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Landscape resistance to dispersal: simulating long-term effects of human disturbance on a small and isolated wolf population in southwestern Manitoba, Canada

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Abstract

Landscape fragmentation affects wildlife population viability, in part, through the effects it has on individual dispersal. In addition, some forms of human disturbance impinge on dispersal without physically fragmenting habitats. Here, we use the term “landscape resistance” to capture constraints to dispersal that cannot be linked directly to fragmentation. The extent to which landscape resistance can influence population persistence is not well understood. Agricultural development over the past 60 years has resulted in considerable habitat fragmentation in the Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP) region in southwestern Manitoba, Canada. We examined how park boundaries, roads outside park boundaries and negative human attitudes have altered dispersal success and population persistence. We examined whether stochastic disturbance, representing infectious disease epidemics, further reduced long-term population persistence for various scenarios. Finally, we assessed whether the simultaneous occurrence of the three features had additive effects. We simulated dispersal using HexSim, a spatially explicit individual-based population model, parameterised with data on wolves (Canis lupus) in the RMNP region. Simulations that separately accounted for negative human attitudes and roads outside the park boundaries exhibited lower mean population size than those that ignored these details. Increasing deflection from park boundaries did not appear to have significant impacts. Our results did not indicate the presence of additive effects, and scenarios incorporating all three features had similar results as that of roads. Stochastic disturbance further reduced mean population size. Our results do illustrate how less-visible human disturbances (i.e. those that do not clearly alter landscape characteristics) can significantly limit dispersal and population persistence.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Desrochers and S. Frey for their assistance with GIS analyses, and D. Keppie and S. Woodley for helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. Parks Canada, the Sustainable Development Innovations Fund at Manitoba Conservation, World Wildlife Fund Canada, Manitoba Agriculture and Rural Initiatives and Louisiana Pacific Canada provided funding for the study. Parks Canada assisted in kind with collection of data. The information in this document has been funded in part by the US Environmental Protection Agency. It has been subjected to review by the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory’s Western Ecology Division and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents reflect the views of the Agency, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128 Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3 J7, Canada

    Astrid V. Stronen

  2. US Environmental Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th St., Corvallis, OR, 97333, USA

    Nathan H. Schumaker

  3. Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3, Canada

    Graham J. Forbes

  4. Raincoast Conservation Foundation, PO Box 86, Denny Island, BC, V0T 1B0, Canada

    Paul C. Paquet

  5. College of Agriculture and Bioresources, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5A8, Canada

    Ryan K. Brook

  6. Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland

    Astrid V. Stronen

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  1. Astrid V. Stronen
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Correspondence to Astrid V. Stronen.

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Stronen, A.V., Schumaker, N.H., Forbes, G.J. et al. Landscape resistance to dispersal: simulating long-term effects of human disturbance on a small and isolated wolf population in southwestern Manitoba, Canada. Environ Monit Assess 184, 6923–6934 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-011-2469-9

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