USGS Model Helps Explain Trends in Greater Sage-Grouse Range Reduction

« FEMA Authorizes Funds to Fight Camp Bowie Fire

Aerobatic Flight over the Nevada Desert »

USGS Model Helps Explain Trends in Greater Sage-Grouse Range Reduction

2008-06-17

10:33:48 pm, by Pablo Edronkin, 498 words

Categories: Land-Based Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Biology, United States of America (USA), Experiments, Experimentation and Experimentals, Zoology

USGS Model Helps Explain Trends in Greater Sage-Grouse Range Reduction

Long-term trends in landscape conditions have significantly reduced sagebrush habitat and populations of greater sage-grouse, according to a new study examining the bird's chances of survival.

Credit: USGS.

The species, which is being considered for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act, has experienced significant population declines in recent decades and currently occupies just over half of its historical range.

Using the study findings, investigators developed a model that predicts where the birds are most likely to persist and where they are at risk of disappearing. The resulting maps graphically illustrate these likelihoods and can help federal and state land managers prioritize areas for conservation.

The model indicates that sage-grouse populations are more likely to persist in landscapes with a lower human population density, a higher percentage of sagebrush habitat, lower extent of agricultural development, fewer severe droughts, and at a greater distance from the edge of the species' historical range.

The new study, by Colorado State University and USGS investigator Dr. Cameron Aldridge and colleagues from other institutions, is due to be published soon in the scientific journal, Diversity and Distributions.

Pages: 1 · 2

Tags: avian, birds, endangered species, endangered species act, environment, grouse, habitat, habitats, sage, sage grouse, sage-grouse, survival

Permalink

Latest News

NASA offers 'FAST' opportunities for zero-G technology testing
WASHINGTON - NASA has announced opportunities to test emerging technologies during flights on an airplane that simulates the weightless conditions of space. The technologies should have potential use in future NASA projects, support future exploration systems, or improve air and space vehicle capabilities.
Governments fail to protect bluefin tuna
Doha, Qatar - Greenpeace condemns the failure of governments meeting for at the CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species), to agree any measures to protect endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna.
NASA launches interactive simulation of satellite communications
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - NASA unveiled an interactive computer simulation that allows virtual explorers of all ages to dock the space shuttle at the International Space Station, experience a virtual trip to Mars or a lunar impact, and explore images of star formations taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
NOAA's Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service propose ESA listing changes for the loggerhead sea turtle
NOAA's Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), jointly referred to as the Services, announced today their joint determination that the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) is globally comprised of nine distinct population segments (DPSs) that qualify as species for listing as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
USGS scientists, research help Haiti reconstruction
USGS scientists are helping Haitians lay the groundwork for reconstruction and long-term earthquake monitoring in the wake of the Jan. 12, 2010, magnitude-7 earthquake, by providing geologic research that will assist with the establishment of new building codes in the country.