Grant: Strategic Projects Supplemental Competition

DEVELOPING GUIDELINES FOR BIODIVERSITY MAINTENANCE IN UNHEALTHY FORESTS Detecting the impacts of climate and other change of anthropogenic origin on ecological systems is an urgent management and regulatory need for Canada's forest ecosystems, as we face the challenge to monitor and predict impacts of habitat change for wildlife at relevant spatial scales for management. The interior British Columbia forests are experiencing the largest and most severe outbreak of mountain pine bark beetles (MPB) recorded for North America. The outbreak continues to spread and kill pine trees east and north to the Rocky Mountains and the boreal forest, and southward to the United States. This rapid continental-level decline in health of mature conifer forest ecosystems results in an urgent need to develop policy guidelines for biodiversity maintenance in post-epidemic forests. We propose to use a combination of field data collection and modelling to determine how forestry practices and environmental attributes affect the maintenance of vertebrate biodiversity following major forest insect outbreaks. In particular, we will develop a Landbird Ecology and Forest Health Program that determine how species richness and community composition of forest birds vary among stands with different harvest histories during the post-epidemic stages of MPB outbreak, what forestry practices can do to help avian communities adapt to the consequences of major insect outbreaks, and whether specific habitat attributes and subsets of the avian community provide reliable indicators of the richness, composition and stability of the overall avian community. Our Supporting Organizations need to develop guidelines that merge forecasting of future forest conditions with biodiversity goals of maintaining suitable habitats for migratory birds and sustainability of renewable resources in Canada. Our research brings together academic and government scientists and managers with backgrounds in avian ecology, biodiversity monitoring, population and spatial modeling.