Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Melanie Dickie, Nicola Love, Robin Steenweg, Clayton T. Lamb, Jean Polfus, Adam T. Ford
Summary: Effective species management requires evidence-based goals that consider the impact of stressors on population demography and the food web. For woodland caribou, habitat loss is a major driver of decline, but specific targets for linear features such as roads and seismic lines have not been established. Our study aimed to link stressors to caribou declines and develop a management target based on linear features, but found little evidence of a threshold in these relationships to inform a target. This work provides a foundation for understanding the link between stressors and species declines and supports evidence-based management goals.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Bernardo Brandao Niebuhr, Bram Van Moorter, Audun Stien, Torkild Tveraa, Olav Strand, Knut Langeland, Per Sandstrom, Moudud Alam, Anna Skarin, Manuela Panzacchi
Summary: The concept of cumulative impacts is widely used, but the quantification methods are still evolving. The proposed cumulative ZOI approach allows for estimation of cumulative effects of multiple anthropogenic features in the landscape.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Melanie Dickie, Geoff G. Sherman, Glenn D. Sutherland, Robert S. McNay, Michael Cody
Summary: Restoration of human-altered habitat is crucial for maintaining self-sustaining woodland caribou populations. This study evaluated the impact of restoration on predator-prey dynamics by measuring the movement speeds of predators and their associated prey on treated and untreated seismic lines. The results show that restoration treatments reduce travel speeds of predators and caribou, potentially leading to a decrease in caribou mortality.
CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Tim Horstkotte, Per Sandstrom, Wiebke Neumann, Anna Skarin, Sven Adler, Ulrika Roos, Jorgen Sjogren
Summary: The introduction of exotic lodgepole pine has negative effects on reindeer husbandry in northern Sweden, leading to a reduction in forage availability and winter grazing grounds. The presence of lodgepole pine stands significantly decreases lichen cover, which is an important food source for reindeer.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
John P. Severson, Timothy C. Vosburgh, Heather E. Johnson
Summary: This study examines the influence of traffic volume on caribou's summer space use and road crossings in Arctic Alaska. The results show that caribou prefer areas further from roads during the post-calving and mosquito seasons, and select areas with lower traffic volumes. Additionally, during the insect seasons, caribou are less likely to cross roads as traffic increases, but this response dissipates as insect harassment becomes more severe.
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Steven F. Wilson, Thomas D. Nudds, Andrew de Vries
Summary: With the urgency of conservation actions increasing, the identification of causal relationships becomes crucial for the successful recovery of endangered species. While observational studies are the main source of information, limitations in experimental conditions may lead to weak inferences, constraining decision-making.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Melanie Dickie, Caroline Bampfylde, Thomas J. Habib, Michael Cody, Kendal Benesh, Mandy Kellner, Michelle McLellan, Stan Boutin, Robert Serrouya
Summary: Habitat loss is a major threat to species at risk, and habitat restoration is essential for the recovery of woodland caribou populations in Western Canada. An algorithm was developed to prioritize restoration efforts and monitor progress. The algorithm ranked landscape units into five zones of restoration priority based on maximizing gain in unaltered caribou habitat per unit cost. Ambitious and coordinated restoration efforts are needed to meet habitat management targets and minimize alteration within caribou range.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Sindre Eftestol, Diress Tsegaye, Kjetil Flydal, Jonathan E. Colman
Summary: The study found that habitat use decreased within 0.25 km with increasing cumulative disturbance for snow-free and winter seasons, and up to 1 km for spring. Reductions in habitat use in areas with the highest cumulative disturbance within these zones ranged from 92% to 98%. The approach provides novel results and estimates where cumulative effects actually occur, suggesting clustering future human developments within areas of high disturbance where functional habitat use is already lost or highly reduced.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Kate Twynham, Andres Ordiz, Ole-Gunnar Stoen, Geir-Rune Rauset, Jonas Kindberg, Peter Segerstrom, Jens Frank, Antonio Uzal
Summary: In this study in northern Sweden, researchers investigated the habitat selection of brown bears following resource pulses and how these selections varied based on different degrees of predatory behavior. Through GPS collars on bears and UHF transmitters on reindeer, they found that habitat selection differed across periods and between bears with high and low predatory behavior, providing evidence that specialization in foraging behavior influences individual variation in bear habitat selection.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Catherine A. Gagnon, Sandra Hamel, Don E. Russell, James Andre, Annie Buckle, David Haogak, Jessi Pascal, Esau Schafer, Todd Powell, Michael Y. Svoboda, Dominique Berteaux
Summary: This study builds a model based on Indigenous and scientific knowledge to investigate the social-ecological system of caribou in the circumpolar North. The findings demonstrate that environmental conditions, caribou demography, and cultural practices affect hunters' ability to meet their needs. This research enhances our understanding of the complex relationships between ecosystems and human well-being.
