Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Avian Conservation and Ecology

William E. Van Pelt,¹  DavidKlute,²  JenniferTimmer,³  Grant M. Beauprez,⁴  AllanJanus,⁵  Blake A. Grisham,⁶  Matthew J. Butler,⁷  Tracy R. Holcombe,⁸  Catherine S. Jarnevich,⁸  Clint W. Boal,⁹  Sean C. Kyle,^1,10  JamesPitman,^1,10 

[1] Arizona Game and Fish Department;Colorado Parks and Wildlife;Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University;New Mexico Department of Game and Fish;Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation;Texas Tech University;U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Wildlife Refuge System;U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center;U.S. Geological Survey, Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Texas Tech University;Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

关键词: conservation planning;    energy development;    habitat suitability;    l;    cover;    Maxent;    prairie grouse;    species distribution modeling;    Tympanuchus pallidicinctus;   

DOI  :  10.5751/ACE-00807-110102

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Resilience Alliance Publications

【 摘 要 】

Population declines of many wildlife species have been linked to habitat loss incurred through land-use change.Incorporation of conservation planning into development planning may mitigate these impacts.The threatened Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is experiencing loss of native habitat and high levels of energy development across its multijurisdictional range.Our goal was to explore relationships of the species occurrence with landscape characteristics and anthropogenic effects influencing its distribution through evaluation of habitat suitability associated with one particular habitat usage, lekking.Lekking has been relatively well-surveyed, though not consistently, in all jurisdictions.All five states in which Lesser Prairie-Chickens occur cooperated in development of a Maxent habitat suitability model.We created two models, one with state as a factor and one without state.When state was included it was the most important predictor, followed by percent of land cover consisting of known or suspected used vegetation classes within a 5000 m area around a lek.Without state, land cover was the most important predictor of relative habitat suitability for leks.Among the anthropogenic predictors, landscape condition, a measure of human impact integrated across several factors, was most important, ranking third in importance without state.These results quantify the relative suitability of the landscape within the current occupied range of Lesser Prairie-Chickens.These models, combined with other landscape information, form the basis of a habitat assessment tool that can be used to guide siting of development projects and targeting of areas for conservation.

【 授权许可】

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