Final: Sections 5 - 8

Question 1

Define: Umbrella species

Answer 1

Species whose conservation confers a protective umbrella to numerous co-occurring species.

Question 2

Define: Indicator species

Answer 2

Species whose distribution, abundance, or population dynamics can serve as substitute measures of the status of other species or environmental attributes.

Question 3

Define: Keystone species

Answer 3

Species that significantly affects one or more key ecological processes or elements to an extent that greatly exceeds what would be predicted from its abundance or biomass.

Question 4

Define: Ecosystem engineer

Answer 4

Species that, via morphology or behaviour, modifies, maintains, and creates habitat for itself and other organisms.

Question 5

Define: Flagship species

Answer 5

Charismatic species that serves as a symbol to generate conservation awareness and action.

Question 6

Define: Focal species

Answer 6

Species used, for any reason, to help understand, manage, or conserve ecosystem composition, structure, or function.

Question 7

What are some of the concerns/uncertainties about using the historical sources?

What should you consider when evaluating these data?

Answer 7

Without direct observations of a species on the restored site,
• we cannot assign a specific probability that our restoration would be a success,
• in fact, if specimens did occur on the site - we will usually not know their status; did it actually breed, survive and produce viable offspring?

Factors to consider are:
• age of data source
• distance from data source
• quantity and quality of data sources:
- one record versus numerous records
- records from brief time period versus samples across time
- actual specimens versus visual observations
- completeness of data record
- reputation of data source

Question 8

What factors should be considered to determine if restoration of a species is ‘feasible’?

Answer 8

You need a process of feedback between the desired ecological conditions versus what is ultimately feasible to implement and maintain given:
• current biotic/abiotic conditions,
• budgetary constraints, and
• legal mandates.

‘Feasibility’ includes issue such as:
• can you create/provide the critical limiting resources the species need (sinks/ecological traps)?
• immigration / emigration / dispersal - are they impossible?
• predators / competitors / exotic species – are their influences manageable? (QCI/Dawson’s caribou (Rangifer tarandus dawsoni))
• can you create a ‘source’ population or will it be a ‘sink’?
• are the abiotic components manageable/controllable?

Question 9

What are some of the concerns with the focal species approach?

Answer 9

• Often fails to protect native species by only focusing on one macrohabitat condition.
  Selected species should be those most influenced by:
   specific threatening processes,
   were area sensitive,
   dispersal limited and resource limited.

• focal species do not serve as surrogates for other species,
• selection of species often shows high social bias (i.e., species of interest to the public such as large predators),
 often economic, cultural, ethical, and even esthetic dimensions.
• the assumption that threatening processes are independent is false,
• we do not know enough about every species to correctly choose focal species,
• empirical testing of the response of species to management actions is minimal,
• species seldom have overlapping niche requirements

Question 10

Why develop a conceptual model and what are some key aspects that should be considered?

Answer 10

Simple conceptual models:

• incorporate the main ecological processes that are necessary to achieve the desired ecological condition
• identify how restoration can be achieved within the context of these processes, and
• provide a logical rationale for the overall project design.

Regardless of the management tools ultimately used, the models provide a simple visual representation of the ecological processes necessary to maintain the desired condition.

Question 11

What are the key assumptions of using a focal species approach?

Answer 11

A key assumption of the focal/surrogate species approaches is the assumption of the nested subset
• nested niche requirements lead to a close similarity in responses of different species to perturbations.
if species are not nested, responses to perturbations could be largely dissimilar.

Question 12

Why does the coarse-filter approach usually fails to protect a large number of native species?

Answer 12

According to Morrison et al. (2006, 382), the coarse-filter approach usually fails to protect a large number of native species:

• In CF approach, wildlife is operationally defined as the often unspecified wildlife community that is associated with some general macrohabitat condition as defined for one or a few species (the indicator species approach) or conditions/habitat features,
• however, niche requirements of many species are not necessarily met by CF approach

Question 13

Explain the assumption of nested-niche requirements.

Answer 13

key assumption of the focal/surrogate species approaches is the assumption of the nested subset
• nested niche requirements lead to a close similarity in responses of different species to perturbations
However…
 recall from lecture 4, species respond to qualitative changes in critical resources,
 for a variety of species to respond in the same way to changes in these critical resources suggest competition among species
since species, in general, partition resources to reduce competition,
• all have unique ‘niches’.

