The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) has been a species of conservation concern since the early 20th century due to range-wide population declines. To contribute to knowledge of the ecology of sage-grouse populations that inhabit the Box Elder Sage Grouse Management Area (SGMA) in northwestern Utah and quantify their responses to landscape scale habitat manipulations, I monitored vital rates and habitat selection of 45 female sage-grouse from 2014 to 2015. Using telemetry locations of female sage-grouse with known nest and brood fates, I created Generalized Linear Mixed Models to estimate the influence of proximity to pinyon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.; conifer) encroachment, and removal projects may have on sagegrouse reproductive fitness in the Box Elder SGMA. The best fit model suggested that for every 1 km a nest was located away from a conifer removal area, probability of nest success was reduced by 9.1% (β = -0.096, P < 0.05). Similarly, for every 1 unit increase in the log-odds of selection for distance to treatment, probability of brood success declined by 52.6% (P = 0.09). The probability of brood success declined by 77.2% (P < 0.05) as selection for conifer canopy cover increased. To evaluate sage-grouse habitat use, I used fecal pellet surveys to estimate relative pellet density in conifer encroachment, removal, and undisturbed sagebrush areas. Sage-grouse pellet densities were estimated at 4.6 pellets/ha (95% CI = 1.2, 10.9), 8.6 pellets/ha (95% CI = 3.8, 15.2), and 50.6 pellets/ha (95% CI = 36.8, 69.6), in conifer encroachment, removal, and undisturbed sagebrush areas respectively. Density estimates did not statistically differ between conifer encroachment and removal areas. To determine if vegetation micro-site characteristics at sage-grouse use sites influenced nest or brood fate, I recorded standard vegetation measurements for all radio-marked sage-grouse nests and a stratified random sample of brood-use sites from 2014- 2015 and compared them to random sites. Micro-site vegetation characteristics measured did not differ for successful and unsuccessful nests. Many characteristics differed between micro-sites used by successful broods and those used by unsuccessful broods. Sites used by successful broods also differed from random sites.

Forests are a critical biome but are under threat from unprecedented global change. The need to understand forest dynamics across spatial, temporal and biological scales has never been greater. Critical to this will be understanding how the demographic rates of individuals translate into patterns of species diversity, biomass and carbon turnover at much larger scales. In this thesis, I present a modelling framework focussed on demography. In Chapter 2, I introduce methods for translating forest inventory data into population models that account for the size-dependency of vital rates and persistent differences in individual performance. Outbreaks of forest pest and pathogens are increasing in frequency and severity, with consequences for biodiversity and forest structure. In Chapter 3, I explore the impact of ash dieback on the community dynamics of a British woodland, describing a spatially explicit individual based model that captures the effect of an opening of the canopy on local competitive interactions. Chapter 4 introduces methods to infer the impact of historical deer herbivory on the juvenile survival of forest trees. The approach is generalisable and could be applied to any forest in which patterns of regeneration and community structure have been impacted by periodic disturbance (e.g. forest fires). Finding meaningful ways of incorporating species diversity into global vegetation models is increasingly recognised as a research priority. In Chapter 5, I explore the diversity of demographic rates in a tropical forest community and identify groups of species with similar life history strategies. I discuss the potential of integrating demographic and physiological traits as a way to aggregate species for inclusion in global models. In summary, translating measurements of individuals into population dynamics provides opportunities to both explore small-scale community responses to disturbance events, and to feed into much larger scale vegetation models.

Translocations have been used as a management strategy to successfully augment declining native wildlife populations. Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) population declines on Anthro Mountain, Utah prompted managers to translocate sage-grouse and test protocols from a successful translocation project in Strawberry Valley, Utah. Sage-grouse from Parker Mountain, Utah were used as the source population for Anthro Mountain and Strawberry Valley translocations. Sixty hens were translocated to Anthro Mountain in 2009 and 2010; I monitored vital rates of the 60 translocated hens and 32 resident hens from 2009-2012. My objective was to determine the overall success of the translocation 4 years after the initial release and compare vital rates to the source population and Strawberry Valley.In Chapter 2, I determined that survival varied by study area and hen age but was not affected by residency status. Annual survival of Anthro Mountain hens was lower than Parker Mountain and Strawberry Valley hens. Adult hen survival in all three populations was higher than yearling survival.In Chapter 3, I determined that the translocation contributed to population growth. Adult resident and previously translocated hens had the highest reproductive success, followed by resident yearlings, newly translocated adults, and newly translocated yearlings. Lek counts increased from 2009-2013 and a new lek was discovered in 2011. Survival was not affected by residency status or age, but varied greatly by year and season. Mean monthly survival was lowest in the fall; this differs from range-wide trends.In Chapter 4, I determined that translocated hens adapted to the release area. They exhibited similar seasonal movements and used similar habitats as residents. The home range size of resident and translocated hens was comparable; however, previously translocated hens had smaller home ranges than newly released hens.Despite landscape level differences between the source and release areas, translocated hens assimilated to the population and contributed to population growth. Although the translocation was successful, the low vital rate estimates are cause for concern. The low estimates suggest that factors such as predation, habitat quality and quantity, and anthropogenic influences may be problematic for this isolated population.