NATURE SUSTAINABILITY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Candice Michelot, Martin Leclerc, Joelle Taillon, Christian Dussault, Julien Henault Richard, Steeve D. Cote
Summary: This study investigates the migratory coupling between grey wolves and migratory caribou in northern Canada. The findings indicate that the movement patterns and space use of wolves are related to the seasonal distribution of caribou, and there is overlap between the home ranges of wolves and the areas used by caribou. The results are important for the conservation and management of both species in the context of declining migratory prey.
Article
Ecology
Rebecca Lacerte, Mathieu Leblond, Martin-Hugues St-Laurent
Summary: The study assessed the short-term establishment of vegetation following four different treatments applied on forest roads in eastern Canada. The combination of closing the road to traffic, decompacting the soil, and planting black spruce trees was found to be the most effective treatment for establishing regeneration that would lead to suitable caribou habitat. The results suggest that decommissioning forest roads could benefit caribou populations, especially when done at a sufficiently broad scale and accompanied by other habitat restoration and protection practices.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
A. O. Pedersen, E. M. Soininen, B. B. Hansen, M. Le Moullec, L. E. Loe, I. M. G. Paulsen, I. Eischeid, S. R. Karlsen, E. Ropstad, A. Stien, A. Tarroux, H. Tommervik, V. Ravolainen
Summary: This study develops habitat suitability models for the endemic Svalbard reindeer in summer and winter based on GPS tracking data. The results show that the reindeer prefer productive habitats with rich vegetation and also select bird cliff areas with abundant forage, especially in winter. Suitable habitat patches are clustered and cover a small proportion of the landscape. These findings have important implications for the management and conservation of Svalbard reindeer.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Michelle L. McLellan, Melanie Dickie, Stan Boutin, Marcus Becker, Bevan Ernst, Darcy Peel, Kathryn L. Zimmerman, Robert Serrouya
Summary: For wide-ranging species, it is often difficult to implement effective conservation action due to cost or political challenges. To address this, a prioritization approach is needed to focus on areas where conservation efforts are more likely to succeed. Using Southern Mountain Caribou as an example, a simple algorithm is developed to rank subpopulations based on habitat quality and population characteristics, weighted according to expert opinion. Sensitivity analyses are used to measure the impact of criteria variance and expert weighting. This transparent framework allows for discussions on conservation, subpopulation comparisons, and adaptive management. The algorithm can be adapted for other species and used by conservation scientists and managers to prioritize populations for recovery actions.
CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Enrique Martinez-Meyer, Alejandro Gonzalez-Bernal, Julian A. Velasco, Tyson L. Swetnam, Zaira Y. Gonzalez-Saucedo, Jorge Servin, Carlos A. Lopez-Gonzalez, John K. Oakleaf, Stewart Liley, James R. Heffelfinger
Summary: The study aimed to develop an updated distribution model and habitat suitability analysis for the Mexican wolf, with results showing suitable habitat extending from central Arizona and New Mexico to high sierras of Oaxaca, Mexico. Large tracts of high-quality habitat were identified in the southwestern United States and Mexico, indicating potential for recovery within the historical range of the Mexican wolf.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Melanie Dickie, Robert Serrouya, Tal Avgar, Philip McLoughlin, R. Scott McNay, Craig DeMars, Stan Boutin, Adam T. Ford
Summary: This study examines how the interaction between resource density and exploitation efficiency influences home range size of wolves. The results show that exploitation efficiency plays a key role in determining home range size, with the impact of linear features diminishing in areas of higher resource density.
