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Management Prescriptions (management + prescription)
Selected AbstractsEricaceous shrubs on abandoned block-cut peatlands: implications for soil water availability and Sphagnum restorationECOHYDROLOGY, Issue 4 2009Kegan K Farrick Abstract Following harvesting by manual block-cut methods and subsequent abandonment, Cacouna bog has undergone a natural vegetation succession, with ericaceous shrubs covering more than 90% of the surface. The abundance of shrubs plays a major role in the soil water flux and availability at the site, impacting Sphagnum regeneration. From June 1 to August 22, 2007, field measurements indicate that transpiration represented the largest water loss from the shrubs at 1·7 mm day,1, comprising 142 mm (42%) of rainfall, compared to 93 mm of evaporation (28%) from bare soil. The rainfall interception from the canopy (62 mm) and litter (15 mm) accounted for 23% of seasonal rainfall. Thus after transpiration and interception losses are accounted for, only 115 mm of the 334 mm of rain (34%) remained available for other processes (recharge/soil evaporation). In the field, the litter layer prevented 17 mm from being lost over the summer as it reduced evaporation by 18%. Laboratory experiments using intact soil monoliths with and without shrubs and litter indicate that at depths below 10 cm the water content from the shrub monoliths decreased 27% versus 20% in the bare peat monoliths because of root water uptake. As a management prescription, raising the water table within 20 cm of the surface would provide water to the most active root uptake zones, reducing the need for extraction from the upper 10 cm of the peat. At this level sufficient water can be supplied to the surface through capillary rise, providing adequate water for the reestablishment/survival of Sphagnum. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The contribution of invertebrate taxa to moorland bird diets and the potential implications of land-use managementIBIS, Issue 4 2006GRAEME M. BUCHANAN We reviewed the literature to determine the importance of invertebrates for moorland-breeding birds and considered our findings with respect to the conservation of such species in the UK. The diets of many moorland birds consist predominantly of invertebrates, with a wide range of taxa recorded in the diets of moorland birds during the breeding season. Relatively few taxa (Arachnida, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Oligochaeta) were widely taken, with Diptera and Coleoptera being the most important. Among these latter two insect orders, Carabidae, Curculionidae, Elateridae and Tipulidae were the most important families. Comparisons of the diets of bird families, treated separately according to whether data were derived from adults or chicks, showed that waders take more interstitial invertebrates than passerines, which themselves take more foliage invertebrates. Although we lack detailed experimental data with which to demonstrate the direct effect of particular moorland management prescriptions on some of these key invertebrate taxa for breeding birds, available data suggest that management regimes that create a mosaic of habitats are likely to be most beneficial. In particular, heterogeneity in vegetation structure and species composition, and the presence of wet flushes associated with the synchronized spring emergence of adults of certain insect species, are likely to increase invertebrate food resources for birds. [source] Tourism, livelihoods and protected areas: opportunities for fair-trade tourism in and around National parksINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 5 2001Harold Goodwin The development and implementation of ,alternative livelihood projects' by donor agencies and conservation organisations has become one of the most commonly-applied management prescriptions to alleviate existing or potential conflicts between protected areas and local livelihoods. The use of these projects is a common feature of so-called Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs). In most cases, the promotion of these initiatives are undertaken as extensions of protected area programmes and often take place in buffer zones. Examples of projects that seek to improve local livelihoods in and around protected areas are common, and many of them have a tourism component. However, the results of tourism components of ICDPs have often been disappointing with local people benefiting little from tourism revenues. Nevertheless, many national parks are major tourist attractions in rural, and often marginal, areas and do offer significant opportunities for indigenous enterprise development. People living in and around these protected areas often have high expectations of what tourism could offer them. Using data collected in the south east lowveld of Zimbabwe for the DFID Tourism, Conservation and Sustainable Development project an analysis of local people's expectations of tourism is presented. The survey covered nine villages and there are significant differences in the responses. Local people were asked about their experience of tourism and their aspirations, including their preferred ways of earning money from tourism. Finally an analysis of their perceptions of the barriers to their involvement in the industry is presented. The paper then addresses the ways in which a national park or conservancy might respond to these aspirations and seek to involve local people in tourism enabling them to secure all or part of their livelihood from tourism related employment or entrepreneurial activity. An analysis of the preferences of tourists surveyed in Gonarezhou about activities, which they would wish to participate in if they were available, is presented. The paper concludes with an analysis of the opportunities for the managers of state, communal or privately owned land to create and support opportunities for local people to participate in the tourism industry and to benefit from fairly traded tourism. These strategies include marketing and business development support, regulation and price management. [source] Assessments of habitat preferences and quality depend on spatial scale and metrics of fitnessJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2007ANNA D. CHALFOUN Summary 1Identifying the habitat features that influence habitat selection and enhance fitness is critical for effective management. Ecological theory predicts that habitat choices should be adaptive, such that fitness is enhanced in preferred habitats. However, studies often report mismatches between habitat preferences and fitness consequences across a wide variety of taxa based on a single spatial scale and/or a single fitness component. 