Vegetation characteristics of forest stands used by woodland caribou and those disturbed by fire or logging in Manitoba

Authors

  • Juha M. Metsaranta
  • Frank F. Mallory
  • Dale W. Cross

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/2.23.5.1709

Keywords:

caribou habitat, forest, fire, logging, arboreal lichen, deadfall, disturbance, environmental impacts, forest management, habitat suitability, mitigation, predator-prey

Abstract

This study examined woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in an area known as the Kississing-Naosap caribou range in west central Manitoba. The vegetation characteristics of areas used by caribou and areas disturbed by fire or logging were measured in order to develop a model to estimate habitat quality from parameters collected during stan¬dard resource inventories. There was evidence that habitat index values calculated using a visual score-sheet index could be used as the basis to relate parameters commonly collected during resource inventories to habitat suitability. Use of this model to select long and short-term leave areas during forest management planning could potentially mitigate some of the negative impacts of forest harvesting. Abundance of arboreal lichen and wind-fallen trees were important predictor variables in the suitability model, but their inclusion did not explain more variance in habitat suitability than models that did not include them. Extreme post-fire deadfall abundance may play a role in predator-prey dynamics by creating habitat that is equally unsuitable for all ungulates, and thus keeping both moose and caribou densities low.

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Published

2003-04-01

How to Cite

Metsaranta, J. M., Mallory, F. F., & Cross, D. W. (2003). Vegetation characteristics of forest stands used by woodland caribou and those disturbed by fire or logging in Manitoba. Rangifer, 23(5), 255–266. https://doi.org/10.7557/2.23.5.1709