Sharp-tailed Grouse
Integrating Landscape and Metapopulation Modeling Approaches: Viability of the Sharp-tailed Grouse in a Dynamic Landscape
H. Resit Akçakaya
Applied Biomathematics, 100
North Country Road, Setauket, NY 11733, USA
Volker C. Radeloff, David J. Mladenoff
Department of
Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison,
Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Hong S. He
School of Natural Resources, University of
Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211 U.S.A
This study is published in:
The model used in this study is implemented as RAMAS Landscape. The development of the methods used in this study was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Summary of the presentation at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology:
We analyse the effect of forest management options on the viability of the Sharp-tailed Grouse, Tympanuchus phasianellus, in the Pine Barrens region of northwestern Wisconsin, using a model that integrates landscape and metapopulation modelling approaches. Our model simulates metapopulations in dynamic and fragmented habitats; it allows population viability analyses based on temporal changes in the habitat patch structure, brought about by processes such as succession, disturbances, and silviculture. Both the landscape and metapopulation components are spatially dynamic models. The landscape component (LANDIS) predicts landscape dynamics in the form of a time series of maps that describe the tree species composition and age distribution at each decade. These maps are then combined into a time series of patch structures, which form the dynamic spatial structure of the metapopulation component (RAMAS). The results indicate that the viability of the Sharp-tailed Grouse in the Pine Barrens depends both on landscape dynamics and on demographic variables such as fecundity and mortality. Ignoring the landscape dynamics gave overly optimistic results, and results based only on landscape dynamics (ignoring demography) led to a different ranking of the management options than the ranking based on the more realistic model that incorporated both landscape and demographic dynamics.