2We examined whether habitat preferences of a declining shrub steppe songbird, the Brewer's sparrow Spizella breweri, were adaptive when multiple reproductive fitness components and spatial scales (landscape, territory and nest patch) were considered. 3We found that birds settled earlier and in higher densities, together suggesting preference, in landscapes with greater shrub cover and height. Yet nest success was not higher in these landscapes; nest success was primarily determined by nest predation rates. Thus landscape preferences did not match nest predation risk. Instead, nestling mass and the number of nesting attempts per pair increased in preferred landscapes, raising the possibility that landscapes were chosen on the basis of food availability rather than safe nest sites. 4At smaller spatial scales (territory and nest patch), birds preferred different habitat features (i.e. density of potential nest shrubs) that reduced nest predation risk and allowed greater season-long reproductive success. 5Synthesis and applications. Habitat preferences reflect the integration of multiple environmental factors across multiple spatial scales, and individuals may have more than one option for optimizing fitness via habitat selection strategies. Assessments of habitat quality for management prescriptions should ideally include analysis of diverse fitness consequences across multiple ecologically relevant spatial scales. [source] Editors' Introduction: Birds and AgricultureJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2000S.J. Ormerod 1.,Around 10% of recent papers in the Journal of Applied Ecology have examined interactions between birds and agriculture. This statistic reveals the important role now played by ecologists in assessing the effects of agricultural development worldwide. It also reflects the position of birds as both indicators and targets of agricultural change: their patterns of behaviour, distribution, seasonal phenology and demography track closely onto the spatial and temporal scales of agricultural intensification. 2.,Papers in this Special Profile illustrate how research in this sphere has shifted towards assessing the processes by which birds are affected ecologically by agricultural change. The works examine spatial patterns in extinction; assess long-term trends in bird abundance and agricultural practice; reveal how foraging and breeding performance in farmland birds varies between habitats; and evaluate the role of large-scale modelling in examining hypotheses about the influences of land management on birds. The final paper shows that birds can have intrinsically positive value in agricultural systems. 3.,All the papers propose management prescriptions for agricultural areas that blend the microscopic , for example, how to modify local land structure to benefit birds , and the macroscopic , for example, by suggested inputs into land-use policy. Perhaps most pertinent is the key conclusion that agricultural change is multivariate, so that straightforward univariate effects on birds are unlikely. Restoration of impacted populations might therefore require holistic strategies that encourage appropriately scaled agricultural extensification. Success would be most likely if farmers, conservationists and other key players were engaged collaboratively in the process. 4.,Current ideas about restoring farmland bird populations share a common assumption: if agricultural practice has reduced populations hitherto, then agricultural practice can restore the losses. We suggest that this assumption carries a range of predictions that now require testing through sustainable farm management , a situation ideally suited to ,BACI' style experiments. 5.,We reiterate the need to expand work on other groups of organisms affected negatively or positively by agricultural management to allow a broader perspective of impacts or benefits. [source] Habitat models of bird species' distribution: an aid to the management of coastal grazing marshesJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2000T. P. Milsom 1.,Coastal grazing marshes comprise an important habitat for wetland biota but are threatened by agricultural intensification and conversion to arable farmland. In Britain, the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) scheme addresses these problems by providing financial incentives to farmers to retain their grazing marshes, and to follow conservation management prescriptions. 2.,A modelling approach was used to aid the development of management prescriptions for ground-nesting birds in the North Kent Marshes ESA. This ESA contains the largest area of coastal grazing marsh remaining in England and Wales (c. 6500 ha) and supports nationally important breeding populations of lapwing Vanellus vanellus and redshank Tringa totanus. 3.,Counts of ground-nesting birds, and assessments of sward structure, surface topography and wetness, landscape structure and sources of human disturbance were made in 1995 and again in 1996, on 19 land-holdings with a combined area of c. 3000 ha. The land-holdings varied from nature reserves at one extreme to an intensive dairy farm at the other. 4.,Models of relationship between the presence or absence of ground-nesting birds and the grazing marsh habitat in each of c. 430 marshes were constructed using a generalized linear mixed modelling (GLMM) method. This is an extension to the conventional logistic regression approach, in which a random term is used to model differences in the proportion of marshes occupied on different land-holdings. 5.,The combined species models predicted that the probability of marshes being occupied by at least one ground-nesting species increased concomitantly with the complexity of the grass sward and surface topography but decreased in the presence of hedgerows, roads and power lines. 6.,Models were also prepared for each of the 10 most widespread species, including lapwing and redshank. Their composition differed between species. Variables describing the sward were included in models for five species: heterogeneity of sward height tended to be more important than mean sward height. Surface topography and wetness were important for waders and wildfowl but not for other species. Effects of boundaries, proximity to roads and power lines were included in some models and were negative in all cases. 