reconciling yellow rail habitat use and landscape dynamics at seney national wildlife refuge

Seney National Wildlife Refuge

Reconciling Yellow Rail Habitat Use And Landscape Dynamics At Seney National Wildlife Refuge

Greg CoraceSeney NWR

([email protected])

http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Seney/what_we_do/research.html

Charles GoebelOhio State Univ.

Dan KashianWayne State Univ.

To address impacts to biodiversity, conservation biology and restoration ecology take different approaches

(see Young 2000; Noss et al. 2006).

Conservation biology = genes, species, populations

Restoration ecology = ecological processes/patterns, communities

For managers of wild landscapes, the oversimplification of ecosystems is of special consideration [sensu “ecological forestry” (Franklin 1989) and “natural range of variation”

(Landres et al. 1999)]


Celebrating a Century of Conservation



Refuge Land Management

Ownership Land Cover

Refuge System Policy- Refuge Legislation

Ecosystem Capabilities-Disturbance Patterns-Function

Planning&

Mgmt.

Drobyshev et al. 2008a,b CJFR and FEM

Corace et al. 2012. EnvMgmt. Corace et al. 2012. EnvMgmt.


Alterations to Mixed-Pine Forests: Conserving and Restoring Infrequently Disturbed Ecosystems

High-grading or clear cuts followed by fire outside

“natural range of variation” (1880s-1930s). Now, natural,

late successional, mixed pine one of the more regionally

imperiled ecosystem type (Noss and Scott 1997)

Time


Ecological Considerations for Landscape Management

Based on Soils, Disturbances, and Resulting Composition and Structure

1Burger and Kotar. 2003. Forest community and habitat types of Michigan.

Major and/or frequent ecological disturbances (e.g.,

crown fire) push stands to earlier seral stages, minor

and/or infrequent disturbances (e.g., surface fire) to later seral stages.

Pinus strobus/Vaccinium angustifolium-Epigaea repens (PVE) Habitat Type1

Seney National Wildlife RefugeDeveloping a fire history for Seney

Dendrochronologically reconstructed the fire regime for

the past 300+ yearsDrobyshev et al. 2008. CJFR 38:2497-2514.

Seney National Wildlife RefugeFire chronology

Drobyshev et al. 2008. CJFR 38:2497-2514.Drobyshev et al. 2012. Dendrochronologia 30:137-145.

Seney National Wildlife RefugeCharacteristics of the fire regime

Drobyshev et al. 2008. CJFR 38:2497-2514.

Seney National Wildlife RefugeSeasonality of fires

A CB

Early season firesLate season fires



•Fire return interval (FRI): 24-33 year (on average) pre-European, but Great Cutover fires significantly more frequent and fires less common now;

•FRI of large (>10,000 ha) events mean 37 years, range 19 – 73 years (landscape-scale fires in 1754, 1791, 1864, 1891, 1910, 1976);

•Seasonality: fires occurred in early, mid- and late-season, but large fires were solely late season events;

•10-fold increase in fire rotation (<100 years pre-European to 1,000 years present-day) ;

•Altered hydrology likely linked to altered fire regime across the landscape.

Overview of Findings: Disturbance History



•Numerous studies1 on the breeding ground at Seney have suggested a relationship betweenYERA and ecological processes, primarily fire;

•Recent work by Austin (2013, Waterbirds) indicated a preference for sites burned within 5 yrs.;

•However, liberal estimate of FRI in these systems si 25 yr (5x what YERA seem to prefer)....so, did we miss fires or is something at else at play?

What’s to Reconcile?

1Bookout and Stenzel (1987) Wilson Bulletin; Burkman (1993) Northern Michigan Univ. (M.S.)


Detection probabilities for fires of different size classes within Wilderness and non-Wilderness portions of Seney National Wildlife Refuge during three time periods.

Wilderness Non-WildernessFire size class (ha) 1707–1859 1860–1935 1936–2006 1707–1859 1860–1935 1936–2006 10 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.03 0.04 0.04 100 1 1 1 0.26 0.35 0.37 200 1 1 1 0.37 0.48 0.5 300 1 1 1 0.6 0.73 0.75 400 1 1 1 0.71 0.83 0.84 500 1 1 1 0.79 0.89 0.9 600 1 1 1 0.84 0.93 0.94 700 1 1 1 0.88 0.95 0.96 800 1 1 1 0.91 0.97 0.97 900 1 1 1 0.94 0.98 0.98 1000 1 1 1 0.95 0.99 0.99 1100 1 1 1 0.97 0.99 0.99 1200 1 1 1 0.98 0.99 1

Note: Fires >1200 ha in size had detection probability of 1 in both areas and for all time periods. Fire size column refers to the upper limit of the respective size class; the center of each class was used for calculation of the detection probability (e.g., 250 ha for 200–300 ha size class).



Not all lightning strikes cause fires, even with altered hydrology!


Celebrating a Century of ConservationCelebrating a Century of ConservationCelebrating a Century of Conservation

Thinking Landscapes


TimeThen Now Future

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Low

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Jackson and Hobbs. 2009. Science. 325:567-569.Numbers=trajectories, unmanaged Letters = trajectories, managed

Prohibitive

Modest


Bork et al. 2013. Am. Mid. Nat. 169:286-302.

Walsh Ditch (~27 km) Ditch Plugs

Veg./Hydro.Transects


Future Work?•Quantify wetland composition and structure across a chronosequence of Rx and wildfire (Rx fire mapped since 1935);

•Quantify secretive marshbird occupancy (abundance?) across restoration gradient: benchmark (control)-altered-restored;

•Improve spatial and temporal planning of Rx fire treatments across landscape.


Post-Doc: Igor Drobyshev (OSU)

Grad. Student: Steven Rist (OSU)

Assistants: Too many to mention, but thanks to all!

Funding: Joint Fire Science Program, Seney NWR, The Ohio State University, Wayne State University, Seney Natural History Association

http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Seney/what_we_do/research.html

Reconciling Yellow Rail Habitat Use And Landscape Dynamics At Seney National Wildlife Refuge

reconciling yellow rail habitat use and landscape dynamics at seney national wildlife refuge

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