Sagebrush steppe ecosystems provide livelihoods for humans and essential habitats for wildlife, and thus management actions in these systems to promote wildlife persistence must strike a balance between human needs with those of wildlife. Across the western U.S., these landscapes have been heavily altered or lost through human activities, and climate change is expected to cause further changes in the quality and connections between habitat patches that could exacerbate declining populations of vulnerable wildlife species. To better manage these ecosystems under shifting conditions, researchers are examining how species use the mosaic of agricultural and intact sagebrush landscapes and how agricultural practices and increasingly severe and frequent wildfire influence the value of sagebrush patches and surrounding landscapes. Because of the abundance of land suitable for farming in central Washington, sagebrush-steppe landscapes have been the most dramatically influencedby human activities, and the associated wildlife are especially vulnerable.
Researchers will use non-invasive survey methods (camera traps, scat,and songbird surveys) and spatially-explicit climate models to determine how wildlife that depends on sagebrush-steppe use components of the landscape (native and restored sagebrush patches, agricultural fields, fire-impacted areas) and how management actions (e.g., direct seeding) influence this use. They will use these data to examine factors that influence movements of wildlife across the landscape and model how predicted future climate change will influence the distribution of wildlife within Washington and across the extent of sagebrush in the western U.S. This work and collaboration with federal, state, and county agencies, non-government organizations, and private landowners will identify important wildlife-land use relationships that will help improve best management practices in ways that benefit both landowners and the wildlife that their lands support. It will also provide the information needed to make long-term and large-scale planning decisions for wildlife in relation to climate and land-use changes.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 6255a158d34e21f8276f494a)
- Overview
Sagebrush steppe ecosystems provide livelihoods for humans and essential habitats for wildlife, and thus management actions in these systems to promote wildlife persistence must strike a balance between human needs with those of wildlife. Across the western U.S., these landscapes have been heavily altered or lost through human activities, and climate change is expected to cause further changes in the quality and connections between habitat patches that could exacerbate declining populations of vulnerable wildlife species. To better manage these ecosystems under shifting conditions, researchers are examining how species use the mosaic of agricultural and intact sagebrush landscapes and how agricultural practices and increasingly severe and frequent wildfire influence the value of sagebrush patches and surrounding landscapes. Because of the abundance of land suitable for farming in central Washington, sagebrush-steppe landscapes have been the most dramatically influencedby human activities, and the associated wildlife are especially vulnerable.
Researchers will use non-invasive survey methods (camera traps, scat,and songbird surveys) and spatially-explicit climate models to determine how wildlife that depends on sagebrush-steppe use components of the landscape (native and restored sagebrush patches, agricultural fields, fire-impacted areas) and how management actions (e.g., direct seeding) influence this use. They will use these data to examine factors that influence movements of wildlife across the landscape and model how predicted future climate change will influence the distribution of wildlife within Washington and across the extent of sagebrush in the western U.S. This work and collaboration with federal, state, and county agencies, non-government organizations, and private landowners will identify important wildlife-land use relationships that will help improve best management practices in ways that benefit both landowners and the wildlife that their lands support. It will also provide the information needed to make long-term and large-scale planning decisions for wildlife in relation to climate and land-use changes.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 6255a158d34e21f8276f494a)