Magister Scientiae (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) - MSc (Biodiv and Cons Biol) / African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) mainland colonies are a popular tourist attraction in the Western Cape of South Africa. The African penguin population is in decline and the species is listed as endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. This thesis aimed to investigate the impact of ecotourism upon African penguin colonies by comparing two colonies of differing levels of tourist visitation in the Western Cape in 2017. The high visitation colony is a mainland colony where ecotourism activities take place (Stony Point), and the low visitation colony is an island colony where ecotourism does not occur (Robben Island). As well as inter-colony comparisons, nests at the high visitation colony within areas of differing exposure levels were also compared.

Improvements in GPS tracking technologies have resulted in the collection of high resolution movement datasets for a range of wildlife species. In combination with new high resolution remote sensing products, researchers now have the ability to ask complex questions regarding animal movement in heterogeneous landscapes. However, there currently exists a dearth of analytical approaches to combine movement data with environmental variables. Developing methods to examine wildlife movement-environment interactions are particularly relevant given our unprecedented access to high resolution data; however, the analytical and technical challenges of integrating two disparate data types have yet to be effectively overcome. In the analyses presented in this thesis, I examine current approaches for linking wildlife movement to the physical environment, and introduce a data-driven method for examining wildlife movement-environment interactions. The first analysis consists of a review of existing tools in wildlife movement analysis, specifically tools supported within R statistical software, to highlight any existing methodological opportunities and limitations associated with relating movement to landscape features. The review highlights R’s strengths as an integrated toolbox for exploratory analyses, and the current lack of applications for linking high density telemetry datasets with environmental variables. AdehabitatLT was the most functional package available, offering the greatest variety of analysis options. Due to the comprehensive nature of adehabitatLT, I recommend that future method development be implemented through its package specific framework. Extending the first analysis, the second portion of this research introduces a data-driven method, based in semivariogram modelling, for quantifying wildlife movement patterns relative to linear features. The semivariogram-based method is applied to grizzly bear telemetry data to quantify how grizzly bear movement patterns change in relation to roads. The semivariogram-based method demonstrated that the bears’ spatial scale of response ranged from 35 m- 90 m from roads but varied by age, sex, and season. Applying the scales of response to link near-road movement patterns to survival and mortality, revealed that bears that were killed displayed less-risk adverse movements near roads than bears that survived (i.e., longer step lengths and more day light movements around roads). Given this pattern, my data suggest a minimum vegetation buffer of 90 m to serve as screening cover along roadsides to help mitigate the effects of roads on grizzly bear populations in west-central Alberta, Canada. Through the development of data-driven methods in wildlife movement analysis, I can realize the full potential of high resolution telemetry datasets. Data-driven methods reduce the subjectivity within movement analyses, providing more relevant measures of wildlife response to environment. The semivariogram-based method can identify definitive zones of influence around linear disturbance features in any wildlife system, thereby, providing managers with spatially explicit, data-driven insights to reduce impacts on wildlife in multi-use landscapes. / Graduate

付記する学位プログラム名: 霊長類学・ワイルドライフサイエンス・リーディング大学院 / 京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第22878号 / 理博第4644号 / 新制||理||1668(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 足立 幾磨, 准教授 Michael Alan Huffman, 教授 高田 昌彦 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Habitat fragmentation and destruction caused by linear infrastructure, including roads, railways, and power line corridors, are recognized as major threats to biodiversity around the world. Roads can act as barriers by impeding animal movement and restricting animal space use. An understanding of factors that influence barrier effects is important to discern the impacts of habitat fragmentation and to develop appropriate mitigation. The barrier effects of roads are driven by several distinct but not mutually exclusive mechanisms that include traffic, edge, and gap avoidance. We used an endangered forest obligate, the Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis), as our study organism to assess effects of traffic noise on animal occurrence and demonstrated that traffic noise had spatially extensive and negative effects on site occupancy after accounting for effects of distance from roads and the environment. We investigated barrier effects of forest roads and assessed effects of traffic, road edges, and canopy gaps on space use of Mt. Graham red squirrels and compared to the response of introduced, edge-tolerant Abert's squirrels (Sciurus aberti). Forest roads acted as partial barriers for red squirrels regardless of traffic volume likely due to avoidance of canopy gap created by roads, whereas Abert's squirrels showed no avoidance of roads. Therefore, roads restricted movement and space use of a native forest-dependent species while creating habitat preferred by an introduced, edge-tolerated species. Through a meta-analysis of studies that quantified road crossing behavior by mammals, we found that all types of roads, from major highways to narrow forest roads, can impede movement for certain species of mammals. Magnitude of barrier effects of roads decreased as species body mass increased, and was affected positively by increasing road width. We suggest that the species-specific magnitude of barrier effects of roads may be anticipated with basic information from life history traits and road characteristics that are readily accessed through open resources or easily measured.