Question 14

What are the three Implementation steps?

Answer 14

1. Planning Area
   - Essential initial step - determining the desired ecological condition of the largest planning area, and the ecological process that must be present or provided for a restoration plan
2. Project Area
   As above, the restoration plan for each project area (e.g., management unit, such as a watershed) must follow from the desired ecological condition for the overall planning area (e.g., basin).
   • this permits allocating target levels of each ecosystem component across the specific projects based on the desired condition for the entire planning area.
3. Adaptive Management Implementation
   Adaptive management requires the specification, during development of the restoration plan, of potential actions that could be taken if monitoring thresholds are triggered

Question 15

Define community.

Answer 15

A community is the co-occurance of individuals of several species in time and space. There includes interdependence among the species.

Question 16

Define assemblages.

Answer 16

Species assemblages are the group of species that are present and potentially interacting within a study (or restoration) area. Could be part of a larger community.
to restore, focus on identifying the filters and constraints that will modify the species present in an area in a successional pathway.

Question 17

Define species pool.

Answer 17

A species pool defines a species group occurring within a biogeographic region and extending over spatial scales many order of magnitude larger than those of a local species assemblage.

Question 18

What are assemblage rules?

Answer 18

Assembly rules - broad patterns of species co-occurance. ex. Species A and B eat the same food, and are found on islands never together.
The combination of biotic and abiotic factors along with other species specific constraints that determine the abundance of a species at a certain location.

Question 19

What are the three models of community assemblage?

Answer 19

Deterministic -a community’s development is seen as the inevitable consequence of physical and biotic factors.

Stochastic - community composition and structure is a random process, depending only on the availability of vacant niches and the order of arrival by organisms.

Alternate Stable State - Community structure id restricted but can develop into numerous stable states because of an element of randomness inherent in all ecosystems.

Question 20

What are the 4 parameters you need to know to successfully restore a community?

Answer 20

How to restore a community

1. the components of the community assemblages
2. the pattern/relationship in the community assemblages
3. Explicitly state the rules that govern the expression of the property (why does the community function the way it does?)
4. Determine the mechanism that caused the patterns.

Question 21

What are the three species pools to consider?

Answer 21

Regional - the set of species in a certain biogeographic or climatic region which are potential members of the target assemblage.

Local - the set of species occurring in a subunit of the biogeographic region, such as a valley segment.

Community - the set of species present in a site within the target community

Question 22

The concept of ecological filters forms one of the main approaches in assembly rules theory, explain the concept of ecological filters and how they influence your approach to restoration of communities

Answer 22

Ecological Filters - a species will only be able to establish itself at a site where it is adapted to the abiotic and biotic conditions present. Those not adapted will be filtered out. For restoration, it will be necessary to identify the limiting factors at the site for your target species and limiting membership at the site.

Question 23

What are some basic abiotic filters to consider in designing your goals for restoring community assemblages (3)?

Answer 23

Abiotic filters
Climate - rainfall and temp gradients
Substrate - fertility, soil water availability, toxicity
Landscape structure - landscape position, previous land use, patch size and isolation

Question 24

What are some basic biotic filters to consider in designing your goals for restoring community assemblages (8)?

Answer 24

Biotic filters:
Competition - with preexisting and potentially invading species and between planted or introduced species

Predation-trophic interactions - from preexisting and potentially invading species, and predation between reintroduced animal species.

Propagule availability (dispersal) - bird perches, proximity to seed sources, presence of seed banks.

Mutualisms - mycorrhizae, rhizobia, pollination and dispersal, defense, etc.

Disturbance - presence of previous or new disturbance regimes

Order of species arrival and successional model - facilitation, inhibition, and tolerance.

Current and past composition and structure (biological legacy) - how much original biodiversity and original biotic and abiotic structure remains.

Question 25

Should your restoration of communities be based upon concepts of succession versus assemblage rules? Why?

Answer 25

“whereas succession describes the dynamics of change in species composition, assembly rules deal with the interactions between organisms that determine the trajectory of those changes.” Succession deals with patterns while assembly rules deal with processes.

