Our mission is to provide the information and understanding needed to sustain wildlife
diversity in dynamic landscapes with multiple resource demands. Toward this goal, members of the Unit
will investigate the life histories and determine the functional roles of vertebrate species associated
with self-sustaining and resilient riparian and late-seral environments on various spatial scales.
The unit will use this information to develop efficient monitoring strategies for individual species
and for more general metrics of ecosystem condition.
RESEARCH EMPHASIS AREAS
Herpetology (Amphibians & Reptiles) Includes the studies of the autecology and community structure of forest and riparian-associated herpetofauna in redwood and Douglas-fir/hardwood forests.
Marbled Murrelet and Landbird Monitoring Bird monitoring research in our laboratory has been an ongoing effort since wildlife research began here in 1982. In the last 20 years, approximately two million censuses, captures, and field evaluations of birds and their habitats have been conducted, primarily in northern California and southern Oregon in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion, but also in other locations in the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, as well as Costa Rica and New Zealand. We have also been a leader in research on Marbled Murrelets in both offshore foraging and onshore nesting habitats.
Carnivore Survey and Monitoring
The integrity of an ecosystem may be measured by the health of its
vertebrate carnivore populations. Carnivores influence the structure
and reflect the vigor of trophic levels on which they depend, and
are sensitive to the abundance and behavior of the human populations
with which they coexist.
|
|
The Timber Management/Wildlife Habitat Interactions
with its primarly location at the Redwood
Sciences Laboratory in Arcata, CA, is a research unit
of the Pacific Southwest Research Station,
headquartered in Albany, California. The unit and research
station are part of the Forest Service, U.S. Department
of Agriculture.
|