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Local and population-level responses of Greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in Wyoming
BACKGROUND: Spatial scale is important when studying ecological processes. The Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a large sexually dimorphic tetraonid that is endemic to the sagebrush biome of western North America. The impacts of oil and gas (OAG) development at individual leks has...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6097500/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30128198 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5417 |
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author | Ramey, Rob R. Thorley, Joseph L. Ivey, Alexander S. |
author_facet | Ramey, Rob R. Thorley, Joseph L. Ivey, Alexander S. |
author_sort | Ramey, Rob R. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Spatial scale is important when studying ecological processes. The Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a large sexually dimorphic tetraonid that is endemic to the sagebrush biome of western North America. The impacts of oil and gas (OAG) development at individual leks has been well-documented. However, no previous studies have quantified the population-level response. METHODS: Hierarchical models were used to estimate the effects of the areal disturbance due to well pads as well as climatic variation on individual lek counts and Greater sage-grouse populations (management units) over 32 years. The lek counts were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models while the management units were analyzed using Gompertz population dynamic models. The models were fitted using frequentist and Bayesian methods. An information-theoretic approach was used to identify the most important spatial scale and time lags. The relative importance of OAG and climate at the local and population-level scales was assessed using information-theoretic (Akaike’s weights) and estimation (effect size) statistics. RESULTS: At the local scale, OAG was an important negative predictor of the lek count. At the population scale, there was only weak support for OAG as a predictor of density changes but the estimated impacts on the long-term carrying capacity were consistent with summation of the local impacts. Regional climatic variation, as indexed by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, was an important positive predictor of density changes at both the local and population level (particularly in the most recent part of the time series). CONCLUSIONS: Additional studies to reduce the uncertainty in the range of possible effects of OAG at the population scale are required. Wildlife agencies need to account for the effects of regional climatic variation when managing sage-grouse populations. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6097500 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60975002018-08-20 Local and population-level responses of Greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in Wyoming Ramey, Rob R. Thorley, Joseph L. Ivey, Alexander S. PeerJ Conservation Biology BACKGROUND: Spatial scale is important when studying ecological processes. The Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a large sexually dimorphic tetraonid that is endemic to the sagebrush biome of western North America. The impacts of oil and gas (OAG) development at individual leks has been well-documented. However, no previous studies have quantified the population-level response. METHODS: Hierarchical models were used to estimate the effects of the areal disturbance due to well pads as well as climatic variation on individual lek counts and Greater sage-grouse populations (management units) over 32 years. The lek counts were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models while the management units were analyzed using Gompertz population dynamic models. The models were fitted using frequentist and Bayesian methods. An information-theoretic approach was used to identify the most important spatial scale and time lags. The relative importance of OAG and climate at the local and population-level scales was assessed using information-theoretic (Akaike’s weights) and estimation (effect size) statistics. RESULTS: At the local scale, OAG was an important negative predictor of the lek count. At the population scale, there was only weak support for OAG as a predictor of density changes but the estimated impacts on the long-term carrying capacity were consistent with summation of the local impacts. Regional climatic variation, as indexed by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, was an important positive predictor of density changes at both the local and population level (particularly in the most recent part of the time series). CONCLUSIONS: Additional studies to reduce the uncertainty in the range of possible effects of OAG at the population scale are required. Wildlife agencies need to account for the effects of regional climatic variation when managing sage-grouse populations. PeerJ Inc. 2018-08-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6097500/ /pubmed/30128198 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5417 Text en © 2018 Ramey et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Conservation Biology Ramey, Rob R. Thorley, Joseph L. Ivey, Alexander S. Local and population-level responses of Greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in Wyoming |
title | Local and population-level responses of Greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in Wyoming |
title_full | Local and population-level responses of Greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in Wyoming |
title_fullStr | Local and population-level responses of Greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in Wyoming |
title_full_unstemmed | Local and population-level responses of Greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in Wyoming |
title_short | Local and population-level responses of Greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in Wyoming |
title_sort | local and population-level responses of greater sage-grouse to oil and gas development and climatic variation in wyoming |
topic | Conservation Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6097500/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30128198 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5417 |
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