In 1998, hairy prairie-clover was listed as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and subsequently afforded protection under the Species at Risk Act in 2004. Hairy prairie-clover, being a habitat specialist species confined to areas of sparsely vegetated to bare sand, may provide an indication of the loss of a once viable natural mixed-grass prairie and sand dune landscape indicative to southern Saskatchewan. Therefore, critical habitat identification for hairy prairie-clover is of particular concern, not only to provide conservation efforts for this particular species, but also for bare sand and sand dune environments which are some of the most sensitive landscapes on the prairies. The goal of this thesis is to identify and spatially delineate areas of critical habitat for hairy prairie-clover within the range of a known metapopulation in the Dundurn sand hills south of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This research was divided into two specific objectives: 1) to investigate the spatial relationship between bare sand habitat for hairy prairie-clover and other land cover classes, and 2) to study the relationship between habitat configuration and hairy prairie-clover occurrence.<p> To achieve the first objective, the desired output was a land cover classification of the study site at an appropriate spatial and temporal resolution. Wavelet analysis revealed that the optimum spatial resolution for bare sand identification and delineation in the study site was between 2-5 m. Analysis of field spectroradiometer measurements throughout the growing season concluded that the early and late growing seasons were best for spectrally discriminating between land cover classes. A multi-resolution, multi-temporal land cover classification using object-oriented methods resulted in an overall classification accuracy of 79% with a users and producers accuracy of 85% for bare sand. Grassland comprised the matrix of the area covering 45.5% of the study site. Aspen and shrub were the most dominating landscape elements comprising 25.5% and 19.2% of the study site respectively. Bare sand made up only 6.0% of the study site while juniper was the least persistent class comprising only 2.7% of the study site.<p> The desired output from objective two was a critical habitat landscape mosaic for hairy prairie-clover. Patch scaled metrics were calculated for bare sand patches identified in the land cover classification from objective one. Binary logistic regression was used to identify which metrics could explain and predict hairy prairie-clover occurrences. Results showed that almost 29% of the variation in bare sand patch occupancy could be explained by the size, shape, and degree of isolation of a sand patch as well as the amount of vegetation on a sand patch in the early growing season. Based on these variables, 18.8% of sand patches in the study site were predicted to be unsuitable hairy prairie-clover habitat, 45.7% were predicted to be marginally unsuitable, 32.7% were predicted to be suitable, and 2.8% were predicted to be marginally suitable. Overall prediction accuracy was about 61% with 80% of occurrences and 54% of non-occurrences being correctly predicted.

In 1998, hairy prairie-clover was listed as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and subsequently afforded protection under the Species at Risk Act in 2004. Hairy prairie-clover, being a habitat specialist species confined to areas of sparsely vegetated to bare sand, may provide an indication of the loss of a once viable natural mixed-grass prairie and sand dune landscape indicative to southern Saskatchewan. Therefore, critical habitat identification for hairy prairie-clover is of particular concern, not only to provide conservation efforts for this particular species, but also for bare sand and sand dune environments which are some of the most sensitive landscapes on the prairies. The goal of this thesis is to identify and spatially delineate areas of critical habitat for hairy prairie-clover within the range of a known metapopulation in the Dundurn sand hills south of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This research was divided into two specific objectives: 1) to investigate the spatial relationship between bare sand habitat for hairy prairie-clover and other land cover classes, and 2) to study the relationship between habitat configuration and hairy prairie-clover occurrence.<p> To achieve the first objective, the desired output was a land cover classification of the study site at an appropriate spatial and temporal resolution. Wavelet analysis revealed that the optimum spatial resolution for bare sand identification and delineation in the study site was between 2-5 m. Analysis of field spectroradiometer measurements throughout the growing season concluded that the early and late growing seasons were best for spectrally discriminating between land cover classes. A multi-resolution, multi-temporal land cover classification using object-oriented methods resulted in an overall classification accuracy of 79% with a users and producers accuracy of 85% for bare sand. Grassland comprised the matrix of the area covering 45.5% of the study site. Aspen and shrub were the most dominating landscape elements comprising 25.5% and 19.2% of the study site respectively. Bare sand made up only 6.0% of the study site while juniper was the least persistent class comprising only 2.7% of the study site.<p> The desired output from objective two was a critical habitat landscape mosaic for hairy prairie-clover. Patch scaled metrics were calculated for bare sand patches identified in the land cover classification from objective one. Binary logistic regression was used to identify which metrics could explain and predict hairy prairie-clover occurrences. Results showed that almost 29% of the variation in bare sand patch occupancy could be explained by the size, shape, and degree of isolation of a sand patch as well as the amount of vegetation on a sand patch in the early growing season. Based on these variables, 18.8% of sand patches in the study site were predicted to be unsuitable hairy prairie-clover habitat, 45.7% were predicted to be marginally unsuitable, 32.7% were predicted to be suitable, and 2.8% were predicted to be marginally suitable. Overall prediction accuracy was about 61% with 80% of occurrences and 54% of non-occurrences being correctly predicted.

