scholarly journals Climate-Biome Envelope Shifts Create Enormous Challenges and Novel Opportunities for Conservation

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1015
Author(s):  
Ryan Toot ◽  
Lee E. Frelich ◽  
Ethan E. Butler ◽  
Peter B. Reich
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Mixed Forest ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Normal Period ◽  
Western Great Lakes ◽  
Envelope Model

Research Highlights: We modeled climate-biome envelopes at high resolution in the Western Great Lakes Region for recent and future time-periods. The projected biome shifts, in conjunction with heterogeneous distribution of protected land, may create both great challenges for conservation of particular ecosystems and novel conservation opportunities. Background and Objectives: Climate change this century will affect the distribution and relative abundance of ecological communities against a mostly static background of protected land. We developed a climate-biome envelope model using a priori climate-vegetation relationships for the Western Great Lakes Region (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan USA and adjacent Ontario, Canada) to predict potential biomes and ecotones—boreal forest, mixed forest, temperate forest, prairie–forest border, and prairie—for a recent climate normal period (1979–2013) and future conditions (2061–2080). Materials and Methods: We analyzed six scenarios, two representative concentration pathways (RCP)—4.5 and 8.5, and three global climate models to represent cool, average, and warm scenarios to predict climate-biome envelopes for 2061–2080. To assess implications of the changes for conservation, we analyzed the amount of land with climate suited for each of the biomes and ecotones both region-wide and within protected areas, under current and future conditions. Results: Recent biome boundaries were accurately represented by the climate-biome envelope model. The modeled future conditions show at least a 96% loss in areas suitable for the boreal and mixed forest from the region, but likely gains in areas suitable for temperate forest, prairie–forest border, and prairie. The analysis also showed that protected areas in the region will most likely lose most or all of the area, 18,692 km2, currently climatically suitable for boreal forest. This would represent an enormous conservation loss. However, conversely, the area climatically suitable for prairie and prairie–forest border within protected areas would increase up to 12.5 times the currently suitable 1775 km2. Conclusions: These results suggest that retaining boreal forest in potential refugia where it currently exists and facilitating transition of some forests to prairie, oak savanna, and temperate forest should both be conservation priorities in the northern part of the region.

scholarly journals Factors Related to Northern Goshawk Landscape Use in the Western Great Lakes Region

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason E. Bruggeman ◽  
David E. Andersen ◽  
James E. Woodford
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Northern Goshawk ◽  
Landscape Use ◽  
Western Great Lakes

Assessment of mercury bioaccumulation within the pelagic food web of lakes in the western Great Lakes region

Ecotoxicology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1520-1529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristofer R. Rolfhus ◽  
Britt D. Hall ◽  
Bruce A. Monson ◽  
Michael J. Paterson ◽  
Jeffrey D. Jeremiason
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Pelagic Food Web ◽  
Western Great Lakes ◽  
Mercury Bioaccumulation

Sympatric wolf and coyote populations of the western Great Lakes region are reproductively isolated

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (20) ◽  
pp. 4428-4440 ◽  
Author(s):  
TYLER J. WHEELDON ◽  
BRENT R. PATTERSON ◽  
BRADLEY N. WHITE
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Western Great Lakes

scholarly journals Evaluating outcomes of young forest management on a target species of conservation concern

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4319
Author(s):  
Henry M. Streby ◽  
Gunnar R. Kramer ◽  
Sean M. Peterson ◽  
David E. Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Survival Data ◽  
Habitat Management ◽  
Control Site ◽  
Vegetation Succession ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Treatment Site ◽  
Young Forest ◽  
Western Great Lakes