Anthropogenic pressures have caused changes in both the mean and variance of environmental conditions, with associated effects on the demography of natural populations. The demographic effects of environmental change can manifest through direct (i.e., physiological) or indirect pathways (i.e., through shifts in species interactions). For many populations, environmental change will affect multiple life cycle stages simultaneously, thereby altering vital rate correlation structures with potentially important impacts on evolutionary fitness. The effects of environmental change will also often be habitat-specific, particularly when species interactions modify demographic sensitivity to climate. As a result, the effects of climate change are likely to vary across a species range, with important implications for range expansion and population viability. In chapter 2, I examine the effects of joint vital rate responses to environmental drivers on the evolution of life histories in variable environments. I show that vital rate covariation, generated when multiple vital rates respond to a shared environmental driver, can fundamentally alter evolutionary selection pressures. Negative vital rate covariation promotes the evolution of demographic lability (stronger demographic responsiveness), while positive covariation promotes buffering (weaker demographic responsiveness), altering the range of life histories over which the evolution of buffered and labile vital rates are a predicted evolutionary outcome. By identifying the life histories for which selection pressures are most sensitive to environmentally-driven vital rate covariation, this study provides a richer understanding of both life history evolution and the capacity of species to cope with ongoing changes to contemporary environments. In chapter 3, I use a long-term study of lesser snow geese to test the hypothesis that demographic and developmental responses to climate will be weakest in habitats where resource diversity is greatest. I find support for this hypothesis, and my results indicate that gosling demography is much more responsive to climate in recently colonized, freshwater habitats where landscape diversity and gosling diet diversity is low. These results underscore the potential importance of accounting for biotic interactions when predicting spatio-temporal responses to climate. In chapter 4, I quantify the consequences of observed climate change for lesser snow goose population dynamics across habitats. I find that climate change increases population growth in all habitats, but that such increases are disproportionately large in novel inland freshwater habitats. These results suggest that in a warmer and more variable climate, the breeding range and population growth of lesser snow geese is likely to increase, counteracting current management efforts to reduce overabundant populations.

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) is a species of conservation concern in Utah and range-wide due to declines in populations and threats to sagebrush habitat on which they depend. To effectively conserve the species, detailed site-specific knowledge of ecology and distribution is needed. To expand knowledge of local populations within the West Box Elder Sage Grouse Management Area (SGMA) and gain insights into the effectiveness of vegetation treatments intended to benefit sagegrouse, I radio marked and tracked 123 (68 female, 55 male) sage-grouse and conducted sage-grouse pellet surveys on 19 conifer removal projects. Widespread habitat restoration measures designed to benefit sage-grouse have highlighted the need for prioritization tools to optimize placement of sage-grouse habitat projects. I generated seasonal habitat models to predict sage-grouse habitat use within the West Box Elder SGMA using a suite of vegetation and topographical predictors and known sage-grouse locations. Model fit was good with brood, early summer, late summer, lekking (early spring), and non-breeding models reporting an AUC of >0.90; nest and winter models reported an AUC of 0.87 and 0.85, respectively. A vegetation disturbance history was built for the study area from 1985 to 2013; however, the vegetation disturbances mapped were not a strong predictor of sage-grouse seasonal habitat-use. To evaluate effectiveness of conifer reduction treatments I used fecal pellet and in concert with radio-telemetry data. Increased sage-grouse use of conifer treatments was positively associated with sage-grouse presence in adjacent habitats (P = 0.018), percent shrub cover (P = 0.039), and mesic environments within 1000 m of treatments (P = 0.048). Sage-grouse use of conifer treatments was negatively associated with conifer canopy cover (P = 0.048) within 1000 m of treatments. To investigate sample bias related to individual bird behavior or capture trauma I monitored 204 radio-marked sage-grouse within the West Box Elder and Rich-Morgan- Summit SGMAs in Utah between January 2012 and March 2013. Sage-grouse that flushed one or more times prior to capture had higher brood (P = 0.014) and annual survival (P = 0.027) than those that did not. Sage-grouse that experienced more capture trauma had decreased annual survival probabilities (P = 0.04).

