Journal article
Habitat selection by spotted owls after a megafire reflects their adaptation to historical frequent-fire regimes
Landscape ecology, Vol.35(5), pp.1199-1213
05/01/2020
DOI: 10.1007/s10980-020-01010-y
Abstract
Context Climate and land-use change have led to disturbance regimes in many ecosystems without a historical analog, leading to uncertainty about how species adapted to past conditions will respond to novel post-disturbance landscapes. Objectives We examined habitat selection by spotted owls in a post-fire landscape. We tested whether selection or avoidance of severely burned areas could be explained by patch size or configuration, and whether variation in selection among individuals could be explained by differences in habitat availability. Methods We applied mixed-effects models to GPS data from 20 spotted owls in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA, with individual owls occupying home ranges spanning a broad range of post-fire conditions after the 2014 King Fire. Results Individual spotted owls whose home ranges experienced less severe fire (< 5% of home range severely burned) tended to select severely burned forest, but owls avoided severely burned forest when more of their home range was affected ( 5-40%). Owls also tended to select severe fire patches that were smaller in size and more complex in shape, and rarely traveled > 100-m into severe fire patches. Spotted owls avoided areas that had experienced post-fire salvage logging but the interpretation of this effect was nuanced. Owls also avoided areas that were classified as open and/or young forest prior to the fire. Conclusions Our results support the hypothesis that spotted owls are adapted to historical fire regimes characterized by small severe fire patches in this region. Shifts in disturbance regimes that produce novel landscape patterns characterized by large, homogeneous patches of high-severity fire may negatively affect this species.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Habitat selection by spotted owls after a megafire reflects their adaptation to historical frequent-fire regimes
- Creators
- Gavin M. Jones - University of Wisconsin–MadisonH. Anu Kramer - University of Wisconsin–MadisonSheila A. Whitmore - University of Wisconsin–MadisonWilliam J. Berigan - University of Wisconsin–MadisonDouglas J. Tempel - University of Wisconsin–MadisonConnor M. Wood - University of Wisconsin–MadisonBrendan K. Hobart - University of Wisconsin–MadisonTedward Erker - University of Wisconsin–MadisonFidelis A. Atuo - University of Wisconsin–MadisonNicole F. Pietrunti - University of Wisconsin–MadisonRodd Kelsey - The Nature ConservancyR. J. Gutierrez - University of Wisconsin–MadisonM. Zachariah Peery - University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Landscape ecology, Vol.35(5), pp.1199-1213
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10980-020-01010-y
- ISSN
- 0921-2973
- eISSN
- 1572-9761
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Number of pages
- 15
- Grant note
- The Nature Conservancy U.S. Forest Service; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); United States Forest Service U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; US Fish & Wildlife Service California Department of Fish and Wildlife
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/01/2020
- Academic Unit
- School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability
- Record Identifier
- 9985219853002771
Metrics
1 Record Views