Impacts of climate change on habitat quality: plant phenology interactions with animal use and fitness Active
Weather and climate impact terrestrial wildlife habitat through their influences on plant productivity. Plant phenology – the timing of life-history events such as green-up, flowering and senescence – provides one indicator of the timing and magnitude of productivity. Changes and variability in plant phenology in space and time are indicators of habitat quality, which is a driver of fitness for Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) species of concern: elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, Greater sage-grouse, other wildlife species and livestock. Development of new methods to collect and analyze plant phenology data will allow natural resource managers to gain a better understanding of variability in habitat quality over space and time, and this information can be used to guide land-use and habitat treatments to maximize benefit and limit harm to wildlife and their habitat.
Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) Effectiveness Monitoring in collaboration with University Researchers, the USGS North Central Climate Science Center (NC CSC) the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and others:
- Develop near-surface plant greenness sensor systems.
- Participate in national phenology monitoring networks.
- Develop methods to ground-truth remotely sensed plant phenology metrics.
- Develop analyses to quantify variability in vegetation greenness over space and time.
- Quantify the interactions between plant phenology and mule deer migration and fitness.
Weather and climate impact terrestrial wildlife habitat through their influences on plant productivity. Plant phenology – the timing of life-history events such as green-up, flowering and senescence – provides one indicator of the timing and magnitude of productivity. Changes and variability in plant phenology in space and time are indicators of habitat quality, which is a driver of fitness for Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) species of concern: elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, Greater sage-grouse, other wildlife species and livestock. Development of new methods to collect and analyze plant phenology data will allow natural resource managers to gain a better understanding of variability in habitat quality over space and time, and this information can be used to guide land-use and habitat treatments to maximize benefit and limit harm to wildlife and their habitat.
Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) Effectiveness Monitoring in collaboration with University Researchers, the USGS North Central Climate Science Center (NC CSC) the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and others:
- Develop near-surface plant greenness sensor systems.
- Participate in national phenology monitoring networks.
- Develop methods to ground-truth remotely sensed plant phenology metrics.
- Develop analyses to quantify variability in vegetation greenness over space and time.
- Quantify the interactions between plant phenology and mule deer migration and fitness.