Both should be considered in restoration.

Question 26

Which of the following is not a basic abiotic filter that can limit the occurrence of a species.
Temperature
Snow Depth
Soil Depth
Elevation
Competition

Answer 26

Competition.

Question 27

The concept that emerged from plant ecology and focus on describing the change or evolution of ecosystems is termed:

1) Succession.
2) Trophic Cascade.
3) Assemblage Rules.
4) Evolution.

Answer 27

1) Succession.

Question 28

The alternative stable state model of community assemblages is defined as:

1) A community’s composition is seen as an intermediate between a complete random re-assemblage and complete predictability of the new assemblage following disturbance. There are a number of predictable re-assemblages but the resulting one is random (i.e., follow a number of several possible trajectories).
2) A community’s composition and structure is essentially a random process; thus, reassembly of the community after a major disturbance will be unpredictable.
3) A community’s composition is seen as the inevitable consequence of abiotic and biotic factors, developing along predictable lines.
4) A community’s composition is actually an aggregate of species not determined by assemblage rules.

Answer 28

1) A community’s composition is seen as an intermediate between a complete random re-assemblage and complete predictability of the new assemblage following disturbance. There are a number of predictable re-assemblages but the resulting one is random (i.e., follow a number of several possible trajectories).

Question 29

A species whose distribution, abundance, or population dynamics can serve as substitute measures of the status of other species or environmental attributes is referred to as a…

Answer 29

Indicator species

Question 30

Which of the following is not a source to help inform historic conditions?
Question options:

1) Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS).
2) Christmas Bird Count (CBC).
3) B.C. Conservation Data Centre (CDC).
4) Natural history collections.
5) Personal observation.

Answer 30

5) Personal observation

Question 31

A species used to help understand, manage, or conserve ecosystem composition, structure, or function is referred to as a…

Answer 31

Focal species

Question 32

There are a multitude of sources of information to help identify historic condition. What should you consider when evaluating these data?

1) Age of the data.
2) Distance to the data source.
3) The number of records for the species.
4) Was it s visual observation or actual specimens were available.
5) All of the above.

Answer 32

5) All of the above.

Question 33

An essential initial step in a restoration plan is to determine the desired ecological condition of the largest planning area, and the ecological process that must be present or provided for a restoration plan. What should NOT be considered at this level?

1) Identify suite of species characteristic of the desired condition (i.e., density, survival, reproduction, dispersal, fitness).
2) Identify thresholds that if triggered then initiates management actions within the restoration site.
3) Identify the major factors that will lead to desired ecological condition at the planning area level.
4) Identify key ecological attributes that drive the ecosystem model at the planning area level.
5) Describe current vegetation and other environmental features.

Answer 33

2) Identify thresholds that if triggered then initiates management actions within the restoration site.

Question 34

Which is not a true concern of using the focal species approach to restore groups of species?

1) We do not know enough about every species to correctly choose a focal species.
2) Focal species do not serve as surrogates for other species.
3) One or a few species can be used as surrogates (indicators) of how other species will respond to management and restoration.
4) Species seldom have overlapping niche requirements.
5) Selection of a focal species often shows high social bias.

Answer 34

3) One or a few species can be used as surrogates (indicators) of how other species will respond to management and restoration.

Question 35

Define Habitat heterogeneity.

Answer 35

The degree of discontinuity in environmental conditions across a landscape for a particular species,

Question 36

Define ecotones and ecoclines.

Answer 36

Ecotones = discontinuities in environmental conditions

Ecoclines = relatively sharp breaks in environmental conditions, or broader gradations in conditions over areas of greater geographic extent.

Discontinuities can occur naturally;
• as with changes in soil type,
• edges of water bodies, or
• anthropogenically,
 - agricultural lands or roads,
- forestry cut blocks,
- mine/oil/gas infrastructure,
-  urbanization.
• cause of the discontinuity is less important to wildlife occurrence and health than is the nature and extent of the discontinuity,

Question 37

Define patch dynamics.

Answer 37

The incursion and melding of patches over time as a function of disturbance events and successional growth of vegetation.

Question 38

Define patch connectivity.

Answer 38

The degree of adjacency of patches with similar conditions in a landscape.

