AECL 371

1896- States Control Manner of Take 

1910-States own resident wildlife 

Migratory Bird Treaty Act 

There is a biological surplus available for harvest without impact to breeding population 

Additive Mortality-each animal killed by hunter is an additional death that adds to the natural mortality resulting in total mortality being greater than if hunting did not occur.

Compensatory Mortality- when animals have a relatively stable annual mortality, regardless of which decimating factor may be acting on the population, removal of hunting would equal an increase of mortality from predation or disease

A concept were past a certain point of time, hunting is largely unrewarding-(furbearing season)

Most animals produce more young than necessary to maintain the population, the extra number can be removed by hunting 

Number of animals produced exceed the capacity of its habitat

When most mortality is thought to occur

1. Inventory of population

2. Identification of population and harvest goals 

3. Development of regulations that allow goals to be met

Heavily Hunted Species- frequent changes in response to new information

Lightly Hunted Species- Regulaions often remain unchanged for years 

1. Inventories-bases harvest on abundance

2. Harvest Surveys 

1. Set of models describing population responses to harvest and environmental variation

2. A measure of reliability for each model

3. A limited set of regulatory alternatives that differ in excpected harvest rates (seasons, bag limit)

4. objective funtion- a mathematical description of the objectives of harvest management 

1. Optimal regulatory alternative is identified based on breeding populations and habitat conditions 

2. Once a regulatory decision is made, model-specific predictions for breeding population size is made

3. Model weights are updated if monitoring data are available to compare with observed population size 

4. New model weights start another iteration of this process 

-Overtime iteration process of updating model weights and optimizing regulatory choices should identify which model is the best predictor of change in population size

-Snow and Ross's Geese 

-Conservation Order-enacted to reduce populations to sustainable level

-Increase bag and seasong length, expanded methods of take 

-Done to reduce environmental and economic damage 

Maximum number of individuals that can be harvested 

A populations capability of normal growth and development

1. Decreased population growth

2. Incresed extinction probability 

3. Reduced population productivity

1. Fragmentation/isolation leading to small populations

2. Re-establishment using too few individuals 

-Leads to inbreeding and loss of alleles 

-Cause population to be more vulnerable to environmental change (less ability to adapt)

1. Maintain large effective population sizes 

2. No agreement on a standard minimum 

3. Most studies report a minimum effective size

-Life history characteristics matter

-Small population means a restricted range species

-Vulnerability

-Scale population size necessary to retain 95% of the heterozygosity for 100 years 

-Species with highly varicance in population growth rate

-A historical rule proposed in 1980

-50 - Proposed effective population size(Ne) of 50 individuals (about 1/5 to 1/3 of total population size) to protect against short-term loss of fitness

-500 - Proposed minimum population size of 500 to protect against long-term maintenance of genetic variation

-Natural Heritage Program (G1 to G5 rankings)

-U.S. Endangered Species Act (1973)

-CITES

-IUCN

-Deterministic - the outcome is predictable (habitat losss or overharvest)

• -Stochastic - Random effects
• Demographic-variation in birth and death rates Environmental-random changes in vital rates across individuals
• Genetic- random loss of alleles 

Predicts how deterministic and stochastic factors interact to produce a decline in a small population

-Its a subset of a vaibility assessment 

-Application of data and models to predict the likelyhood a population will persist for a specified time into the future 

-includes the concept of Minimum Viable population size(MVP)

1. Persistence 

2. Time (short-term and long-term projections)

3. Likelihood (expressed as a probability of extinction over a specified time interval)

-How to increase the size of a small population 

-How to decrease risk of extinction

1. Improve recruitment 

2. Improve survival 

3. Population Augmentation

4. Habitat Protection 

5. Monitoring

-They often depend on incomplete knowledge(data)

-They do not predict the fate of a species (focus on factors)

-It's not practical or possible to conduct a PVA for most species 

-Resources available to it (habitat)

-Habitat Resources reflect species richness

-Habitat quality reflects density 

• -What is the goal of the study 
• -Study focus (species, population)
• -Species interrelationship with the environment
• -Time of day or season when habitat is used
• -Influences of habitat features at different spatial scales

-Macro Features - size, distance to water edge, vegetation

-Micro Features - plant species compisition, water chemistry 

-Low I_x means similar habitats while High I_x means there are many habitats

-Low J_x means there are few similar habitats in close proximity while a high J_x means there are many in proximity

-Study area habitat conditions/optimal habitat conditions 

-Developed by USFWS

- Habitat suitability calulated from physical and biological attributes 

- Habitat suitability is proportional to K

- Generally linear models with habitat variables for multiple species 

1. Habitat-capacity models

2. Pattern-recognition models

3. Life-form models 

4. Guild Models

• -Species composition
• -Vertical/ horizontal spatial distribution
• -Temporal variation in structure 
• -Biomass
• -Overall stand structure 
• -Landscape structure (surrounding environment)

1. Frequency of occurrence 

2. Density 

3. Cover 

4. Biomass or standing crop 

• -The proportion of sample units in which a species occurs
• Example- 100 plots, 20 Oaks, frequency of occurrence is 20/100=20%

• -Distribution within a community 
• -Monitoring change in a community

-Low frequency (<15%) = aggregated (several types)

