Premium
EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF HABITAT QUALITY, CONNECTIVITY, AND CATASTROPHES ON A THREATENED SPECIES
Author(s) -
Root Karen V.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
ecological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.864
H-Index - 213
eISSN - 1939-5582
pISSN - 1051-0761
DOI - 10.1890/1051-0761(1998)008[0854:eteohq]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - threatened species , habitat , biological dispersal , endangered species , ecology , population viability analysis , population , habitat destruction , geography , extinction (optical mineralogy) , critically endangered , biology , demography , paleontology , sociology
Conserving threatened and endangered species requires an understanding of the effects that variability in habitat, environment, demographics, and genetics have on the long‐term viability of the species. The Florida Scrub Jay ( Aphelocoma coerulescens ), which has been the focus of intensive, long‐term study and recent conservation efforts, makes an excellent candidate to illustrate how population modeling can be used to examine these effects on a threatened species. A stage‐based population model, including density dependence and stochasticity, was used to explore the effects of habitat quality, connectivity, and catastrophes on long‐term survival for four populations of Scrub Jays in Brevard County, Florida, United States. Restoring high‐quality habitat was critical for long‐term viability of these Scrub Jay populations. The quality of the scrub habitat, based on field surveys, is too overgrown to support the populations for the next 60 yr, and extinction is likely in <30 yr. These populations are unlikely to survive an epidemic or catastrophe without dispersal among the habitat patches and populations. The present research effectively illustrates how population modeling can be used to explore links between demographic processes and the environment, and to evaluate management strategies for habitat specialist species.