Abstract

Carlisle, J. D., and A. D. Chalfoun. 2020. The abundance of Greater Sage-Grouse as a proxy for the abundance of sagebrush-associated songbirds in Wyoming, USA. Avian Conservation and Ecology 15(2):16. https://doi.org/10.5751/ACE-01702-150216

Highlights

  • Surrogate-species concepts, e.g., keystone, indicator, flagship, and umbrella species, originally pioneered in conservation biology, have been increasingly adopted in wildlife management and biodiversity conservation strategies (Caro 2010, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service 2015a)

  • Our objective was to identify whether the abundance of a high-profile umbrella species (Greater Sage-Grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, hereafter sage-grouse) was associated with the abundance of six other members of the avian community for which it is presumed to be a surrogate, including three sagebrush-obligate and three sagebrush-associated songbird species

  • We suggest that the utility of sagegrouse as a surrogate species likely varies across spatial scales

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Surrogate-species concepts, e.g., keystone, indicator, flagship, and umbrella species, originally pioneered in conservation biology, have been increasingly adopted in wildlife management and biodiversity conservation strategies (Caro 2010, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service 2015a) These strategies advocate for conservation by proxy, meaning that one species is used to represent others (hereafter “background species”) to obtain a conservation objective (Caro 2010). The efficacy of such approaches is predicated on concordance between the surrogate and the background species in distribution, abundance, ecological requirements, and threats (Simberloff 1998, Caro 2010). The conservation of sagebrush-steppe ecosystems and sagebrushassociated wildlife species via sage-grouse proxy has been suggested repeatedly (Rich and Altman 2001, Rich et al 2005, Rowland et al 2006, Hanser and Knick 2011)

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call