Transcript Habitat

Habitat
“the resources and conditions present
in an area that affect occupancy by a
species” (Morrison 2002)
•More than floristic composition
•Structure, arrangement, predators, prey, etc.
•Species-specific
•Multiple scales must be understood
D.H. Johnson and T. A. O’Neil. 2001. Wildlife-habitat relationships in Oregon and
Washington. Oregon State University Press. Corvallis.
D.H. Johnson and T. A. O’Neil. 2001. Wildlife-habitat relationships in Oregon and
Washington. Oregon State University Press. Corvallis.
Progress, Problems, Prospects
• GIS and our increasing ability to measure more and
more habitat attributes is good, but these are not
substitutes for mechanistic understanding about how and
why species are related to various components of their
habitat.
• Model prediction accuracy may be improved (currently it
is poor) with mechanistic understanding.
• Understandings need to cross scales and address
biological (what scale do animals act at) and political
(what scale to humans act at) scales.
• This is hard enough for a single species. But
increasingly we are called on to provide advice for an
ecosystem (multiple species).
(Wiens, J.A. 2002. Predicting species occurrences: progress, problems, and prospects. Pp 739-749.
In. Scott et al. (eds.) Predicting species occurrences: issues of accuracy and scale. Island Press)
Assignment
• In Class
– Poll your group members for knowledge about habitat
requirements of terrestrial vertebrates in Washington
(birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians)
– Describe a species’ habitat according to Johnson and
O’Neil’s approach
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Habitat matrix
Structure matrix
Habitat elements matrix
Population status and distribution matrix
– Discuss how the process could be improved
Assignment
• At home (DUE WEDNESDAY IN LAB)
• In 1 page, answer the following two questions
– Using Morrison (2002), consider your species’ habitat needs and
discuss the habitat variables you would measure, how you would
measure them, and at what scale you would do so, in order to
quantify its habitat requirements.
– Using Figures 2 and 3 from Johnson and O’Neil (2001) state
what sort of model you would use to investigate the influence of
timber harvest in Washington on your species.
– After you decide on a type of model (above), do a literature
search to find one publication in the primary literature that
applies this sort of model to your species (or another species if
one is not out there for your species). List the reference and
summarize how the model was used in a few sentences.