Influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.

Hunter harvest of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter "sage-grouse") has been regulated by wildlife agencies during most of the past century. Hunting season regulations were maintained with the intention of providing sustainable hunting opportunities. Sage-grouse popu...

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Autores principales:	Jonathan B Dinkins, Kirstie J Lawson, Jeffrey L Beck
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e0b96fa90b634c87b1b6f99ccf05855f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e0b96fa90b634c87b1b6f99ccf05855f2021-12-02T20:06:09ZInfluence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0257198https://doaj.org/article/e0b96fa90b634c87b1b6f99ccf05855f2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257198https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Hunter harvest of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter "sage-grouse") has been regulated by wildlife agencies during most of the past century. Hunting season regulations were maintained with the intention of providing sustainable hunting opportunities. Sage-grouse populations oscillate over time, and population growth can be influenced by seasonal weather and habitat disturbance. From 1995-2013, we compared sage-grouse lek trends from 22 relatively distinct sage-grouse population segments in 9 western U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces. We stratified these populations into 3 broad categories (non-hunted [n = 8], continuously hunted [n = 10], and hunting season discontinued between 1996-2003 [n = 4]) with 8 different regulation histories to evaluate the potential impact of harvest on sage-grouse populations. Concomitantly, we assessed the effects of proportion burned, forested and cropland habitat; winter, spring, and summer precipitation; and human population, road, and oil and gas well densities on initial and time-varying lek counts. Density-dependent models fit lek trend data best for all regulation histories. In general, higher proportions of burnt, forested, and cropland habitat; and greater human population and oil and gas well densities were associated with lower equilibrium abundance (K). We found mixed results regarding the effect of hunting regulations on instantaneous growth rate (r). The cessation of harvest from 1996-2001 in approximately half of the largest sage-grouse population in our analysis was associated with higher r. Continuously harvested sage-grouse populations with permit hunting seasons had higher r during years with higher proportion of area exposed to permitted hunting rather than general upland game seasons. However, more liberal hunting regulations were positively associated with higher r in populations continuously harvested under general upland game hunts. Our results suggest that discontinuing harvest in the largest population resulted in greater population growth rates; however, this was not consistently the case for smaller populations. To no surprise, not all sage-grouse populations were influenced by the same environmental change or human disturbance factors. Our results will assist managers to understand factors associated with K, which provides the best targets for conservation efforts.Jonathan B DinkinsKirstie J LawsonJeffrey L BeckPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 9, p e0257198 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Jonathan B Dinkins Kirstie J Lawson Jeffrey L Beck Influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.
description	Hunter harvest of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter "sage-grouse") has been regulated by wildlife agencies during most of the past century. Hunting season regulations were maintained with the intention of providing sustainable hunting opportunities. Sage-grouse populations oscillate over time, and population growth can be influenced by seasonal weather and habitat disturbance. From 1995-2013, we compared sage-grouse lek trends from 22 relatively distinct sage-grouse population segments in 9 western U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces. We stratified these populations into 3 broad categories (non-hunted [n = 8], continuously hunted [n = 10], and hunting season discontinued between 1996-2003 [n = 4]) with 8 different regulation histories to evaluate the potential impact of harvest on sage-grouse populations. Concomitantly, we assessed the effects of proportion burned, forested and cropland habitat; winter, spring, and summer precipitation; and human population, road, and oil and gas well densities on initial and time-varying lek counts. Density-dependent models fit lek trend data best for all regulation histories. In general, higher proportions of burnt, forested, and cropland habitat; and greater human population and oil and gas well densities were associated with lower equilibrium abundance (K). We found mixed results regarding the effect of hunting regulations on instantaneous growth rate (r). The cessation of harvest from 1996-2001 in approximately half of the largest sage-grouse population in our analysis was associated with higher r. Continuously harvested sage-grouse populations with permit hunting seasons had higher r during years with higher proportion of area exposed to permitted hunting rather than general upland game seasons. However, more liberal hunting regulations were positively associated with higher r in populations continuously harvested under general upland game hunts. Our results suggest that discontinuing harvest in the largest population resulted in greater population growth rates; however, this was not consistently the case for smaller populations. To no surprise, not all sage-grouse populations were influenced by the same environmental change or human disturbance factors. Our results will assist managers to understand factors associated with K, which provides the best targets for conservation efforts.
format	article
author	Jonathan B Dinkins Kirstie J Lawson Jeffrey L Beck
author_facet	Jonathan B Dinkins Kirstie J Lawson Jeffrey L Beck
author_sort	Jonathan B Dinkins
title	Influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.
title_short	Influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.
title_full	Influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.
title_fullStr	Influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.
title_full_unstemmed	Influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.
title_sort	influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e0b96fa90b634c87b1b6f99ccf05855f
work_keys_str_mv	AT jonathanbdinkins influenceofenvironmentalchangeharvestexposureandhumandisturbanceonpopulationtrendsofgreatersagegrouse AT kirstiejlawson influenceofenvironmentalchangeharvestexposureandhumandisturbanceonpopulationtrendsofgreatersagegrouse AT jeffreylbeck influenceofenvironmentalchangeharvestexposureandhumandisturbanceonpopulationtrendsofgreatersagegrouse
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Influence of environmental change, harvest exposure, and human disturbance on population trends of greater sage-grouse.

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