Reserves and Management (Class 21)

Question 1

How to minimize edge and fragmentation effects?

Answer 1

• Reserves that are rounded in shape to minimize edge to area ratio
• Most parks have irregular shapes because of land acquisition
• Avoid internal fragmentation (logging, fences, farming)

Question 2

How can we mitigate effects of fragmentation and size limitations in protected areas?

Answer 2

Aggregating and linking protecting areas.

Question 3

What is the Yellowstone to Yukon ecoregion?

Answer 3

Proposes to link the national parks and governmental lands along the rocky mountains which would be beneficial to large mammals.

Question 4

What is Ecosystem Based Management? (EBM)

Answer 4

An approach that is designed to protect cultural and ecological values, by determining what must be left in the forest before deciding where and how much to log.

Question 5

How does EBM effect the Great Bear Rainforest?

Answer 5

• Protection for estuaries, streams, wetlands, and lakes.
• Large portions of grizzly bear habitat will be maintained.
• First Nations cultural features will be protected
• The amount of old growth forest that can be logged will be restricted; over the entire region 50 percent of the natural level of old growth forest of each ecosystem type will have to be maintained

Question 6

What is the Chicago Wilderness Project?

Answer 6

Organizations that have collaborated to preserve prairies and wetlands in metropolitan Chicago.

Question 7

What does the Chicago Wilderness Project Include?

Answer 7

Museums, Zoos, preserve districts

Question 8

What did the Bruny Island Environmental network do?

Answer 8

Brought together local groups to preserve and expand the paradalote habitat (birds)

Question 9

What are Habitat Corridors?

Answer 9

Strips of land running between reserves

AKA conservation corridors or movement corridors

Question 10

What are stepping stones?

Answer 10

Scattered patches of habitat that also facilitate movement.

Question 11

What can help animals move between patches? (over roads)

Answer 11

Overpasses, culverts, tunners.

Question 12

What do cougars favour?

Answer 12

Crossings with vegetation cover

Question 13

What do grizzly bears, wolves, elks, deer prefer?

Answer 13

Wide overpasses

Question 14

What do black bears and cougars prefer?

Answer 14

Narrow underpasses

Question 15

What types of crossings are the most effective?

Answer 15

A mixture of crossing types and vegetation covers are needed.

Question 16

What is the SPLAT project?

Answer 16

Testing underpass designs for amphibians crossing Highway 4. Biologist chose the polypropylene fabric for amphibian culvert fences

Question 17

What types of corridors are the most effective?

Answer 17

Ones that facilitate natural migration patterns

Question 18

How can corridors help animals resist climate change effects?

Answer 18

Corridors that facilitate long term migration to higher latitudes and elevations may allow species to shift distributions with climate change

Question 19

What are some negative effects of corridors?

Answer 19

• May facilitate movement of pest species and disease
• Single infestations may spread to all connected nature and cause extinctions of rare species
• Animals dispersing along corridors may be exposed to greater risks of predation from human hunters and animal predators
• May be expensive

Question 20

How we manage networks of reserves depends on what?

Answer 20

Species habitat requirements, migration, dispersal and range size.

Question 21

What are the two main conservation management strategies?

Answer 21

Intervention vs Leave it alone

Question 22

What is an example of intervention?

Answer 22

Burning a forest improves the habitat for man species

Question 23

What is an example of leave it alone strategy?

Answer 23

Keeping human disturbance to a minimum, like in old growth forests (Red Woods National Park)

Question 24

What is the result of loss of large herbivores in North America?

Answer 24

Altered the ecology of the ecosystem, resulting in loss of plat species.

Question 25

What did moderate grazing of cattle and bison result in?

Answer 25

Gradual increase in plant species over a 10 year period

Question 26

What did overgrazing result in?

Answer 26

Denuded the vegetation and exposed river bed. A restoration decision to remove the cattle resulted in restoration of ecosystem proesses

Question 27

What is an example of managing for disturbance?

Answer 27

Larvae of heathy fritillary butterfly feed on early-successional plants and require the kind of patchy habitat that occurs when disturbances open up gaps in a forest.
These types of sites are now being deliberately created by cutting trees in small patches.

Question 28

We need to manage for long term ecosystem processes. What does this include?

Answer 28

Natural disturbance regimes (fire) and successional stages

Question 29

Examples of active roles in managing critical resources? (by humans)

Answer 29

• Food must be supplied to red crowned cranes in Japan in order for them to survive in the winter
• Specially designed rafts to allow for sunning behaviour of rare pond turtles

Question 30

What does Zoning in the Great Barrier Reef entail?

Answer 30

Aims to provide a balance between strict protection and different types of human activities.