and vegetation height in pyric herbivory and fire-only treatments were within the recommended range of values for prairie-chickens during their distinct life history stages. However, patches managed via pyric herbivory provided approximately 5% more forb cover than fire-only treatments for almost 30 months post-fire. Additionally, pyric herbivory extended the length of time bare ground was present after fires. Pyric herbivory also reduced vegetation height and biomass, with mean vegetation height in pyric herbivory treatments lagging behind fire-only treatments by approximately 15 months. Canopy cover in fire-only treatments exceeded levels recommended for prairie-chicken young within 12 months post-fire. However, canopy cover in pyric herbivory treatments never exceeded the maximum recommended levels. Overall, it appears that pyric herbivory improves vegetation characteristics reported as critical to prairie-chicken reproduction. Based on our results, we suggest pyric herbivory as a viable management technique to promote prairie-chicken habitat in the southern Great Plains, while still accommodating livestock production.

Project description:The Adirondack Park in New York State contains a unique and limited distribution of boreal ecosystem types, providing habitat for a number of birds at the southern edge of their range. Species are projected to shift poleward in a warming climate, and the limited boreal forest of the Adirondacks is expected to undergo significant change in response to rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns. Here we expand upon a previous analysis to examine changes in occupancy patterns for eight species of boreal birds over a decade (2007-2016), and we assess the relative contribution of climate and non-climate drivers in determining colonization and extinction rates. Our analysis identifies patterns of declining occupancy for six of eight species, including some declines which appear to have become more pronounced since a prior analysis. Although non-climate drivers such as wetland area, connectivity, and human footprint continue to influence colonization and extinction rates, we find that for most species, occupancy patterns are best described by climate drivers. We modeled both average and annual temperature and precipitation characteristics and find stronger support for species' responses to average climate conditions, rather than interannual climate variability. In general, boreal birds appear most likely to colonize sites that have lower levels of precipitation and a high degree of connectivity, and they tend to persist in sites that are warmer in the breeding season and have low and less variable precipitation in the winter. It is likely that these responses reflect interactions between broader habitat conditions and temperature and precipitation variables. Indirect climate influences as mediated through altered species interactions may also be important in this context. Given climate change predictions for both temperature and precipitation, it is likely that habitat structural changes over the long term may alter these relationships in the future.

Project description:Tractable practices for soil microbial restoration in tallgrass prairies reclaimed from agriculture are a critical gap in traditional ecological restoration. Long-term fertilization and tilling permanently alter soil bacterial and fungal communities, requiring microbe-targeted restoration methods to improve belowground ecosystem services and carbon storage in newly restored prairies. These techniques are particularly important when restoring for climate-ready ecosystems, adapted to altered temperature regimes. To approach these issues, we conducted a multi-factorial greenhouse experiment to test the effects of plant species richness, soil amendment and elevated temperature on soil microbial diversity, growth, and function. Treatments consisted of three seedlings of one plant species (Andropogon gerardii) or one seedling each of three plant species (A. gerardii, Echinacea pallida, Coreopsis lanceolata). Soil amendments included cellulose addition, inoculation with a microbial community collected from an undisturbed remnant prairie, and a control. We assessed microbial communities using extracellular enzyme assays, Illumina sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene, predicted bacterial metabolic pathways from sequence data and phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA), which includes both bacterial and fungal lipid abundances. Our results indicate that addition of cellulose selects for slow-growing bacterial taxa (Verrucomicrobia) and fungi at ambient temperature. However, at elevated temperature, selection for slow-growing bacterial taxa is enhanced, while selection for fungi is lost, indicating temperature sensitivity among fungi. Cellulose addition was a more effective means of altering soil community composition than addition of microbial communities harvested from a remnant prairie. Soil water content was typically higher in the A. gerardii treatment alone, regardless of temperature, but at ambient temperature only, predicted metagenomics pathways for bacterial carbon metabolism were more abundant with A. gerardii. In summary, these results from a mesocosm test case indicate that adding cellulose to newly restored soil and increasing the abundance of C4 grasses, such as A. gerardii, can select for microbial communities adapted for slow growth and carbon storage. Further testing is required to determine if these approaches yield the same results in a field-level experiment.

Dataset Information

Relative Importance of Climate Variables to Population Vital Rates: A Quantitative Synthesis for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

Publications

Relative Importance of Climate Variables to Population Vital Rates: A Quantitative Synthesis for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets