Linking Snow and Subsurface Microclimatic Refugia to Assess Climate Threats to Pygmy Rabbits
Project Overview:
Extreme weather conditions may disrupt key life cycle events for pygmy rabbits, a species that relies on snow and underground burrows for protection from predators and extreme cold. Researchers supported by this Northwest CASC project will use models to understand how different snow patterns and subsurface temperatures will impact pygmy rabbit habitats. Project outcomes will include habitat maps, management strategies, and tools to better understand how the species may adapt to environmental variations.
Project Summary:
Extreme weather conditions can disrupt the timing of life cycle events of plants and animals. The consequences of such disruptions are unknown for pygmy rabbits, which have been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Pygmy rabbits find refuge from predators and extreme cold by inhabiting burrows and other spaces beneath the snow; behaviors that could be threatened by different snow patterns caused by weather variations.
This project aims to fill a critical knowledge gap about how weather dynamics affect the location and timing of snow and optimal subsurface habitat temperatures, and how these variations affect pygmy rabbit populations. Researchers will use a physics-based computer model to simulate subsurface temperature and moisture and link those results to biological models of pygmy rabbit habitat use, energy balance, and predator avoidance. The goal is to understand the specific ways that extreme conditions affect pygmy rabbits, ultimately helping to develop new approaches for managing their survival and persistence in the future.
Key project outcomes will include maps that indicate the locations and viability of subsurface rabbit habitat, evaluations of potential habitat manipulation tactics, and a tool to understand how the species may adapt its behavior to cope with projected environmental extremes. The project’s multidisciplinary team of physical and biological scientists as well as cooperating state and federal managers will integrate this work into decision-support tools to add transparency, repeatability, and rigor to the decision-making process.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 6699b9c5d34e9ac16e164e3f)
Project Overview:
Extreme weather conditions may disrupt key life cycle events for pygmy rabbits, a species that relies on snow and underground burrows for protection from predators and extreme cold. Researchers supported by this Northwest CASC project will use models to understand how different snow patterns and subsurface temperatures will impact pygmy rabbit habitats. Project outcomes will include habitat maps, management strategies, and tools to better understand how the species may adapt to environmental variations.
Project Summary:
Extreme weather conditions can disrupt the timing of life cycle events of plants and animals. The consequences of such disruptions are unknown for pygmy rabbits, which have been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Pygmy rabbits find refuge from predators and extreme cold by inhabiting burrows and other spaces beneath the snow; behaviors that could be threatened by different snow patterns caused by weather variations.
This project aims to fill a critical knowledge gap about how weather dynamics affect the location and timing of snow and optimal subsurface habitat temperatures, and how these variations affect pygmy rabbit populations. Researchers will use a physics-based computer model to simulate subsurface temperature and moisture and link those results to biological models of pygmy rabbit habitat use, energy balance, and predator avoidance. The goal is to understand the specific ways that extreme conditions affect pygmy rabbits, ultimately helping to develop new approaches for managing their survival and persistence in the future.
Key project outcomes will include maps that indicate the locations and viability of subsurface rabbit habitat, evaluations of potential habitat manipulation tactics, and a tool to understand how the species may adapt its behavior to cope with projected environmental extremes. The project’s multidisciplinary team of physical and biological scientists as well as cooperating state and federal managers will integrate this work into decision-support tools to add transparency, repeatability, and rigor to the decision-making process.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 6699b9c5d34e9ac16e164e3f)