The Hudson River estuary (HRE) is a well monitored aquatic resource and much secondary data exist for this system. We developed two objectives based on accessible HRE aquatic data. The first objective was to determine if changes in HRE fish community over the time period (1974 to 2005) years are correlated to local and regional climate. We addressed this objective by employing a multivariate statistical approach. We confirmed that the HRE fish community structure has changed over the time period (1974 to 2005). These changes are correlated with local hydrology (freshwater flow and water temperature) and regional climate (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation or AMO and North Atlantic Oscillation or NAO). We found that abundances of striped bass larval stages are positively correlated with high freshwater flows and juvenile shad abundances are negatively correlated with the AMO or warmer sea surface temperatures (SST). This finding suggests that climate-related variability affects HRE juvenile shad abundances and current management strategies for this declining species should include the implications of climate change. The second objective was to examine whether factors such as sediment type, water characteristics and distance to nearest submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds affect the occurrence or presence/absence of juvenile American shad (Alosa sapidissima) and juvenile striped bass (Morone saxatilis) in the HRE during the fall. We addressed this objective by applying geostatistics and general linear mixed effects models. We found the probability of presence for both species were commonly driven by spatial dependence or river mile, Julian day and salinity. Our results include maps depicting probability of occurrence (or presence) for both species throughout the HRE. We found the highest predicted probabilities of juvenile American shad presence are found in the Upper HRE. Conversely, highest predicted probabilities of juvenile striped bass presence are found in the Lower HRE. Habitat partitioning between these two species is present during the fall in this system but the mechanism is unclear. Future studies could address a possible predator-prey or competitive relationship between juvenile American shad and juvenile striped bass.

‘Critical Habitat’ is the habitat required to close the life history of an endangered species and is a fundamental requirement for species recovery for two reasons; the role of habitat in population limitation and viability must be determined, and the habitat must be protected. The North Atlantic right whale is an endangered species that annually migrates to the Grand Manan Basin and Roseway Basin Critical Habitats to feed on diapausing calanoid copepods that are typically aggregated at depths of 100 to 150 m. In this thesis I quantify spatial and temporal variation in the copepod prey field and occupancy of right whales in Roseway Basin, and use this information to identify the location and extent of right whale Critical Habitat. To accomplish this, I measured copepod abundance and energy density (kJ m-3) using optical, acoustic and net collection methods during 2007 to 2009. Oceanographic processes that affect variation in the copepod prey field include slope water intrusions, water mass density, gyre-like circulation and frontal features. Aggregations of diapausing copepods are maintained on the southern slope of Roseway Basin by cross-isobath tidal advection, and are advected along-isobath by the residual flow. Tidal advection at a front, coupled with along-isobath advection and shear in the horizontal currents serve to accumulate copepods along the slope where aggregations are maintained for at least 7 days. The abundance, stage-structure, species composition and aggregation locations of copepods, as well as the hydrography and circulation, were variable among the three years of the study. A 20 year time series of right whales, copepods and hydrography revealed that interannual whale occupancy in the Critical Habitats is variable and can be explained by prey field variation only in Roseway Basin. Factors other than the local prey field affect the number of whales that occupy Grand Manan Basin. Variation in the right whale prey field could not be explained by temperature and phytoplankton-dependent growth in the Scotia - Fundy -Gulf of Maine region. The results of this thesis assisted in establishing the Roseway Basin right whale Critical Habitat in 2008, and the cross-disciplinary nature of the study also provides new insights into the relationships between biology and physics in Scotian Shelf - Gulf of Maine basins.