Question 39

Define patch isolation.

Answer 39

Distance from one type of patch to the next (or nth) nearest patch of the same type.

Question 40

Define fragmentation.

Answer 40

The breaking up of continuous environmental or habitat patches into smaller, more discrete and more isolated patches of different types.

Refers to the degree of heterogeneity of habitat across a landscape.

A species specific concept.

Question 41

What are the three degrees of species-specific habitat heterogeneity?
Define each.

Answer 41

Extreme cases - resource or vegetation patches can be isolated into islands surrounded by vastly different and, for specific species, unsuitable conditions.

Partial isolation - of habitats can affect population viability;
 by incrementally lowering the numbers of animals per unit area of unsuitable and suitable environments,
 by lowering dispersal, and
 by lowering the effective size of the breeding populations,
 even though a substantial decline in overall abundance might not be evident.

Temporal fragmentation (aka, ecological continuity) - refers to the degree to which a particular environment (e.g., successional stage of a vegetation type) occupies a specific area through time,
 e.g., if an old-field ecosystem is perturbed and then allowed to regrow, many of the original species associated with the original condition might be lost.

Question 42

Define corridors.

Answer 42

More or less linear or constricted arrays of environments
or habitats in a landscape serving to connect
larger patches

Question 43

Define permeability.

Answer 43

Degree to which an organism can move among

patches within a landscape

Question 44

Define edge effect and edge contrast.

Answer 44

Edge effect = Incursion of microclimate and vegetation into a patch, typically forested, from a disturbed edge or opening.

Edge contrast = Degree of difference in vegetation structure between two adjacent patches.

Question 45

What 5 factors must be considered when considering species-specific habitat fragmentation?

Answer 45

1. Absolute loss of habitat area (less patch interior)
2. Increased edge
3. Increased distances for movement of animal between patches
4. Increased penetration of predators, competitors, and nest parasites
5. Changes in microclimate with changes in patch area and edge

Note that this list includes the physical loss of area and changes in patch
shape (items 1–2), as well as impacts on animal behavior (3–5) and environmental
conditions (5). Changes in microclimate can also impact prey abundance
(e.g., insect prey for birds), soil moisture and temperature, and understory
plant vigor.

Question 46

What four concepts should be considered for incorporating fragmentation issues into research and planning?

Answer 46

• The choice of spatial scale (both extent and grain) greatly affects development
of restoration plans. There is no one correct spatial scale for
analysis; efforts to minimize fragmentation at one scale could increase
fragmentation at another scale.

• Analyses are affected by the number of patch types and patch definitions.
For example, evaluating fragmentation of an oak woodland will
likely result in different conclusions than an analysis that broke the
same woodland into blue oak and coast live oak woodlands.

• Perimeter:area ratios should not be used as measures of fragmentation.
These ratios change unpredictably and do not capture important aspects
of fragmentation such as isolation.

• It is preferable to measure different aspects of fragmentation separately
rather than trying to select one best measure or combining them into a single index.

Question 47

What are the four types of disturbance? Provide examples.

Answer 47

• Type I disturbances: High Disturbance - Widespread Area
major environmental catastrophes that are relatively short term, intense, and that affect large areas. They include volcanoes, major fires, floods, and hurricanes (or typhoons in the Pacific Ocean).

• Type II disturbances: High Disturbance - Local Area
locally intense environmental changes from events such as wind storms, ice storms, and local outbreaks of defoliating insects; they often create gaps in forest or woodland canopy.

• Type III disturbances: Low Disturbance - Widespread Area
chronic or systematic changes over wide areas, and include slow alteration of native landscapes for human habitations, ecological succession, and long-term climate change. Wildlife relations to Type III disturbances include changes in species abundance and ecosystems from changes in regional climate; shifts in climate can greatly alter the distribution of vegetation and wildlife over broad areas.

• Type IV disturbances: Low Disturbance - Local Area
include minor and local environmental changes, such as low-intensity and local events such as spot fires, low density rural developments along edges of natural landscapes, and gap dynamics of vegetation canopies. In particular, small vegetation gaps can be caused by natural plant death or by biotic mortality agents such as insect defoliators, plant pathogens, and plant diseases, and also by fire and weather conditions such as ice or windstorms.

