Thesis (M.S.)--University of Northern British Columbia, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-73).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 122 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 83 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--Acadia University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 4, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Although scale is consistently identified as the central problem in ecology, empirical examinations of its importance in ecological research are rare and fundamental concepts remain either largely misunderstood or incorrectly applied. Due to the mobile and wide-ranging nature of wildlife populations, species-habitat modeling is a field in which much proliferation of multi-scale studies has occurred, and thus provides a good arena within which to test both scale theory and its application. Insufficient examination of a relevant breadth of the scale continuum could be an important constraint in all multi-scale investigations, limiting our understanding of scalar concepts overall. Here I examine several concepts of ecological scale by studying free-ranging populations of northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus), purported to be a keystone species in northern forests. Coarse-grain digital forest coverage revealed that flying squirrels in the boreal and foothills of Alberta were not conifer specialists, rather forest generalists regarding stand type and age. Lack of coarse-grain scale effects led me to examine fine-grain data, including an assessment of scale domains using a novel continuum approach. Fine-grain data revealed important scale-related biases of trapping versus telemetry, namely that, at fine-grain scales, different habitat associations could be generated from the same data set based on methods alone. Then, focusing on spatial extent, I develop a true multi-scalar approach examining scale domains. First, I quantify only forest attributes across multiple extents, and demonstrate unpredictable scale effects on independent variables often used in species-habitat models. Second, including both independent (habitat) and dependent (squirrel telemetry) variables in the same approach, I demonstrate that the relative ranking and strength-of-evidence among different species-habitat models change based on scale, and this effect is different between genders and among life-history stage (i.e., males, females, and dispersing juveniles). I term this the “continuum approach”, the results of which question the validity of many published species-habitat models. Lastly, I attempt to clarify why existing models should be scrutinized by reviewing common rationales used in scale choice (almost always arbitrary), outlining differences between “observational scale” and the commonly cited “orders of resource selection”, and making a clear distinction between multi-scale versus multi-design ecological studies. / Graduate

<p>Red spruce forests, one of the most critically endangered ecosystems in the United States</p>provides critical habitat for several endemic species or subspecies of the Appalachian Mountains, including the Virginia northern flying squirrel. Once listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the Virginia northern flying squirrel was delisted in 2013. Managers are currently focusing their efforts on projects that increase the extent and connectivity of the squirrel’s habitat through red spruce restoration. At present, there is a paucity of available data to assess the implications of the silvicultural activities associated with red spruce restoration on the movement and occupancy of the Virginia northern flying squirrel. In order to inform management activities, I measured home range, fine-scale habitat use, and estimated detection and occupancy for northern flying squirrels across a gradient of red spruce stands in the Monongahela National Forest. I concluded that home ranges for northern flying squirrels within this region are comprised primarily of red spruce and that northern flying squirrels were selecting larger diameter trees compared to the nearest available neighbor. Additionally, I found that microhabitat characteristics alone did not sufficiently predict northern flying squirrel occupancy and that acoustic methods for surveying northern flying squirrels will require further refinement. Future research efforts should focus on a combination of landscape-level and microhabitat covariates to best predict occupancy of this species across the landscape. Future red spruce management should be approached with caution regarding the potential impact on northern flying squirrel habitat in the short-term. I recommended using spatially-explicit modeling to assess the long-term effects of proposed red spruce restoration projects on northern flying squirrel population demographics, dispersal, and metapopulation connectivity prior to the implementation of silvicultural treatments.