Abstract
Developing cost-effective monitoring protocols is a priority for wildlife conservation agencies worldwide. In particular, developing protocols that cover a wide range of species is highly desirable. Here we applied the ‘umbrella species’ concept to the context of ecological monitoring; specifically testing the hypothesis that protocols developed for the American marten would contextually allow detecting occupancy trends for 13 other mammalian species (i.e., an umbrella effect). We conducted a large-scale four-year camera trapping survey across a gradient of forest disturbance in Maine, USA. We sampled 197 sites using a total of 591 cameras and collected over 800,000 photographs to generate detection histories for the most common terrestrial species. By combining multi-season occupancy modelling and power analyses, we estimated the required sampling effort to detect 10%, 25% and 50% declines in the fourteen species. By conducting a spatially explicit comparison of sampling effort, we found evidence that monitoring protocols for American marten would provide an umbrella effect for up to 11 other mammal species. The capacity of the umbrella effect varied among species, with fisher, snowshoe hare, red squirrel, and black bear consistently covered under several scenarios. Our results support the application of the umbrella species concept to monitoring (here defined as ‘umbrella monitoring species’), providing empirical evidence for its use by management agencies.
Highlights
Developing cost-effective monitoring protocols is a priority for wildlife conservation agencies worldwide
Our analyses show that up to 11 species benefit from an umbrella effect under a monitoring protocol designed for American marten (Figs. 3, 4, 5) at three different management objectives: the detection of 10%, 25%, and 50% declines in occupancy
Through a large-scale field study, we found evidence that developing camera trapping monitoring protocols for the American marten would provide an umbrella effect for up to 11 other species of mammals
Summary
Developing cost-effective monitoring protocols is a priority for wildlife conservation agencies worldwide. We applied the ‘umbrella species’ concept to the context of ecological monitoring; testing the hypothesis that protocols developed for the American marten would contextually allow detecting occupancy trends for 13 other mammalian species (i.e., an umbrella effect). Monitoring, defined as the collection of repeated observations or measurements to evaluate changes in conditions and progress towards meeting a management o bjective[1], is critical to the management of natural resources It provides crucial information on the status of species, populations, and communities; allows assessment of the consequences of conservation actions; and constitutes an important step in adaptive management[2–4]. The limited resources available for conservation work requires stakeholders to either (1) prioritize target species to monitor, or (2) seek strategies to optimize monitoring programs—such as identifying species whose monitoring would enable detecting population trends for other species The latter approach is analogous to the ‘umbrella species’ concept in conservation planning.
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