Question 48

What are some conclusions that can be made about disturbances and dynamics of resource patches?

Answer 48

Species-specific. Type I disturbances will, in general, have much wider and catastrophic impacts on species relative to Type IV disturbances.
The closer disturbance mimics natural process, better adapted species are to accommodate changes. Thus, the further that human activities alter patch disturbance dynamics from natural processes, the greater the discontinuity occurs between the altered habitat and species ability to use it (niche requirements).

Question 49

What are some of the limitations around using indicator or umbrella species and wildlife habitat models to direct management in fragmented landscapes?

Answer 49

Indicators of any kind must be carefully and narrowly defined to have any predictive value (Landres et al 1988; Morrison et al 1992). Flather et al. (1997) showed that one taxa usually fails to predict the response of other groups to environmental change.
Som

Question 50

Describe the typical design of the urb

Answer 50

The concept behind this basic corridor design is to allow movement of animal species of all sizes: first, as a passage route for species that can live in the core (or patch) but who are too large to have the majority of their home range contained within the more narrow corridor, such as medium and large mammals; second, as an extension of the core that allows some degree of residency in the corridor, if not breeding opportunities, such as small mammals and small to medium birds.

Question 51

The definition of a species assemblage is:

1) The co-occurrence of individuals of several species in time and space plus their role of interdependences among the species.
2) A group of species that are present and potentially interacting within a restoration area but interaction is not critical.
3) The co-occurrence of individuals of several species in time and space.
4) A species group occurring within a biogeographic region and extending over spatial scales of many orders of magnitude larger than those of a local species assemblage.

Answer 51

??

Question 52

An often well-defined transitional ecosystem between two varying ecosystems is best termed as:
Question options:

1) Permeability.
2) An ecocline.
3) An ecotone.
4) Patch connectivity.
5) Habitat heterogeneity

Answer 52

?? Definitely not an ecocline.

Question 53

The degree of difference between two habitat types is best termed as:
Question options:

1) Permeability.
2) Edge contrast.
3) Patch richness.
4) Patch connectivity.
5) Habitat heterogeneity.

Answer 53

?? Not habitat heterogeneigty

Question 54

What concept(s) should be considered for incorporating fragmentation issues into research and planning?

1) a. For mobile species with large home ranges, total habitat area is probably less important than interior area (patch size),
2) b. For mobile species with large home ranges, total habitat area is probably more important than interior area (patch size),
3) c. Persistence of mobile animals with large home ranges is likely related to patch isolation.
4) d. Persistence of less mobile animals with small home ranges is likely related to patch isolation.
5) b and d are correct.
6) a and c are correct

Answer 54

B and D are correct.

Question 55

What controversial points should be noted about corridors in restoration of wildlife? (4 points)

Answer 55

• promote disease transmission and can increase the chance of metapopulation extinction
• too little information is available to warrant wholesale adoption of corridors as a conservation action.
• corridors can enhance the spread of fires, and can increase exposure of individuals to predation, domestic animals, and poachers.
• there is not much evidence that corridors actually enhance emigration from a fragment,

Question 56

What are the four corridor designs?

Answer 56

`Linear, stepping stone, stepping stone with linkages, corridors that are of lower quality habitat than the core

Question 57

There are numerous factors that must be considered when determining if corridors are a viable option within a restoration project – please state as many as possible (9).

Answer 57

• corridors will usually promote movement of some individuals of certain species,
• poorly designed corridors will act as filters that tend to allow passage of generalists species, such as those that use multiple habitat types,
• specialist species are unlikely to use poorly designed corridors,
• intraspecific and interspecific interactions are important factors to consider in connectivity planning, and social species might not use corridors unless they can move in groups.
• species with physical limitations will need special approaches to corridor design,
• all possible barriers should be identified in the planning process (must avoid corridors that look good on paper, but do not adequately serve species of interest._
• continuous corridors are preferred to those bisected by roads or other barriers,
• length and width of corridors naturally are central to the ultimate utility of a corridor

Question 58

Explain the concepts (purpose, reason for use, when they should be used, etc.) of ‘buffers’.