Over 50% of the world’s human population resides in urban centres, and this is expected to increase as the global human population grows and people migrate from non-urban to urban centres. Concentrated in these urban areas are anthropogenic disturbances that impose additional challenges on wildlife compared to their non-urban counterparts. These challenges can be stress provoking. Through the release of corticosterone (CORT) reptiles can adapt to these stressors, physiologically and behaviourally, both in the short- and long-term. To investigate the relationships between stress activation and defensive tactics in wild urban Northwestern Gartersnakes (Thamnophis ordinoides) I conducted visual encounter surveys, along edge-focused transects, following a semi-constrained random sampling method. I sampled snakes at five sites, each with a different level of anthropogenic disturbance, in the Greater Victoria Area, BC. I sampled blood, observed anti-predator behaviour, and collected data on characteristics of snakes. The most disturbed site (with the most people, pets, and natural predators) also had the most snakes: those snakes also had highest H:L values (a proxy of CORT) in their blood compared to the other populations. Nevertheless, none of the snakes had H:L values that indicated chronic stress. Stress physiology was not correlated with anti-predator behaviour. More important to anti-predator behaviour was the size, sex/reproductive condition, and cloacal temperature of snakes. Although anthropogenic development can reduce habitat quality for some reptiles, Northwestern Gartersnakes coexist with recreationists at many sites in the District of Saanich. A multi-disciplinary approach is of paramount importance to understand the full effect of anthropogenic influences on wildlife. / Graduate / 0433 / 0329

Anthropogenic environmental changes can serve as drivers for evolutionary responses in wild populations. To predict the long-term impact of anthropogenic changes on populations, it is crucial to understand the genetic effects caused by these disturbances. The Baltic Sea is considered to be one of the world’s most contaminated seas, and the increase of anthropogenic chemical pollution is a major threat to its ecosystems. This thesis assesses the impact of harbors and sewage treatment plants on physiological traits and genetic structure of resident populations of blue mussels at replicated sites in the Baltic Sea. The initial evaluation of the overall genetic pattern in blue mussel populations in the Swedish West Coast, the Baltic Proper and the Bothnian Sea found genetic differentiation between the three water basins and a low genetic differentiation within each basin, especially within the Baltic Proper. Despite the low genetic differentiation among blue mussels within the Baltic Proper, a parallel genetic differentiation associated with sewage treatment plant effluents was found in this basin. This included genomic regions with a high degree of differentiation between reference sites and sites affected by sewage plants effluent. This genetic differentiation is suggested to be due to post-dispersal selection acting in each generation. In contrast, no parallel genetic differentiation was associated with harbors. We identified five genomic regions in blue mussels, showing strong signs of selection, shared among three out of four replicated reference sites and sites affected by sewage effluents in the Baltic Proper i.e. Askö, Tvärminne and Karlskrona. An initial characterization of these genomic regions revealed functions related to immune and endocrine responses, oxidative stress and shell formation. Our results indicate that selection caused by sewage effluents involves multiple loci. The same genomic regions are found across different locations in the Baltic Proper but there are also unique genomic regions at each location. No genotoxic or histopathological effects were found among blue mussels from sewage effluent-affected areas but a higher frequency of histological abnormalities in the digestive gland were observed in mussels from harbors. / Evolutionära anpassningar till miljöstörningar i marina ekosystem: genetisk ekotoxikologi i Östersjön