Background Assessing outcomes of habitat management is critical for informing and adapting conservation plans. From 2013–2019, a multi-stage management initiative aims to create >26,000 ha of shrubland and early-successional vegetation to benefit Golden-winged Warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) in managed forested landscapes of the western Great Lakes region. We studied a dense breeding population of Golden-winged Warblers at Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Minnesota, USA, where shrubs and young trees were sheared during the winter of 2014–2015 in a single treatment supported in part by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and in part by other funding source(s) to benefit Golden-winged Warblers and other species associated with young forest [e.g., American Woodcock (Scalopax minor)] and as part of maintenance of early successional forest cover on the refuge. Methods We monitored abundance of Golden-winged Warblers before (2013–2014) and after (2015–2016) management at the treatment site and a control site, and we estimated full-season productivity (i.e., young recruited into the fall population) on the treatment site from predictive, spatially explicit models, informed by nest and fledgling survival data collected at sites in the western Great Lakes region, including Rice Lake NWR, during 2011 and 2012. Then, using biologically informed models of Golden-winged Warbler response to observed and predicted vegetation succession, we estimated the cumulative change in population recruitment over various scenarios of vegetation succession and demographic response. Results We observed a 32% decline in abundance of Golden-winged Warbler breeding pairs on the treatment site and estimated a 27% decline in per-pair full-season productivity following management, compared to no change in a nearby control site. In models that ranged from highly optimistic to progressively more realistic scenarios, we estimated a net loss of 72–460 juvenile Golden-winged Warblers produced from the treatment site in the 10–20 years following management. Even if our well-informed and locally validated productivity models produced erroneous estimates and the management resulted in only a temporary reduction in abundance (i.e., no change in productivity), our forecast models still predicted a net loss of 61–260 juvenile Golden-winged Warblers from the treatment site over the same time frame. Conclusions Our study sites represent only a small portion of a large young-forest management initiative directed at Golden-winged Warblers in the western Great Lakes region; however, the brush management, or shearing of shrubs and small trees, that was applied at our study site is a common treatment applied by contractors funded by ABC and its partners on public lands across Minnesota with the expressed intent of benefiting Golden-winged Warblers and related species. Furthermore, the resulting vegetation structure at our treatment site is consistent with that of other areas managed under the initiative, and ABC documents include our study site as successful Golden-winged Warbler management based on observations of ≥1 Golden-winged Warbler at the treatment site since the management. Our assessment demonstrates that, at least for the only site for which pre- and post-management data on Golden-winged Warblers exist, the shearing of shrubs and small trees has had a substantial and likely enduring negative impact on Golden-winged Warblers. We suggest that incorporating region-specific, empirical information about Golden-winged Warbler—habitat relations into habitat management efforts would increase the likelihood of a positive response by Golden-winged Warblers and also suggest that management directed generically at young forest may not benefit Golden-winged Warblers.

Crafting Culture at Fort St. Joseph

2019 ◽  
pp. 134-152
Author(s):  
Brock A. Giordano ◽  
Michael S. Nassaney
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Native American ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Craft Production ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Cone Production ◽  
Western Great Lakes ◽  
Colonial Frontier

The study of craft production in the context of Native American–European interactions during the eighteenth century in the western Great Lakes region has emerged as a topic of scholarly interest. An analysis of tinkling cone production both demonstrates how European raw materials were being transformed into new forms and reveals how labor was organized. By examining the technological histories of tinkling cones, this chapter illustrates that their production was conducted in independent workshops as an opportunistic activity that fit the demands of life on the colonial frontier at Fort St. Joseph.

scholarly journals A Methodology for Flash Drought Identification: Application of Flash Drought Frequency across the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 833-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan I. Christian ◽  
Jeffrey B. Basara ◽  
Jason A. Otkin ◽  
Eric D. Hunt ◽  
Ryann A. Wakefield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Definition ◽  
Corn Belt ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Rapid Rate ◽  
Western Great Lakes

Abstract With the increasing use of the term “flash drought” within the scientific community, Otkin et al. provide a general definition that identifies flash droughts based on their unusually rapid rate of intensification. This study presents an objective percentile-based methodology that builds upon that work by identifying flash droughts using standardized evaporative stress ratio (SESR) values and changes in SESR over some period of time. Four criteria are specified to identify flash droughts: two that emphasize the vegetative impacts of flash drought and two that focus on the rapid rate of intensification. The methodology was applied to the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) to develop a 38-yr flash drought climatology (1979–2016) across the United States. It was found that SESR derived from NARR data compared well with the satellite-based evaporative stress index for four previously identified flash drought events. Furthermore, four additional flash drought cases were compared with the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), and SESR rapidly declined 1–2 weeks before a response was evident with the USDM. From the climatological analysis, a hot spot of flash drought occurrence was revealed over the Great Plains, the Corn Belt, and the western Great Lakes region. Relatively few flash drought events occurred over mountainous and arid regions. Flash droughts were categorized based on their rate of intensification, and it was found that the most intense flash droughts occurred over the central Great Plains, Corn Belt, and western Great Lakes region.

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