Habitat Acquisition Strategies for Grassland Birds in an Urbanizing Landscape |
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Authors: | Stephanie A Snyder James R Miller Adam M Skibbe Robert G Haight |
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Institution: | (1) USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, 1992 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA;(2) Departments of Landscape Architecture and Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, 146 College of Design, Ames, IA 50011, USA;(3) Department of Landscape Architecture, Iowa State University, 146 College of Design, Ames, IA 50011, USA;(4) Present address: US EPA, 118 Seaton Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA |
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Abstract: | Habitat protection for grassland birds is an important component of open space land acquisition in suburban Chicago. We use
optimization decision models to develop recommendations for land protection and analyze tradeoffs between alternative goals.
One goal is to acquire (and restore if necessary) as much grassland habitat as possible for a given budget. Because a viable
habitat for grassland birds consists of a relatively large core area with additional parcels of grassland habitat nearby,
the second goal is to minimize total pairwise distance between newly protected parcels and large existing reserves. We also
use the concept of an effective grassland habitat area, which considers influences that neighboring land covers have on grassland
habitat suitability. We analyze how the parcels selected for protection change as total protected effective area is traded
off against total distance. As area is weighted more heavily, the selected parcels are scattered and unconnected. As total
distance is weighted more heavily, the selected parcels coalesce around core reserves but protect less area. The differences
in selected parcels as we change the objective function weights are caused by the differences in price per unit of effective
habitat area across parcels. Parcels located in close proximity to the existing cores have relatively high prices per hectare
of effective grassland area as a consequence of high restoration costs and adverse influences from roads, urban areas and/or
forestland. As a result, these parcels have lower priority for selection when the area objective is weighted more heavily
for a given budget. |
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Keywords: | Open space Optimization Reserve design Site selection Urbanization |
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