The purpose of the study was to find alternatives to fences by comparing the frequency of damages on different configurations of chemical treated, mechanically protected and untreated hybrid aspen seedlings, planted on agricultural land. The study also explored whether anthropogenic disturbance (proximity to roads and buildings) had any effect on the frequency of seedlings damages. The study was conducted as a quantitative study with field measurements over the course of a year, in two sample plots with hybrid aspen seedlings planted in May 2016 in Vimmerby kommun, Kalmar län. The field data was compiled into Excel and compared for differences between treatments and proximity to anthropogenic disturbance. The result showed that seedlings closer to anthropogenic disturbance showed a lower frequency of damage. There was no significant difference between the mechanical (Taimitassu) and chemical (Arbinol B) seedling protection. The highest frequency of damages occurred in the summer, peaking in July. In conclusion, when choosing a place to plant hybrid aspen, there should be anthropogenic disturbance to minimize the frequency of browsing.

Forest disturbance occurs on a wide gradient of selectiveness and creates new growth opportunities for adapted species. Across the spectrum of disturbance, anthropogenic disturbance influences community assembly in the Midwest more than other mechanisms but is its role in shaping and maintaining ecosystems is inadequately considered in most discussions on the historic range of variability (HRV). Forest resiliency is threatened by unprecedented agents of ecosystem change such as invasive species and reduced regeneration potential of native species. Historic anthropogenic disturbance largely resulted in forest conditions which commonly contained high value attributes like heterogeneity across habitat types and landscape diversity, yet also produced forests of undesirable traits due to high grading for timber and overgrazing by domesticated stock. In order to maintain historical representative forests and improve the degraded forests, active forest management is necessary to continue historic disturbance patterns and combat new threats. Forest transition theory is used here to describe the impacts of human settlement and development activities on forest ecosystems across the Middle Mississippi River Valley. To date, researchers have identified the need for information related to changes of forest attributes such as species composition and stand structure, improved descriptions of short- and medium-term dynamics within the context of the long-term transition, and the integration of biophysical drivers of forest change through time. In Midwestern U.S.A., forest dynamics were influenced by frequent, low intensity disturbance events that mediate forest composition and stand structure by selecting for disturbance regimes that create oak woodland and interspersed prairies and meadows. The onset of Euro-American settlement was accompanied by detailed land-use records with information related to forest attributes, agricultural activities, and parcel ownership patterns. We aggregated multiple sources of historic forest conditions into a geodatabase in order to document changes over the past 200 years in Elsah Township, Illinois, where the pre-settlement (1820) forest, once dominated by oak and hickory species, has largely shifted to a maple dominated system with a declining oak-hickory component, heavily influenced by an invasive shrub species, bush honeysuckle. Using on ordinary kriging interpolation, forest density was estimated at 8.7 stems per acre on average with a mean basal area of 14.6 square feet per acre prior to settlement. Conservation practices of the early 1900s, including fire suppression and erosion control resulted in changes to forest structure with density increases to 127 trees per acre with a basal area of 175.8 square feet per acre. The high degree of topographic variability near the Mississippi River influenced forest cover changes as slopes with low angles were the first to be converted from forest cover to other land uses (circa 1850). Forest re-initiation occurred in areas with steeper slope due to a lack of human activities. Forest cover declined to the lowest point in 1927 and has been rebounding steadily throughout this century. Of the original 15,252 forested acres, 11.6% remained covered throughout the past 200 years and coincided with slopes with an average of 39.1 degrees. These data can provide a spatially explicit and historically accurate tool to guide land management decisions including restoration treatment, disturbance regime management, and land use preservation activities in similarly heterogeneous environments. Forest communities along the bluffs of the Mississippi River differ in species composition and stand structure associated with specific topographic positions of floodplain, transition talus slope, bluff top, and upland. In order to assess current stand characteristics and ecosystem trajectory, we measured all woody stems in 316 fixed radius plots (79 plots per topographic position) with a plot area of 25 m2. Alpha (defined as within system diversity) and Beta (defined as between system diversity) diversity and diameter distributions were determined for seedling, shrub layer, and overstory stems. Stem density increased from 21.4 stems ha-1 in 1820 to 613 stems ha-1 in 1936 followed by reduction to 314 stems ha-1 in 2017. Average stand diameter decreased from 40.9 cm in 1820 to 25.3 cm in 2017 (for upland stems greater than 7.5 cm) while basal area increased from 3.3 m2 ha-1 in 1820 to 40.4 m2 ha-1 in 2017. Alpha diversity was highest in the upland overstory and in the river island shrub layer. Beta diversity in the overstory was highest (0.67) between the bluff and the upland while lowest (0.08) between the bluff and the river island. Importantly, mesophytic species are no longer restricted to watercourses and valleys as reported in historical accounts and confirmed by the spatial analysis of original witness tree records. Currently, bush honeysuckle, an invasive species, dominates the shrub layer on most non-hydric sites of the talus slope, upland, and particularly across the bluff top where it is an indicator. Across all forest sites in the study, we found evidence of a community shift to less diversity and more mesophytic species over the past 80 years. Hill prairie vegetation on the limestone bluffs of the central Mississippi River Valley represents a significant portion of the remaining prairie, savanna, and woodland systems of the Midwest and should be appropriately managed with prescribed fire and woody stem reduction efforts. We examined the structure, composition, and temporal community patterns of the forest-prairie gradient by employing hierarchical cluster analysis and non-metric multi-dimensional scaling in combination with indicator species analysis and dendrochronological methods. Results suggest that four general community types exist across the forest-prairie gradient: Group 1 consists of the woodland community structure with significant indicator values for the density of Juniperus virginiana (indicator value 58.4, p = 0.0002), Carya glabra (45, 0.0022), Quercus stellata (23.7, 0.0424), and Lonicera maackii (74.2, 0.0002) and a high basal area (BA) of J. virgniana (21.4, 0.0276) and L. maackii (47.9, 0.0054). The first year of L. maackii presence was 1964 with the primary wave of invasion beginning around 1990. Group 2 contains bare soil coverage in the subplot (40.4, 0.0002) as the one indicator at a significant level. The species with the highest BA in Group 2 include Acer saccharum (9.08 m2 ha-1), Q. velutina (5.89 m2 ha-1), and Q. muehlenbergii (5.32 m2 ha-1). Group 3 typifies the hill prairie community with the sole indicator of grass coverage in the subplots (39.7, 0.0196). Group 4 represents the stage of forest development following the cessation of disturbance events and the trajectory advancing towards a mesophytic forest and contains 14 significant indicators.