Article
Ecology
Yasmine N. Majchrzak, Michael J. L. Peers, Emily K. Studd, Allyson K. Menzies, Philip D. Walker, Shotaro Shiratsuru, Laura K. McCaw, Rudy Boonstra, Murray Humphries, Thomas S. Jung, Alice J. Kenney, Charles J. Krebs, Dennis L. Murray, Stan Boutin
Summary: Snowshoe hare cycles are a significant ecological phenomenon. Food limitation and predation can interact and affect the survival and reproduction of snowshoe hares.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Andrew Hacket-Pain, Jessie J. Foest, Ian S. Pearse, Jalene M. LaMontagne, Walter D. Koenig, Giorgio Vacchiano, Michal Bogdziewicz, Thomas Caignard, Paulina Celebias, Joep van Dormolen, Marcos Fernandez-Martinez, Jose Moris, Ciprian Palaghianu, Mario Pesendorfer, Akiko Satake, Eliane Schermer, Andrew J. Tanentzap, Peter A. Thomas, Davide Vecchio, Andreas P. Wion, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Tingting Xue, Katharine Abernethy, Marie-Claire Aravena Acuna, Marcelo Daniel Barrera, Jessica H. Barton, Stan Boutin, Emma R. Bush, Sergio Donoso Calderon, Felipe S. Carevic, Carolina Volkmer de Castilho, Juan Manuel Cellini, Colin A. Chapman, Hazel Chapman, Francesco Chianucci, Patricia da Costa, Luc Croise, Andrea Cutini, Ben Dantzer, R. Justin DeRose, Jean-Thoussaint Dikangadissi, Edmond Dimoto, Fernanda Lopes da Fonseca, Leonardo Gallo, Georg Gratzer, David F. Greene, Martin A. Hadad, Alejandro Huertas Herrera, Kathryn J. Jeffery, Jill F. Johnstone, Urs Kalbitzer, Wladyslaw Kantorowicz, Christie A. Klimas, Jonathan G. A. Lageard, Jeffrey Lane, Katharina Lapin, Mateusz Ledwon, Abigail C. Leeper, Maria Vanessa Lencinas, Ana Claudia Lira-Guedes, Michael C. Lordon, Paula Marchelli, Shealyn Marino, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Andrew G. McAdam, Ludovic R. W. Momont, Manuel Nicolas, Lucia Helena de Oliveira Wadt, Parisa Panahi, Guillermo Martinez Pastur, Thomas Patterson, Pablo Luis Peri, Lukasz Piechnik, Mehdi Pourhashemi, Claudia Espinoza Quezada, Fidel A. Roig, Karen Pena Rojas, Yamina Micaela Rosas, Silvio Schueler, Barbara Seget, Rosina Soler, Michael A. Steele, Monica Toro-Manriquez, Caroline E. G. Tutin, Tharcisse Ukizintambara, Lee White, Biplang Yadok, John L. Willis, Anita Zolles, Magdalena Zywiec, Davide Ascoli
Summary: This study introduces a data set called MASTREE+, which collates time-series data on reproduction of perennial plants from around the world and provides it to the community for free. The data set includes 73,828 georeferenced observations of annual reproduction in perennial plant populations, consisting of 5971 population-level time-series from 974 species in 66 countries. The mean and median time-series length is 12.4 and 10 years respectively, with 1122 series extending over at least two decades. The open-access data set will improve understanding of the response of long-lived plant reproduction to environmental change and enable investigation of reproductive strategies and ecosystem dynamics.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Andrew G. McAdam, Quinn M. R. Webber, Ben Dantzer, Jeffrey E. Lane, Stan Boutin
Summary: When resources are limited, competition can reduce an individual's fitness. However, when resources are abundant, social constraints on fitness are greatly reduced or eliminated.
JOURNAL OF HEREDITY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lauren Petrullo, Tiantian Ren, Martin Wu, Rudy Boonstra, Rupert Palme, Stan Boutin, Andrew G. McAdam, Ben Dantzer
Summary: The gut microbiome diversity and metabolic function are affected by glucocorticoids. Understanding the relationship between ecological factors, glucocorticoids, and gut microbiome diversity in wild populations is important. This study used wild North American red squirrels as subjects and found that increased glucocorticoids led to decreased gut microbiome diversity and increased metabolic taxa, but in line with previous studies, gastrointestinal pathogens decreased. Dietary heterogeneity and food availability directly influenced gut microbiome diversity, while conspecific density and reproductive activity indirectly affected diversity through changes in glucocorticoids.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Clayton T. Lamb, Roland Willson, Carmen Richter, Naomi Owens-Beek, Julian Napoleon, Bruce Muir, R. Scott McNay, Estelle Lavis, Mark Hebblewhite, Line Giguere, Tamara Dokkie, Stan Boutin, Adam T. Ford
Summary: Indigenous Peoples in the northern hemisphere have relied on caribou for subsistence for a long time. However, caribou populations in Canada are currently declining. The West Moberly First Nations and Saulteau First Nations came together to create a vision for caribou recovery. Through habitat protection and predator reduction, the Klinse-Za caribou population has more than doubled in recent years, and a landmark conservation agreement has been secured.
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Yasmine N. Majchrzak, Allyson K. Menzies, Darcy Doran-Myers, Michael J. L. Peers, Emily K. Studd, Rudy Boonstra, Stan Boutin
Summary: Researches are increasingly using motion-triggered cameras to study wildlife, and the reliable identification of individual animals in photos is crucial. By creating unique barcode patterns and attaching them to collars and ear tags, researchers have successfully achieved highly accurate identification of animals in photos.
