Landscape Modeling for Everglades Ecosystem Restoration

Jiang, Jiang; Gross, Louis J.; Huston, Michael A.; Wolff, Wilfried F.; Fleming, D. Martin; Comiskey, E. Jane; Sylvester, Scott M.

doi:10.1007/s100219900006

Cited by 131 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The Florida Everglades, for example, is the best studied wetland in the subtropics (Junk et al 2006), where spatial models of distribution of multiple aquatic and terrestrial animals have been developed (DeAngelis et al 1998;Gaff et al 2000). These models, however, incorporate an understanding of complex biophysical and food web interactions provided by decades of monitoring and research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling future changes of habitat and fauna in the Tonle Sap wetland of the Mekong

2013

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SUMMARYThe Tonle Sap is the largest wetland in Southeast Asia and the heart of the largest inland fishery in the world. Its unique flood pulse system and annual flow reversal is a hotspot for biodiversity and productivity, as well as an essential habitat for many endangered fishes and birds. Despite predicted changes to the wetland's hydrology due to climate change and hydropower development in the Mekong, the consequent impacts on the fauna of the lake are poorly understood. A spatial modelling framework was developed to simulate the impact of potential scenarios of change using relationships between fauna and biophysical characteristics. Potential impacts on 61 animal species with documented nutritional, conservation or ecological value were examined. A large number of species rely on gallery forest to provide important habitats for their life history, yet this area is likely to be highly impacted by permanent inundation. There is a strong synchronicity between life histories and the flood pulse; consequently continued hydrological disruptions will have a significant impact on ecosystem dynamics, imposing further challenges to conservation. Protecting areas that may become suitable for gallery forests and shrublands under a modified flood regime will be crucial to management planning and the maintenance of a diverse and healthy ecosystem.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling future changes of habitat and fauna in the Tonle Sap wetland of the Mekong

2013

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“…The Across Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS) modeling group (http://atlss.org), working closely with field biologists, is currently evaluating panther radiotelemetry data. These data are being used to define behavior rules for use in the ATLSS Deer/Panther model, an individual-based spatially explicit model for panthers and white-tailed deer in the Everglades and Big Cypress landscapes (Comiskey et al 1994, DeAngelis et al 1998. The predictive capabilities of individual-based models are closely tied to the realism of the decision rules that determine how simulated animals move across the landscape, interact with one another, and respond to their environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Panthers and Forests in South Florida: an Ecological Perspective

Comiskey¹,

Bass²,

Gross³

et al. 2002

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ABSTRACT. The endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) survives in an area of pronounced habitat diversity in southern Florida, occupying extensive home ranges that encompass a mosaic of habitats. Twenty-one years of daytime monitoring via radiotelemetry have provided substantial but incomplete information about panther ecology, mainly because this method fails to capture movement and habitat use between dusk and dawn, when panthers are most active. Broad characterizations of panther habitat suitability have nonetheless been derived from telemetry-based habitat selection studies, focusing narrowly on forests where daytime resting sites are often located. The resulting forest-centered view of panthers attributed their restricted distribution and absence of population growth in the mid-1990s to a scarcity of unfragmented forest for expansion. However, the panther population has doubled since the beginning of genetic restoration in 1995, increasing five-fold in public areas described as unsuitable based on forest criteria. Although the forest-centered view no longer explains panther distribution, it continues to shape management decisions and habitat conservation policies. The assumptions and limitations of this view therefore merit critical examination. We analyze the role of forests in the ecology of the Florida panther. To address the absence of nighttime telemetry data, we use innovative telemetry mapping techniques and incorporate information from field observations indicating habitat use during active hours (e.g., tracks, scats, urine markers, and kill sites). We consider daytime telemetry data in the context of panther home ranges and breeding units. We analyze home range size in relation to the amount of forest within each range, concluding that percent forest cover is a poor predictor of size. We apply fractal analysis techniques to characterize the relative density of forest cover associated with daytime locations and interpret the results in terms of spatial landscape patterns, highlighting the limitations of daytime telemetry data for characterizing overall habitat use. We conclude that the forest-centered view of panther habitat selection is based on an uncritical evaluation of telemetry data collected prior to the recent population expansion and on the unsupported assumption that day bed habitats are representative of nighttime habitat use. We find that numerous factors contribute to habitat suitability and population density and distribution, and that P. concolor in Florida, as elsewhere in their range, are habitat generalists, exploiting the broad spectrum of available habitats for hunting, resting, mating, travel, denning, and dispersal. Whereas panthers readily use forested habitat with understory and prey, we find no support for the view that only the forested land within a habitat mosaic is potential panther habitat, or for the contention that only forested habitats are used by panthers within existing home ranges. We suggest a more ecologically consistent management and recovery paradig...

