Pacific Southwest Research Station

Pacific Southwest Research Station
800 Buchanan Street
West Annex Building
Albany, CA 94710-0011

(510) 559-6300

Programs and Projects

(RWU-4251)

Maintaining Faunal Diversity in Forested Ecosystems of the Coastal and Intermountain West

Our mission is to provide the information and understanding needed to sustain wildlifediversity in dynamic landscapes with multiple resource demands. Toward this goal, members of the Unitwill investigate the life histories and determine the functional roles of vertebrate species associatedwith 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.

WHAT'S NEW

Bat Conservation and Management Workshop in Nicaragua In January, PSW ecologist Ted Weller participated as an instructor in a workshop aimed at training Central American biologist in research, conservation, inventory and monitoring techniques for bats. The workshop was sponspored by Forest Service International Programs, Bat Conservation International, and Paso Pacifico an NGO focused on tropical dry forest conservation in Nicaragua.

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.