Article
Ecology
Joanie L. Kennah, Michael J. L. Peers, Eric Vander Wal, Yasmine N. Majchrzak, Allyson K. Menzies, Emily K. Studd, Rudy Boonstra, Murray M. Humphries, Thomas S. Jung, Alice J. Kenney, Charles J. Krebs, Stan Boutin
Summary: Climate warming causes asynchronies between animal phenology and environments, and mismatched traits may decrease survival. However, coat color change can provide advantages other than camouflage. In this study, we found that mismatched snowshoe hares in Yukon had a significantly reduced autumn mortality risk, possibly due to the increased coat insulation and lower metabolic rates of winter-acclimatized hares. Mismatched hares also foraged less and had lower predation risk, leading to higher survival rates. However, mismatch did not affect spring mortality risk, suggesting a potential temperature limit where the costs of conspicuousness outweigh energetic benefits.
Article
Ecology
Quinn M. R. Webber, Ben Dantzer, Jeffrey E. E. Lane, Stan Boutin, Andrew G. G. McAdam
Summary: Through studying North American red squirrels, we found that territory size and intrusion rates display negative density dependence. When food availability increases, territories shrink while population density increases. However, when resources decrease, territories expand and population density decreases.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Sam F. Walmsley, Stan Boutin, Ben Dantzer, Jeffrey E. Lane, David W. Coltman, Andrew G. McAdam
Summary: The study on North American red squirrels revealed that kinship has an influence on their survival and reproductive success. Female red squirrels have higher annual survival when they live closer to their daughters, while males have higher annual reproductive success when they live closer to their fathers.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Melanie Dickie, Caroline Bampfylde, Thomas J. Habib, Michael Cody, Kendal Benesh, Mandy Kellner, Michelle McLellan, Stan Boutin, Robert Serrouya
Summary: Habitat loss is a major threat to species at risk, and habitat restoration is essential for the recovery of woodland caribou populations in Western Canada. An algorithm was developed to prioritize restoration efforts and monitor progress. The algorithm ranked landscape units into five zones of restoration priority based on maximizing gain in unaltered caribou habitat per unit cost. Ambitious and coordinated restoration efforts are needed to meet habitat management targets and minimize alteration within caribou range.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lauren Petrullo, Stan Boutin, Jeffrey E. Lane, Andrew G. McAdam, Ben Dantzer
Summary: This study shows that phenotype-environment mismatch errors in wild red squirrels can be explained by asymmetrical costs of different types of errors. Mothers that mistakenly increased reproductive effort when signals of an upcoming food pulse were absent were more likely to correctly increase effort when a food pulse did occur. However, mothers that failed to increase effort when cues of an upcoming food pulse were present suffered lifetime fitness costs that could only be offset through food supplementation. Therefore, these phenotype-environment mismatches may reflect a bias to overestimate environmental cues and avoid making the costliest error, ultimately enhancing lifetime fitness.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Michelle L. McLellan, Melanie Dickie, Stan Boutin, Marcus Becker, Bevan Ernst, Darcy Peel, Kathryn L. Zimmerman, Robert Serrouya
Summary: For wide-ranging species, it is often difficult to implement effective conservation action due to cost or political challenges. To address this, a prioritization approach is needed to focus on areas where conservation efforts are more likely to succeed. Using Southern Mountain Caribou as an example, a simple algorithm is developed to rank subpopulations based on habitat quality and population characteristics, weighted according to expert opinion. Sensitivity analyses are used to measure the impact of criteria variance and expert weighting. This transparent framework allows for discussions on conservation, subpopulation comparisons, and adaptive management. The algorithm can be adapted for other species and used by conservation scientists and managers to prioritize populations for recovery actions.
CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alicia Halhed, Lauren Petrullo, Stan Boutin, Ben Dantzer, Andrew McAdam, Martin Wu, Karl Cottenie
Summary: In this study, the gut microbiome samples of red squirrels were analyzed to identify the drivers of microbiome composition. The spatial location of the squirrels was found to be a key contributor to the composition of the gut microbial community. The non-core microbiome showed highly localized spatial patterns, while the core microbiome showed some spatial patterns. The results suggest that environmental transmission plays a role in the spatiotemporal distribution of the red squirrel gut microbiome.
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Mark O'Donoghue, Brian G. Slough, Kim Poole, Stan Boutin, Elizabeth J. Hofer, Garth Mowat, Dennis Murray, Charles J. Krebs
Summary: Counting tracks in the snow can provide a relatively simple and inexpensive method for estimating the abundance of meso-carnivores. However, seasonality and snow depth should be taken into account when using this method.
