MORAN, AMY CHRISTINE. A North Carolina Field Study to Evaluate Greenroof Runoff Quantity, Runoff Quality, and Plant Growth. (Under the direction of Gregory D. Jennings and William F. Hunt) Two greenroofs were constructed for research and demonstration purposes in North Carolina; the first was constructed at the Neuseway Nature Center in Kinston in April 2002 and the second greenroof was constructed at Wayne Community College (WCC) in Goldsboro in May 2002. The 27 m 2 Nature Center Greenroof, with a 3% pitch, was constructed with 102 mm deep media. The relatively flat, 70 m 2 WCC Greenroof was constructed with two different media depths of 102 mm and 51 mm to research the effect of media depth on plant growth. Each greenroof was compared to a reference roof, or a control roof, on site.

Increasing levels of human activity threaten wildlife populations through direct mortality, habitat degradation, and habitat fragmentation. Area closures can improve habitat quality for wildlife, but may be difficult to achieve where tourism or other economic drivers are a priority. Temporal closures that limit human use during specific times of day have potential to increase habitat quality for wildlife, while continuing to provide opportunities for human use. However, the effectiveness of daily temporal closures has not been tested. We assessed how implementation of a temporal road closure affected wildlife movements in Banff National Park. Parks Canada closed a popular 17 km stretch of road between 2000 and 0800 hours to improve habitat quality for wildlife. We assessed the effectiveness of the closure on nine mammal species using three sets of data: remote cameras, road surveys, and grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos ) GPS data. In all three analyses, wildlife detection rates on the road doubled during the closure while remaining unchanged in reference areas. Our strong and consistent results suggest temporal closures are an important conservation tool that can increase habitat quality for wildlife while minimizing effects on people.

Interest in bison (Bison bison, B. bonasus) conservation and restoration continues to grow globally. In Canada, plains bison (B. b. bison) are threatened, occupying less than 0.5% of their former range. The largest threat to their recovery is the lack of habitat in which they are considered compatible with current land uses. Fences and direct management make range expansion by most bison impossible. Reintroduction of bison into previously occupied areas that remain suitable, therefore, is critical for bison recovery in North America. Banff National Park is recognized as historical range of plains bison and has been identified as a potential site for reintroduction of a wild population. To evaluate habitat quality and assess if there is sufficient habitat for a breeding population, we developed a Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) model for the proposed reintroduction and surrounding areas in Banff National Park (Banff). We then synthesize previous studies on habitat relationships, forage availability, bison energetics and snowfall scenarios to estimate nutritional carrying capacity. Considering constraints on nutritional carrying capacity, the most realistic scenario that we evaluated resulted in an estimated maximum bison density of 0.48 bison/km2. This corresponds to sufficient habitat to support at least 600 to 1000 plains bison, which could be one of the largest 10 plains bison populations in North America. Within Banff, there is spatial variation in predicted bison habitat suitability and population size that suggests one potential reintroduction site as the most likely to be successful from a habitat perspective. The successful reintroduction of bison into Banff would represent a significant global step towards conserving this iconic species, and our approach provides a useful template for evaluating potential habitat for other endangered species reintroductions into their former range.

Occupancy modelling is increasingly used to monitor changes in the spatial distribution of rare and threatened species. Occupancy methods have traditionally relied upon temporally replicated surveys to estimate detection probability. Recently, occupancy models with spatial replication have been used to estimate detection probabilities over large geographical areas that are difficult to survey repeatedly. We developed occupancy models that combine spatially and temporally replicated data and applied them to snow-tracking surveys of six species, including wolverine Gulo gulo and Canadian lynx Lynx canadensis. We surveyed thirty-nine 100-km 2 cells and used 1-km trail segments within cells as spatial replicates. We surveyed 56% of the cells once and 44% of the cells between 2 and 14 times, resulting in a total of 872 km surveyed. We compared four occupancy models that incorporated spatial correlation in detection probability and hierarchically estimated occupancy at two spatial scales: cell occupancy and segment presence. We detected strong serial correlation in probability of detection for all species. Our models with serial correlation had higher occupancy estimates with larger confidence intervals than models assuming segments were independent and exchangeable. Spatial and temporal replicates have identical power to detect decreases in occupancy when survey segments are independent, but spatial correlation in detection probability can reduce the power of spatial replicates. The effects of spatial correlation are more pronounced when detection probability is low. Application of temporal replicates to spatial replicated surveys increases the precision of occupancy estimates, but sampling design trade-offs between number of sites and spatial versus temporal replicates need to balance levels of spatial correlation in detection probability with costs to visit sites. bs_bs_banner Animal Conservation. Print ISSN 1367-9430 Animal Conservation 18 (2015) 92-101

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