Answer 58

Activities within the buffer zone would be designed to minimize impacts on the core area.
The buffer can, in essence, become the corridor connecting core areas, if conditions are appropriate for species of interest.
Activities in the transition zone may still be limited and benefit your core reserve

Question 59

What are some of the adverse genetic effects associated with isolation (5)?

Answer 59

• fixation of deleterious alleles,
• increasing homozygosity, and
• overall decline in allelic diversity of the gene pool (as caused by genetic drift).
• inbreeding depression (decreased fertility and fecundity, increased natal mortality, etc).
• founder effect (continued loss of genetic and phenotypic diversity with subsequent isolation from outbreeding

Question 60

How does isolation influence extinction and colonization rates (make reference to native and non-native species (4).

Answer 60

Isolation, combined with small patch size can result in:
• Extinction (extirpation) rates exceeding colonization rate of native species, and
• colonization rates exceed extinction (extirpation) rates for exotic species.
• smaller and more isolated the reserves are, the greater both processes occur,
• if islands (reserves) are sink habitat for native species – the faster this imbalance occurs.

Question 61

When would isolation be a benefit to a population (4)?

Answer 61

• avoiding spread of disease, parasites, and pathogens,
• establishing of several founder populations in sites with different disturbance dynamics and thus different likelihoods of success,
• maintaining of relictual3F4 faunas naturally isolated by changes in climate, vegetation, or landform
Overall persistence of the metapopulation is enhanced if:
• there is little correlation of potentially disastrous environmental disturbances among the population centers, and
• if populations are large enough to avoid genetic problems, or
• if there is occasional gene exchange (outbreeding) among populations.

Question 62

What are the seven major principles of reserve design?

Answer 62

• species well distributed are less susceptible to extinction than are species confined to small locations,
• larger blocks containing larger populations are better than small blocks,
• blocks of habitat close together are better than blocks far apart,
• habitat in continuous blocks are better than fragmented habitat,
• interconnected blocks of habitat are better than isolated blocks,
• populations that fluctuate are more vulnerable than stable populations,
• disjunct or peripheral populations are likely to be more genetically impoverished and vulnerable to extinction, but are also more genetically distinct than central (core) populations.

Question 63

What 4 points should be considered when maintaining within patch conditions?

Answer 63

• topographic location,
• adjacency of other patches (metapopulation structure), and
• susceptibility to disturbances such as floods or fires,
• the species-specific requirements

Question 64

What may influence patch occupancy by a species over time (3)?

Answer 64

• the size and quality of the patches,
• the type and quality of the intervening matrix environment, and
• the spatial juxtaposition of the patches.

Question 65

There are 4 guidelines for habitat configuration, what are these guidelines?

Answer 65

 Habitat patches can be managed to remain reachable by dispersing and migrating individuals, and organisms moving within their home ranges.
 Feeding and resting habitats can be provided within daily dispersal distances or home range areas.
 Secondary or marginal habitats can be provided as peripheral habitats to help serve as sinks for surplus or floater individuals in good reproductive years (stepping-stone patches; Figure 7.3).
 Expanding the area of habitat allows the numbers of individuals of a species to increase

Question 66

Detail the 5 factors that potentially limit the occurrence of species in a proposed restoration area.

Answer 66

• Disturbance caused by human activities:
 control human access or timing of access
• e.g., no entry into a sensitive area during breeding season.
 Establishing buffers around key, sensitive areas: e.g., roosting areas.
• Disease
 do not allow animals to concentrate in small areas,
 consider treatment of the environment or treatment of selected animals.
• Size of area
 functions as a factor limiting occupancy of certain species; consider possibility of linkages; i.e., corridors.
• Seasonality
 consider availability of water, roosts, and other resources; such resources might need to be artificially established and maintained.
• Biotic factors, including predation and competition
 consider direct control of exotic, or in some cases, native (e.g., cowbirds) animals.

Question 67

Which of the following statements is not a major principle of reserve design?

1) Larger blocks containing larger populations are better than small blocks.
2) Populations that fluctuate are more vulnerable than stable populations.
3) Intact or close subpopulations are likely to be more genetically impoverished and vulnerable to extinction.
4) Disjunct or peripheral populations are likely to be more genetically distinct than central (core) populations.
5) All of these are important statements about reserve design.

Answer 67

(Not 5)