No description available.

With exploding human populations and landscapes that are changing, an increasing number of wildlife species are brought to the brink of extinction. In Canada, the eastern hog-nosed snake, 'Heterodon platirhinos', is found in a limited portion of southern Ontario. Designated as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), this reptile has been losing its habitat at an alarming rate. Due to the increase in development of southern Ontario, it is crucial to document what limits the snake’s habitat to direct conservation efforts better, for the long-term survival of this species. The goals of this study are: 1) to examine what environmental parameters are linked to the presence of the species at a landscape scale; 2) to predict where the snakes can be found in Ontario through GIS-based habitat suitability models (HSMs); and 3) to assess the role of biotic interactions in HSMs. Three models with high predictive power were employed: Maxent, Boosted Regression Trees (BRTs), and the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP). Habitat suitability maps were constructed for the eastern hog-nosed snake for its entire Canadian distribution and models were validated with both threshold dependent and independent metrics. Maxent and BRT performed better than GARP and all models predict fewer areas of high suitability when landscape variables are used with current occurrences. Forest density and maximum temperature during the active season were the two variables that contributed the most to models predicting the current distribution of the species. Biotic variables increased the performance of models not by representing a limiting resource, but by representing the inequality of sampling and areas where forest remains. Although habitat suitability models rely on many assumptions, they remain useful in the fields of conservation and landscape management. In addition to help identify critical habitat, HSMs may be used as a tool to better manage land to allow for the survival of species at risk.

With exploding human populations and landscapes that are changing, an increasing number of wildlife species are brought to the brink of extinction. In Canada, the eastern hog-nosed snake, 'Heterodon platirhinos', is found in a limited portion of southern Ontario. Designated as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), this reptile has been losing its habitat at an alarming rate. Due to the increase in development of southern Ontario, it is crucial to document what limits the snake’s habitat to direct conservation efforts better, for the long-term survival of this species. The goals of this study are: 1) to examine what environmental parameters are linked to the presence of the species at a landscape scale; 2) to predict where the snakes can be found in Ontario through GIS-based habitat suitability models (HSMs); and 3) to assess the role of biotic interactions in HSMs. Three models with high predictive power were employed: Maxent, Boosted Regression Trees (BRTs), and the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP). Habitat suitability maps were constructed for the eastern hog-nosed snake for its entire Canadian distribution and models were validated with both threshold dependent and independent metrics. Maxent and BRT performed better than GARP and all models predict fewer areas of high suitability when landscape variables are used with current occurrences. Forest density and maximum temperature during the active season were the two variables that contributed the most to models predicting the current distribution of the species. Biotic variables increased the performance of models not by representing a limiting resource, but by representing the inequality of sampling and areas where forest remains. Although habitat suitability models rely on many assumptions, they remain useful in the fields of conservation and landscape management. In addition to help identify critical habitat, HSMs may be used as a tool to better manage land to allow for the survival of species at risk.

abstract: The Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) has been studied for over two decades and listed as endangered for most of that time. Though the flycatcher has been granted protected status since 1995, critical habitat designation for the flycatcher has not shared the same history. Critical habitat designation is essential for achieving the long-term goals defined in the flycatcher recovery plan where emphasis is on both the protection of this species and "the habitats supporting these flycatchers [that] must be protected from threats and loss" (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2002). I used a long-term data set of habitat characteristics collected at three study areas along the Lower Colorado River to develop a method for quantifying habitat quality for flycatcher. The data set contained flycatcher nest observations (use) and habitat availability (random location) from 2003-2010 that I statistically analyzed for flycatcher selection preferences. Using both Pearson's Chi-square test and SPSS Principal Component Analysis (PCA) I determined that flycatchers were selecting 30 habitat traits significantly different among an initial list of 127 habitat characteristics. Using PCA, I calculated a weighted value of influence for each significant trait per study area and used those values to develop a habitat classification system to build predictive models for flycatcher habitat quality. I used ArcGIS® Model Builder to develop three habitat suitability models for each of the habitat types occurring in western riparian systems, native, mixed exotic and exotic dominated that are frequented by breeding flycatchers. I designed a fourth model, Topock Marsh, to test model accuracy on habitat quality for flycatchers using reserved accuracy assessment points of previous nest locations. The results of the fourth model accurately predicted a decline in habitat at Topock Marsh that was confirmed by SWCA survey reports released in 2011 and 2012 documenting a significant decline in flycatcher productivity in the Topock Marsh study area. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Applied Biological Sciences 2013

