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Remote Sensing Tools for Assessing Large Scale Habitat Quality for Ungulates

Remote Sensing Tools for Assessing Large Scale Habitat Quality for Ungulates. Brad Griffith USGS, Alsaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Ungulates don’t respect boundaries Annual cycles encompass several jurisdictions

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Remote Sensing Tools for Assessing Large Scale Habitat Quality for Ungulates

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  1. Remote Sensing Tools for Assessing Large Scale Habitat Quality for Ungulates Brad Griffith USGS, Alsaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks

  2. Ungulates don’t respect boundaries Annual cycles encompass several jurisdictions Monitoring of annual ranges necessary to understand performance Remote sensing provides tools for large scale habitat monitoring

  3. Purposes today • List some available tools for habitat assessment • Give two examples of research results with monitoring applications • One migratory species • One non-migratory species

  4. Tools • AVHRR – • 1, 4, 8km resolution • High frequency of overpasses • Greenness, snow cover, surface temperature • TM, MSS, SPOT • 10-100m resolution • Low frequency overpasses • Greenness, land-cover classification and change • Passive Microwave • 25km resolution • Intermediate frequency overpasses • Snow water equivalent

  5. Changes in lake levels between 1986 and 1998 - Old Crow Flats Green = No change Blue = Increased Water levels Yellow = Decreased Water levels Courtesy of Jim Hawking and Elizabeth Malta, Canadian Wildlife Service

  6. AVHRR CH4 - THERMAL

  7. Summer Warming: 1-2 oC Winter Warming: 3-4 oC

  8. r2 = 0.50, P = 0.0023

  9. Western Arctic Porcupine Bathurst Qamanirjuaq No Trends

  10. Net Climate Effects • Earlier green-up • Increased calf survival • Reduced forage quality in fall • Delayed age of first reproduction? (Cook et al. 2001, 2004) • Reduced body condition entering winter? (Cook et al. 2001, 2004) • Reduced winter survival? (Cook et al. 2001, 2004) • Increased icing on spring ranges • Reduced access to forage? • Increased travel costs? • Increased predation risk? • Warming induced population decline for Porcupine herd? • Substantial spatial and temporal heterogeneity in climate effects on caribou ranges and on population dynamics. • Do no expect same scenario for Western Arctic

  11. Habitat Suitability for Dall’s Sheep (Ovis dalli) in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park & Preserve Miranda Terwilliger a.k.a. What constitutes Natural and Healthy?

  12. Objectives • Estimate population characteristics of sheep in Wrangell-St. Elias • Inventory survey units for habitat characteristics • Estimate relationships between population and habitat characteristics (WRST NP/P) (JR Manes)

  13. POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS - RESULTS: ADULT DENSITY (6-11 sheep/km2) (<3 aerial surveys)

  14. POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS - RESULTS: ADULT DENSITY TRENDS

  15. Habitat Characteristics - Inventory • “Escape” Terrain • >60% slope with 150m buffer >40% (McKinney et al. 2004) • Terrain Ruggedness • Surface to planar area ratio (Hobson 1972) • Aspect • % south & west • Relative Greenness • NDVI (Tucker et al. 1984) • Relative amount of plant biomass

  16. Summary • 56% of density was explained by: • (+) relative greenness (forage quantity) • (+) terrain ruggedness • 64% of harvest was explained by: • (+) proportion of south facing slopes • (+) mean adult density • 42% of horn length was explained by: • (+) trends in adult density • (+) perimeter to area ratio of escape terrain

  17. Future Directions • Test predictive power in other areas • Consider additional sources of variation • Snow cover • Wind scouring • Climate • Predation

  18. What have we learned? • Temporal resolution more important than spatial resolution for seasonally breeding ungulates (except for those damned sheep) • Capture the seasonal dynamics • Static views may not be relevant to life history stages of interest • Forget forested areas • Nothing eats the tops of trees

  19. Monitoring Considerations • Large scale problem for ungulates • Don’t look at your feet • Document the background trends • Climate, physical environment, habitats • Only way to understand system performance • Don’t assume “global” trends apply everywhere • Match the scale of questions and data • Smaller grain increases variance • Match the resolution of data and animal performance • Don’t over-analyze

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