Living Among The Ash: The Impacts of Wildfire on Wildlife Use Patterns on a Pinus banksiana (Jack Pine) Barrens
By Casey Halloran, Meghan Bargabos, Danielle Garneau, and Mark Lesser
Goals:
Analyze the use of unburned and burned forest space by fauna species and wildlife as a whole.
Count the number of occurrences in each zone per species.
Compare species trends in regard to seasons and predator-prey relationships.
Evaluate habitat occurrences over time since the 2018 wildfire.
Determine if there are species-specific differences in use of burned vs. unburned sites (1957 burn since regenerated.
July 2018 wildfire
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Conceptual Diagram:
Predation Risk Shifts as a Function of Forest Structure Changes Post-fire
adapted from Doherty et al. 2022
Prey:
Predators:
ambush predators (sit & wait)
coursing predator
Methods:
fall 2018-summer 2022 game camera design
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n=4 in 2018 burn
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n=4 in 1957 burn (unburn)
summer 2022-present game camera design
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feeding guild (herbivore, predator)
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predator hunting style (ambush, coursing)
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Meghan Bargabos graduate student headed to check game camera
*game camera design shift as part of a landscape-scale survey of wildlife use across chronosequence of stand ages on the Flat Rock (see Wildlife Monitoring research being led by Meghan Bargabos MS Natural Resources and Ecology)
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cameras checked on rotation for battery change and image download
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images catalogued into records table using camera metadata using CamTrap package in R
Data analysis:
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Species-specific wildlife occurrences in burn (2018 wildfire) and unburn (1957 wildfire)
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Wildlife occurrences over time in burn (2018 wildfire) and unburn (1957 wildfire) by:
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feeding guild (herbivore, predator)
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predator hunting style (ambush, coursing)
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Results:
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Deer, snowshoe hare and their coyote predator are the most common species at the Flat Rock.
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Most species spend more time in the unburned site, especially immediately after the burn.
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Seasonal patterns suggest the wildlife may leave the burn in winter to find refuge in surrounding mixed hardwood forests.
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Species richness if greater at the burn due to rare species such as bear and woodcock, but diversity is greatest at the unburned (1957) site.
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Hare immediately shifted from burn (loss resources/hiding cover) and returned the next growing season timed with regenerating ericaceous shrubs.
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Deer occurrences are highest in the uburn and have dramatically increased annually since the wildfire.
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Ambush predators (bobcat/fisher) spent first year post-fire in unburn (hunting cover/prey abundance), used habitat equally until spring 2022. then accumulation of coarse woody debris (CWD) created structural complexity for a return to the burn
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Coursing predators (coyote) primarily remained in the burn until summer 2020, then shifted to the unburn summer 2022 as CWD constrained mobility and reduced prey visibility
Implications:
Since the 2018 wildfire disturbance at the Altona Flat Rock, we have learned that unlike most forests in our region, the time to forest structure recovery to support diverse wildlife populations is short. Hare responded quickly to rhizomatous regeneration of blueberry and huckleberry which provided resources and hiding cover. Deer responded to suckering of hardwoods and the regenerating understory shrubs. Predators respond closely to snowshoe hare abundance and exhibit differences in habitat use as a function of their hunting styles (ambush, coursing). We expect their habitat use to continue to shift as coarse woody debris continues to increase and later decompose.
Future Directions:
evaluate diel activity overlap of predator-prey in burn (2018) vs unburn (1957)
Citations:
Burton, A.C., Neilson, E., Moreira, D., Ladle, A., Steenweg, R., Fisher, J.T., Bayne, E. and Boutin, S. (2015), REVIEW: Wildlife camera trapping: a review and recommendations for linking surveys to ecological processes. J Appl Ecol, 52: 675-685. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12432
Doherty, T.S., Geary, W.L., Jolly, C.J., Macdonald, K.J., Miritis, V., Watchorn, D.J., Cherry, M.J., Conner, L.M., González, T.M., Legge, S.M., Ritchie, E.G., Stawski, C. and Dickman, C.R. (2022), Fire as a driver and mediator of predator–prey interactions. Biol Rev, 97: 1539-1558. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12853
Cave H, Adams M, Jaeger T, Peet T, Staats L, Garneau D, Lesser M. Wildlife Response to Wildfire in a Northern New York Jack Pine Barrens. Forests. 2021; 12(6):676. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060676
FISHER, J.T. and WILKINSON, L. (2005), The response of mammals to forest fire and timber harvest in the North American boreal forest. Mammal Review, 35: 51-81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2907.2005.00053.x