-High frequency (>95%) = uniform (all the same) 

1. Herbaceous vegetation (1-2 m²)

2. Tall herbs and low shrubs (4 m²)

3. Tall shrubs and low trees (10 m²)

4. Trees (100 m²)

• -Total number of plants per unit area 
• -Results obtained from different sampling methods are directly comparable 
• -Does not provide information on how plants in a community are distributed

• 1. Quadrat methods (made with material with fixed boundary)
• -must consider plant distribution, size and shape of quadrat, sample size needed 

2. Plotless methods (ocular methods)

• -Plant composition based on dry weight-best indicator of species importance in a community
•  
• -Includes live and dead vegetation

-Can be divided into total biomass and biomass of edible components 

-Clip all vegetation in a sample plot and weigh it before and after drying 

-Clip at ground level 

-Sometimes only edible portion of plants are clipped

1. Total biomass (wet or dry)

2. Biomass per unit area 

-Ocular measures

- Viewed from vertical

-Expressed as % cover

-Viewed from horizontal 

-Expressed as % obstruction or numerical score

-The percent of the ground surface covered by vegetation or other material

1. Very important functionally 

2. Criterion for relative community dominance

3. Intercepts ligh and precipitation

4. Impacts soil temperature

5. Restoration ecology, community ecology, competition 

-Basal Cover - measure only the portion of plant that extends into the soil

-Foliar Cover - Measure vertical projection of the exposed leaf cover (a shadow)

-Canopy Cover - An estimate of the plants are of influence (includes roots)

• -Ground Cover - The cover of the soil surface with plants, rocks, litter 
•  

-Related to plant biomass 

-characterizing hydrologic proceeses (intercepted rain)

-consistent way to characterize life forms (% of area)

1. Points 

2. Lines 

3. Plots

-Best for herbaceous vegetation and low shrubs 

-Place a grid of points in habitat to be measured 

-Measure # of hits of vegetation 

-Cover= percent of points intercepted by vertical projections of species of interest

-Best method for grasses and shrubs in arid or semi-arid lands

-Place a line in habitat to be measured 

-Measure the intercepts of vegetation as length along the line 

- Cover = percent of line intercepted by vertical projections of species of interest 

-Improved accuracy because of actual measurement

-1.83m tall board divided into 6 equal horizontal segments

- From a distance, add up visible numbers as a score of VO

-Score can range from 0 (no VO) to 21 (complete VO)

-Does not describe vertical distribution of the vegetation

-A vegetation profile board 

-2.5m tall, broken into 5, 0.5 intervals

-From a distance, assign a score to concealed cover in each interval

- Score is from 1 (0-20%) to 5 (81-100%)

• -Widely used
•  

-3x150 cm pole marked in decimeters of alternating colors 

-Record the heigh of total visual obstruction as a score by decimeter number 

-Obstruction reading is highly correlated to biomass in some grassland systems 

-widely used, easily portable

• -Geologic and Geomorphological events 
•  
• -2 Time Periods
• -Pleistocene-3 mil years to 10,000 year BP
• -Post-Pleistocene-biogeographic patterns result from vicariance (geographic replacement) and dispersal

-Plants as indicators of the environment

-Vegetation patterns and succession

-Correlation between animals and plants

• -Ground cover 
• -Standing dead trees
• -Rocky outcrops
• -Presence and type of water
• -Lichen and moss
• -Artifical structures (roads house)

-Functional role in a community

-Includes habitat and animal-habitat relationships 

-Habitat for populations across space/time must include underlying mechansims related to occupancy, survival, fecundity

-Manage habitat provides conditions in which organisms maximize their realized fitness(#viable offspring that find mates, suitable habitat, and successfully reproduce) 

-Population approach link PVA, effective population size

-Animal uses resources more/less than available

-Animal selects between two equally available resources

-First Order -the selection of the physical or geo range of a species

-Second Order- Determine the home range of an individual or social group

-Third Order - Usage of habitat components within the home range

-Fourth Order - the procurement of food items from those available in home range 

-The Way in which an individual or species uses habitat to meet its life history needs. 

-Describes the actual distribution of individuals across habitat types

Refers to a hierarchical process of behavioral responses that may result in the disproportionate use of habitats to influence the survival fitness of individuals

-Implies an understanding of complex behavioral and environmental processes that habitat use does not

-Habitat use patterns are the end results of the habitat selection process

1. Demonstration of choice or a descision-making process

2. An assessment of the fitness consequences associated with the choice

1. Comparing used and unused habitat

2. Comparing used and available habitat

• -Used=habitat currently occupied
• -Unused=not currently occupied 
• -Available= all habitats in a defined area, including habitats currently used 

-Least informative method 

-Absence from a habitat doesnt = avoidance

-Influenced by population density/demography

-More informative 

-Allows researcers to make inferences about choice

• -Difficult to measure habitat availability 
• Refers to accessibility and procurability of resources, not just abundance

-A gradient of use 

-Sums to 1

-Use is the height or volume of UD

2. Kernel Estimation

• -Continuous use (high to low)
• -Multiple regression 
• -Individual is sampling unit 
• -No measure of availability 
• -Described by a mathmatical function