Microclimatic gradients may have large influence on individual vital rates and population growth rates of species, and limit their distributions. Therefore, I focused on the influence of microclimate on individual performance and distribution of species. Further, I examined differences in how microclimate affect species with contrasting distributions or different ecophysiological traits, and populations within species. More specifically, I investigated the performance of northern and southern distributed forest bryophytes that were transplanted across microclimatic gradients, and the timing of vegetative and reproductive development among northern, marginal and more southern populations of a forest herb in a common garden. Also, I compared the landscape and continental distributions across forest bryophytes and vascular plants and, thus, their distribution limiting factors at different spatial scales. Lastly, I examined the population dynamics across microclimatic gradients of transplants from northern and southern populations of a forest moss. The effects of microclimatic conditions on performance differed among bryophytes with contrasting distributions. There were no clear differences between northern and southern populations in the timing of development of a forest herb or in the population dynamics of a moss. However, within each region there was a differentiation of the forest herb populations, related to variation in local climatic conditions and in the south also to proportion of deciduous trees. The continental distributions of species were reflected in their landscape distributions and vice versa, in terms of their occurrence optima for climatic variables. The variation in landscape climatic optima was, however, larger than predicted, which limit the precision for predictions of microrefugia. Probably, the distributions of vascular plants were more affected by temperature than the distributions of bryophytes. Bryophytes are sensitive to moisture conditions, which was demonstrated by a correlation between evaporation and the population growth rate of a forest moss. We might be able to predict species’ landscape scale distributions by linking microclimatic conditions to their population growth rates, via their vital rates, and infer larger scale distribution patterns. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p> / EkoKlim

Orientador: Vera Lex Engel / Banca: Edson José Vidal da Silva / Banca: Raquel Rejano Bonato Negrelle / Resumo: Muitos estudos têm estimado limites de colheita de produtos florestais não-madeireiros (PFNMs) baseados em dados demográficos das espécies fontes. Heliconia velloziana Emygdio (Zingiberales: Heliconiaceae) é utilizada como flor de corte e no paisagismo, e já foi alvo do extrativismo na comunidade rural na região do estudo (Distrito de Taiaçupeba, Mogi das Cruzes, SP). Nosso objetivo geral foi fornecer bases para a elaboração de planos de manejo sustentável para populações silvestres de Heliconia velloziana, através de: avaliação do conhecimento etnobotânico sobre H. velloziana; análise de sua fenologia reprodutiva em relação as variáveis climáticas; avaliação do rendimento e dos efeitos ecológicos do extrativismo sobre taxas vitais de populações silvestres da espécie alvo em diferentes micro-hábitats. Objetivou-se também verificar o potencial para manejo sustentável da espécie e sugerir um regime de rendimento sustentado específico. Para acessar o conhecimento local sobre H. velloziana, foram realizadas entrevistas informais e semiestruturadas, além de observação participante. Os efeitos ecológicos da colheita experimental sobre taxas vitais e a fenologia reprodutiva foram avaliados através de amostragem aleatória estratificada, em uma área total amostral de 0,12ha (12 parcelas de 10x10m) em seis sítios amostrais abrangendo dois estratos (planície e encosta). Em cada sítio, uma população foi submetida à colheita experimental e outra foi mantida como controle. Os aspectos melhor conhecidos pela comunidade local sobre a espécie alvo foram: nome popular, variação intraespecífica, reprodução clonal, visitantes florais, atrativos florais, floração seqüencial, distribuição e abundância local. A espécie foi considerada útil pelos entrevistados para complementação... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Many studies have estimated harvesting limits for non-timber forest products (NTFPs) based on demographic data of the source species. Heliconia velloziana Emygdio (Zingiberales: Heliconiaceae) is used as a cut flower and gardening, and has already been targeted for extractivism by the rural community of the study region. Our general goal was to provide bases for the elaboration of Heliconia velloziana wild populations sustainable management plans, through: assessing ethnobotanical knowledge about H. velloziana; analyzing its reproductive phenology in relation to climatic variables; assessing the yield and ecological effects of harvesting on vital rates of wild populations of the target species in different micro-habitats. We also aimed to verify