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Modeling the role of behavior in wildlife responses to landscape change
Citation:
LAWLER, J. AND N. H. SCHUMAKER. Modeling the role of behavior in wildlife responses to landscape change. Presented at Society for Conservation Biology Annual Meeting, Chattanooga, TN, July 13 - 17, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
Land-use change alters landscapes at different rates and to different degrees.
Description:
Land-use change alters landscapes at different rates and to different degrees. Wildlife responses to shifting habitat conditions vary from species to species depending on the rate of landscape change, species’ life history traits, and aspects of behavior such as dispersal patterns and nest-site fidelity. Here, we explored how these factors together determine the extent to which Willow Flycatchers can track changes in a managed landscape in western Oregon. Using a spatially explicit population model, we simulated flycatcher populations in the Umpqua watershed of the Coast Range in Oregon over a 100-year period. Landscape change reflected current and likely future forest management activities across a variety of land-ownerships. We parameterized the model with known attributes of Willow Flycatcher behavior and life history traits. Despite overall increases in habitat quality, Willow Flycatcher populations were unable to track the rapidly shifting mosaic of suitable and unsuitable habitats, and thus declined steadily. We used the results to explore how rates of landscape change, dispersal ability, nest-site fidelity, and survival rates impact Flycatcher persistence. Although all four factors influenced the population’s response to landscape change, nest-site fidelity had a particularly strong effect on the population’s response to the shifting habitat mosaic. Our results emphasize the importance of species’ behavior in determining wildlife responses to landscape change.