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“…Multispecies models include mathematical models of 1 or more biological communities of interacting species populations (e.g., predator-prey or food-web models with or without bioenergetics [63]), process-based ecosystem models that include food-web or community models embedded within models of their physical-chemical environment (e.g., aquatic or terrestrial ecosystem models [64]), and multimodels (e.g., ATLSS [65]), which are a series of linked physical-chemical habitat models and multiple population models.…”

Section: Models To Link Effects On Organisms To Impacts On Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other physiological processes in the model include fecundity as a function of fish size and energy status, egg development rates, and how sex of offspring is determined. Because inSTREAM can simulate the size (weight or length) profile of the population, the sustainability of different catch restrictions can be simulated, per Table 1.Models to link effects on single-species to multispecies food webs and ecosystem servicesMultispecies models include mathematical models of 1 or more biological communities of interacting species populations (e.g., predator-prey or food-web models with or without bioenergetics [63]), process-based ecosystem models that include food-web or community models embedded within models of their physical-chemical environment (e.g., aquatic or terrestrial ecosystem models [64]), and multimodels (e.g., ATLSS [65]), which are a series of linked physical-chemical habitat models and multiple population models.Whereas all of these modeling approaches could potentially be used to develop ecological production functions that link ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem goods and services, process-based ecosystem models are a good choice because they explicitly describe relevant biological and physical-chemical processes. Consequently, they can be used to project responses under new conditions, for example, under a warmer climate.…”

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confidence: 99%

A framework for predicting impacts on ecosystem services from (sub)organismal responses to chemicals

Forbes¹,

Salice

Birnir

et al. 2017

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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Abstract-Protection of ecosystem services is increasingly emphasized as a risk-assessment goal, but there are wide gaps between current ecological risk-assessment endpoints and potential effects on services provided by ecosystems. The authors present a framework that links common ecotoxicological endpoints to chemical impacts on populations and communities and the ecosystem services that they provide. This framework builds on considerable advances in mechanistic effects models designed to span multiple levels of biological organization and account for various types of biological interactions and feedbacks. For illustration, the authors introduce 2 case studies that employ well-developed and validated mechanistic effects models: the inSTREAM individual-based model for fish populations and the AQUATOX ecosystem model. They also show how dynamic energy budget theory can provide a common currency for interpreting organism-level toxicity. They suggest that a framework based on mechanistic models that predict impacts on ecosystem services resulting from chemical exposure, combined with economic valuation, can provide a useful approach for informing environmental management. The authors highlight the potential benefits of using this framework as well as the challenges that will need to be addressed in future work. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:845-859. # 2017 SETAC Keywords-Ecological production function; Ecological risk assessment; Ecosystem service; Environmental management; Mechanistic effects model Challenges for Ecological Risk Assessment and ManagementThe primary goal of ecological risk assessment (ERA) of chemicals is to provide defensible science-based support for environmental management decisions. This involves making explicit connections between impacts on the benefits derived by people from ecosystems (so-called ecosystem services [1]) and the costs of managing the causes of those impacts. At the core of this approach is the need for relevant chemical exposure-response relationships. However, current ERA approaches often fall short in these regards because methods In This Issue: ET&C FOCUSFocus articles are part of a regular series intended to sharpen understanding of current and emerging topics of interest to the scientific community. for estimating and integrating exposure and effects are often based on overly simplistic assumptions [2,3]. For example, measures of organism-level toxicity (e.g., 50% effect concentrations) are used as indicators of population-level impacts of chemicals. A primary concern is that the kinds of information collected to support ERAs are far removed from the kinds of ecological entities (e.g., species or habitats) that are the targets of protection, which themselves are often only vaguely defined in legislation (e.g., European pesticides legislation refers to "no unacceptable effects on the environment"). In practice, protection goals for ecological systems are (implicitly or explicitly) often at the population, community, or ecosystem level (e.g., persistence or abundance of a p...

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Landscape Modeling for Everglades Ecosystem Restoration

Cited by 131 publications

References 12 publications

Modelling future changes of habitat and fauna in the Tonle Sap wetland of the Mekong

Modelling future changes of habitat and fauna in the Tonle Sap wetland of the Mekong

Panthers and Forests in South Florida: an Ecological Perspective

A framework for predicting impacts on ecosystem services from (sub)organismal responses to chemicals

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