7.,Binomial GLMMs are useful for investigating habitat factors that affect the distribution of birds at two nested spatial scales, in this case fields (marshes) grouped within farms. Models of the type presented in this paper provide a framework for targeting of conservation management prescriptions for ground-nesting birds at the field scale on the North Kent Marshes ESA and on lowland wet grassland elsewhere in Europe. [source] Overwinter survival of stocked age-0 lake sturgeonJOURNAL OF APPLIED ICHTHYOLOGY, Issue 5 2009J. A. Crossman Summary Knowledge of age-specific survivorship is critical when developing management prescriptions for imperiled species such as the lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens). Management has focused on population restoration through hatchery supplementation, largely in the absence of data about relationships between hatchery rearing conditions, size/age at release, and estimates of overwinter survival for stocked age-0 lake sturgeon. Young of the year lake sturgeon were reared from egg to age 3 months in two separate hatchery environments: a streamside hatchery on the natal Upper Black River, Michigan, and a traditional hatchery environment. From age 3 to 6 months all fish were reared in the traditional hatchery. Fish (n = 20) originating from each rearing environment were surgically implanted with ultrasonic transmitters at 6 months of age (mean total length: 31.4 cm; mean weight: 106.4 g) and released into Black Lake in December 2005. Tracking using manual and automated hydrophones was conducted during April and May 2006 to estimate overwinter survival and to test for differences in survival of fish reared in different hatchery environments. Eighteen fish (45%) were detected, 16 (40%) of which survived the winter (range of distance traveled between observations of surviving fish was 0.09,0.55 km). The remaining fish were not detected. No significant differences in survival were documented due to rearing environment or size at release. This study represents the first quantified estimate of overwinter survival for stocked age-0 lake sturgeon. The minimum estimate of 40% survival through the first winter is encouraging for hatchery programs, and will aid in the development of management prescriptions for this species. [source] Immediate effects of prescribed burning, chopping and clearing on runoff, infiltration and erosion in a shrubland area in Galicia (NW Spain)LAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2008C. Fernández Abstract The immediate effects of three different fuel management treatments on runoff, infiltration and erosion were evaluated in a mixed heathland in Galicia (NW Spain). The treatments compared were: prescribed burning, shrub chopping and shrub clearing. Rainfall simulations were conducted immediately before and after fuel reduction treatments. A rainfall rate of 67,mm,h,1 was applied for 30,min to each runoff plot. Application of treatments significantly affected runoff and infiltration, but the parameter most affected by treatment was soil erosion, especially after prescribed burning. However, sediment yields measured immediately after treatments were low in all the cases, varying from 32,kg,ha,1 after shrub clearing to 248,kg,ha,1 after prescribed burning. In the rainfall simulation plots subjected to prescribed burning, the maximum temperatures reached at mineral soil surface during burns significantly affected soil losses. The organic layer remaining after treatments and soil moisture contents appeared to be critical variables in controlling runoff and erosion during the first rainfall event following fuel reduction treatments. When the remaining organic layer was removed just after treatments and a new rainfall simulation was carried out, mean infiltration rate trended to decrease and cumulative runoff and sediment yield tended to increase. The above information could be useful for determining whether fuel management prescriptions are compatible with fire hazard reduction and soil conservation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Quantitative research for nonprofit managementNONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 4 2006Wolfgang Bielefeld Although the literature on organizational management has burgeoned recently, it has focused primarily on for-profit organizations. Moreover, widely published management prescriptions are often faddish in nature. It is risky for nonprofit managers to uncritically adopt these prescriptions. Not only may they be inappropriate for the Nonprofit setting, they may also be based on inadequate research. The nonprofit sector needs to develop its own research agenda and distribute usable findings to nonprofit managers. This process is in its infancy. While research on the nonprofit sector has been vigorous over the last few decades, most of it has focused on philanthropy or the delineation of the sector's dimensions. It is vitally important that management practices in the Nonprofit sector be based on sound, useful research. Given the nature of social science research, much of this will be quantitative research. In this article, I lay out some basic parameters of quantitative research and discuss its relevance to and utility for nonprofit management. [source] A Landscape Approach for Ecologically Based Management of Great Basin ShrublandsRESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2009Michael J. Wisdom Abstract Native shrublands dominate the Great Basin of western of North America, and most of these communities are at moderate or high risk of loss from non-native grass invasion and woodland expansion. Landscape-scale management based on differences in ecological resistance and resilience of shrublands can reduce these risks. We demonstrate this approach with an example that focuses on maintenance of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats for Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a bird species threatened by habitat loss. The approach involves five steps: (1) identify the undesired disturbance processes affecting each shrubland community type; (2) characterize the resistance and resilience of each shrubland type in relation to the undesired processes; (3) assess potential losses of shrublands based on their resistance, resilience, and associated risk; (4) use knowledge from these steps to design a landscape strategy to mitigate the risk of shrubland loss; and (5) implement the strategy with a comprehensive set of active and passive management prescriptions. Results indicate that large areas of the Great Basin currently provide Sage-grouse habitats, but many areas of sagebrush with low resistance and resilience may be lost to continued woodland expansion or invasion by non-native annual grasses. Preventing these losses will require landscape strategies that prioritize management areas based on efficient use of limited resources to maintain the largest shrubland areas over time. Landscape-scale approaches, based on concepts of resistance and resilience, provide an essential framework for successful management of arid and semiarid shrublands and their native species. [source] | ||||||||||||||||