sustainable management potential of the species and suggest a specific sustained yield regime. To access local knowledge on H. velloziana, informal and semi-structured interviews were done, besides participant observation. The experimental harvesting ecological effects on vital rates and the reproductive phenology were assessed through stratified random sampling, in a total sampling area of 0,12ha (12 10x10m plots) in six sampling sites enclosing two strata (lowland and hillside). At each site, one population was submitted to experimental harvesting and the other was kept as control. The best known aspects by local community about the target species were: common name, intra-specific variation, clonal growth, flower visitors, floral attractants, sequential flowering, local distribution and abundance. The species was considered useful by the interviewed as familiar income complementation through extractivism, besides other secondary uses. It was identified a rich knowledge about the species' management system, once used, that was considered simple and consisted of two to three... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-09-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:18:58Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 souza_sexf_me_botfca.pdf: 1158580 bytes, checksum: e01b29e6f87f5b46e937d7e437df136e (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Muitos estudos têm estimado limites de colheita de produtos florestais não-madeireiros (PFNMs) baseados em dados demográficos das espécies fontes. Heliconia velloziana Emygdio (Zingiberales: Heliconiaceae) é utilizada como flor de corte e no paisagismo, e já foi alvo do extrativismo na comunidade rural na região do estudo (Distrito de Taiaçupeba, Mogi das Cruzes, SP). Nosso objetivo geral foi fornecer bases para a elaboração de planos de manejo sustentável para populações silvestres de Heliconia velloziana, através de: avaliação do conhecimento etnobotânico sobre H. velloziana; análise de sua fenologia reprodutiva em relação as variáveis climáticas; avaliação do rendimento e dos efeitos ecológicos do extrativismo sobre taxas vitais de populações silvestres da espécie alvo em diferentes micro-hábitats. Objetivou-se também verificar o potencial para manejo sustentável da espécie e sugerir um regime de rendimento sustentado específico. Para acessar o conhecimento local sobre H. velloziana, foram realizadas entrevistas informais e semiestruturadas, além de observação participante. Os efeitos ecológicos da colheita experimental sobre taxas vitais e a fenologia reprodutiva foram avaliados através de amostragem aleatória estratificada, em uma área total amostral de 0,12ha (12 parcelas de 10x10m) em seis sítios amostrais abrangendo dois estratos (planície e encosta). Em cada sítio, uma população foi submetida à colheita experimental e outra foi mantida como controle. Os aspectos melhor conhecidos pela comunidade local sobre a espécie alvo foram: nome popular, variação intraespecífica, reprodução clonal, visitantes florais, atrativos florais, floração seqüencial, distribuição e abundância local. A espécie foi considerada útil pelos entrevistados para complementação... / Many studies have estimated harvesting limits for non-timber forest products (NTFPs) based on demographic data of the source species. Heliconia velloziana Emygdio (Zingiberales: Heliconiaceae) is used as a cut flower and gardening, and has already been targeted for extractivism by the rural community of the study region. Our general goal was to provide bases for the elaboration of Heliconia velloziana wild populations sustainable management plans, through: assessing ethnobotanical knowledge about H. velloziana; analyzing its reproductive phenology in relation to climatic variables; assessing the yield and ecological effects of harvesting on vital rates of wild populations of the target species in different micro-habitats. We also aimed to verify sustainable management potential of the species and suggest a specific sustained yield regime. To access local knowledge on H. velloziana, informal and semi-structured interviews were done, besides participant observation. The experimental harvesting ecological effects on vital rates and the reproductive phenology were assessed through stratified random sampling, in a total sampling area of 0,12ha (12 10x10m plots) in six sampling sites enclosing two strata (lowland and hillside). At each site, one population was submitted to experimental harvesting and the other was kept as control. The best known aspects by local community about the target species were: common name, intra-specific variation, clonal growth, flower visitors, floral attractants, sequential flowering, local distribution and abundance. The species was considered useful by the interviewed as familiar income complementation through extractivism, besides other secondary uses. It was identified a rich knowledge about the species` management system, once used, that was considered simple and consisted of two to three... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)