No description available.

Species have complex and contextual relationships with their environment; both the relative contributions of life-history stages to population growth and the effect of environmental factors on each stage can be different among co-existing species. Timing and extent of reproduction, survival, and mortality determine population growth, species distributions, and assemblage patterns. I evaluate the role of habitat (intact, degraded) and microsite (shrub, leaf litter, bare sand) on population dynamics of Florida scrub herbs. Isolated overgrown shrubs and extensive bare sand areas in degraded scrub were expected to decrease seed predation, reduce competition of herbs with shrubs, and provide larger habitat for recruitment. I provide evidence that habitat and microsite variation influenced demography of five endemic and two common native species through effects on seed removal, emergence, and establishment. Habitat and species affected seed removal: endemic species with large seeds were removed in higher frequency in degraded habitat, likely by vertebrates, while species with small seeds were removed in higher frequency in intact habitat, by invertebrates. There was no evidence of differences in individual seed production between habitats for the two common species, C. fasciculata and B. angustifolia. Invertebrates were primarily responsible for seed removal of both species, although peak season of removal and microsite varied with species. Removal of seeds, emergence, and establishment increased with seed density. Matrix modeling indicated that population growth of C. fasciculata was greater in degraded habitat and greatest in litter microsites, and population growth of B. angustifolia was similar between habitats and greatest in bare sand. Contrasting responses among species to environmental factors in intact and degraded scrub indicated that natural disturbances are not ecologically equivalent to anthropogenic iv disturbances. Idiosyncratic species dynamics in common environments suggest that understanding relationships between life-history traits and environmental conditions will be required to facilitate restoration