With exploding human populations and landscapes that are changing, an increasing number of wildlife species are brought to the brink of extinction. In Canada, the eastern hog-nosed snake, 'Heterodon platirhinos', is found in a limited portion of southern Ontario. Designated as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), this reptile has been losing its habitat at an alarming rate. Due to the increase in development of southern Ontario, it is crucial to document what limits the snake’s habitat to direct conservation efforts better, for the long-term survival of this species. The goals of this study are: 1) to examine what environmental parameters are linked to the presence of the species at a landscape scale; 2) to predict where the snakes can be found in Ontario through GIS-based habitat suitability models (HSMs); and 3) to assess the role of biotic interactions in HSMs. Three models with high predictive power were employed: Maxent, Boosted Regression Trees (BRTs), and the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP). Habitat suitability maps were constructed for the eastern hog-nosed snake for its entire Canadian distribution and models were validated with both threshold dependent and independent metrics. Maxent and BRT performed better than GARP and all models predict fewer areas of high suitability when landscape variables are used with current occurrences. Forest density and maximum temperature during the active season were the two variables that contributed the most to models predicting the current distribution of the species. Biotic variables increased the performance of models not by representing a limiting resource, but by representing the inequality of sampling and areas where forest remains. Although habitat suitability models rely on many assumptions, they remain useful in the fields of conservation and landscape management. In addition to help identify critical habitat, HSMs may be used as a tool to better manage land to allow for the survival of species at risk.

The Wright fishhook cactus (Sclerocactus wrightiae L.D. Benson) is an endangered cactus species endemic to south-central Utah. Since its listing in 1979 by the U.S. Fish and Wildife Service, the potential impacts of soil disturbance by cattle have become a central focus of management policies and monitoring efforts. However, little to no empirical data has been collected to substantiate the hypothesis that soil disturbance by cattle has direct or indirect negative effects on Wright fishhook cactus growth or reproduction. Over the years, the Bureau of Land Mangement (BLM) and Capitol Reef National Park (CRNP) have invested significant resources documenting cactus populations including several attributes of individual cacti: GPS location, diameter, number of flowers, fruits, or buds, number of stems, and the presence or absence of a cow track within 15 cm of the cactus. While these efforts have been commendable, due to the defining phenological characteristics of this species (flower and filament color) and its short flowering period (April-May) it remains difficult to study and much basic biological information including a range wide population estimate and defined critical habitat remain unknown. Our research had two primary objectives, 1) evalutate the effects of soil disturbance by cattle on reproduction and diameter of the Wright fishhook cactus (Chapters 1 and 2), and 2) explore the use of drones and GIS to define critical habitat and obtain an accurate range wide population estimate (Chapters 3 and 4). In Chapter 1, we analyzed cactus attribute data collected by the BLM at 30 macro-plots representing different levels of soil related cattle disturbance (high, moderate, and low) from 2011-2017. We found no significant association between level of cattle disturbance and flower density or cactus diameter. We did find a significant negative association between flower frequency and increased disturbance. In Chapter 2, we conducted an experimental study where tracks were simulated within 15 cm of cacti at various levels (Ctrl, 1-Track, 2-Track, 4-Tracks, and 4-Tracks Doubled). No significant association was observed between the number of tracks and response in diameter, flower production, fruit production, or seed set. In Chapter 3, we conducted drone flights over 14 macro-plots at three different altitudes above ground level (10 m, 15 m, and 20 m) and found that while the 10 m flights provided the best remotely sensed survey results, drones are not a suitable replacement for ground censuses. In Chapter 4, we used Resource Selection Function to define critical habitat for the Wright fishhook cactus. Our modeling suggests that geology, elevation, and slope are significant factors in defining cactus habitat. Based on the results of our research we conclude that soil disturbance by cattle may not have a significant influence on Wright fishhook cactus populations or dynamics, and that accurate range wide population estimates may be best obtained through ground surveys within the predicted critical habitat.