Conservation Priorities for the Birds of Southern Ontario
South
Walsingham
Forest
Management
Project
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GIS stands for "Geographic Information System." In lay terms, a GIS is a set of computerized tools for working with information that is related to a specific location on the earth’s surface. Because these "spatial data" are different than regular data, a typical GIS includes a wide variety of special functions that aren’t found in other database programs. Probably the most significant of these involve uncovering relationships between different sets of spatially distributed information. For example, GIS can be used to analyse the relationship between crop productivity patterns and moisture and nutrient patterns. Since GIS deals with mapped data, a common product of GIS consists of digital and/or paper maps. Some examples are given in the Applications Showcase below.
Bird Studies Canada is pleased to employ the industry standard for GIS – ARC/INFO – as its main GIS solution, as well as ArcView GIS for desktop mapping and analysis. In January, 1997, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) provided BSC with a complimentary copy of ARC/INFO and ArcView GIS as part of the ESRI Conservation Program (ECP). The ECP is aimed at non-profit organizations that wish to implement a GIS, but don’t have the financial resources to make the initial investment of software. Our work would not be possible without the generous contribution of ESRI. To learn more about the ECP and to obtain application forms, the ECP web site can be consulted. A related web site, sponsored by the Society for Conservation GIS provides information, tools, conferences, and other support to non-profit organizations involved in GIS.
Since 1997, BSC’s experience with GIS has grown substantially: GIS now permeates almost every Bird Studies Canada project in one aspect or another. Below are some of our success stories and future plans.
Applications Showcase
Conservation Priorities for the Birds of Southern Ontario
This project utilizes a combination of bird distribution data – broad scale range maps at the national level and finer scale range information from the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas (OBBA) – to identify the degree to which a jurisdiction (such as a province, ecoregion, or municipality) possesses "responsibility" for a particular bird species. The concept of "jurisdictional responsibility" or JR, is based on the premise that a species’ range may be concentrated to a greater degree in certain jurisdictions than others. Using range maps such as those in Figure 1, GIS is used to calculate the proportion of a species’ range falling within jurisdictional boundaries. A JR score is then calculated based on this value (the higher the proportion of range captured within the jurisdiction – and with the effect of the size of jurisdiction removed – the higher the JR score).
Figure 1. Broad scale range maps (top) and transformed Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas distributions (bottom) for two species. Based on breeding distributions at the continental scale (shown in yellow), the Canadian responsibility for Acadian Flycatcher is low (i.e., its breeding range barely extends into extreme southern Canada), whereas responsibility for Philadelphia Vireo is very high (i.e., almost all of its continental breeding range is found in Canada). If we look at the Ontario distribution of these two species (bottom), we find that responsibility is high for Acadian Flycatcher in the south (because its Ontario breeding range is concentrated entirely in southern Ontario) whereas responsibility is high for Philadelphia Vireo in the north.
For municipalities, watersheds and other local scale units, priority bird species are identified based on a composite JR score (an average of JR scores from different geographic scales), an "area sensitivity" score and a "preservation responsibility" score. Once a list of priority species has been finalized for a jurisdiction, a map showing the overlap, or degree of species richness, can be created to illustrate "hot spots" of conservation concern (Figure 2). For full details on scoring methods and a complete description of the project, please visit the main Conservation Priorities web page where a report can be downloaded..
Figure 2. Forest bird species richness in the Grand River basin. The areas with the darkest shading on the map indicate a high degree of overlap of high priority forest bird species. The map can be used to examine configurations of protected areas and to broadly evaluate development plans.
South Walsingham Forest Management Project
The aim of this project was to provide forest management recommendations to public and private landowners within the South Walsingham Sand Ridges/Big Creek Floodplain Forest, a provincially-designated ANSI (Area of Natural and Scientific Interest). Through field surveys of birds and vegetation, the technical team designed a five year plan that balances both wood production and biodiversity conservation within the forest. GIS modelling was used intensively in designing the management strategy. By using data gathered at transect points throughout the forest, we were able to define "breeding activity zones" for a variety of species inhabiting the forest (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Actual distribution of American Redstarts within the South Walsingham Forest study area as determined by point counts (coloured dots). Modelled distribution (probability of presence) shown in shading, with darker shades indicating a higher probability value (pale yellow line indicates 0.8 cutoff level used in the study).
Similar maps were produced for tree density/maturity, with the intention of comparing bird patterns to forest density patterns. Riparian zones, steeply sloped areas and additional sensitive features were incorporated into the GIS model and a framework was built to guide forestry operations for the next five years. A full report will be available soon on our web site.
Forest Fragmentation and Birds
It is now widely accepted that the spatial extent and configuration of forest habitat in a given area has an influence on populations of forest-breeding birds. The amount of "forest interior" habitat (defined here as the part of a forest patch that remains after a 100 m buffer from the forest edge has been removed), which is generally higher in regions with greater amounts of forest cover and reduced fragmentation, may be particularly important. For example, we would expect the suite of species occupying a landscape with smaller, more isolated patches of forest (Figure 4) to be quite different than the suite of species occupying a landscape consisting of larger, less fragmented blocks (Figure 5). The role of the regional landscape (forest patterns in a broader region surrounding the landscape of interest) may also be important. Using satellite-derived land cover information (Landsat TM data generously provided by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources) and bird distribution information (presence/absence data within 10 x 10 km UTM squares from the OBBA,1981-1985), we are investigating these questions.
Figure 4. A landscape with a low to moderate degree of forest cover and moderate fragmentation, located near Guelph. This landscape is approximately 13% (1287 ha) forested, with 11% (142 ha) of its forests considered "forest interior" habitat. During the OBBA, a total of 77 different species of birds were identified as probable or confirmed breeders in this UTM square, with an additional 7 species classified as possible breeders.
Figure 5. A landscape with a high degree of forest cover and low fragmentation, located near Long Point. This landscape is approximately 38% (3812 ha) forested, with 45% (1712 ha) of its forests considered "forest interior" habitat. During the OBBA, a total of 107 different species of birds were identified as probable or confirmed breeders in this UTM square, with an additional 23 classified as possible breeders.
We are currently working on a wide variety of projects concerning GIS and conservation. We are part of a team of experts designing and evaluating potential sampling schemes for the next Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, scheduled to commence in the spring of 2001. Check the Birds Ontario web site for updates. We are compiling a polygon layer for Important Bird Areas across the nation. Once complete, the IBA polygons will be used for interactive data display and entry over the web. Finally, we are collaborating with partners from Partners-in-Flight on a priority-setting system for North American birds by using Bird Conservation Regions (ecological regions defined by climate, physiography, vegetation and bird communities) as our spatial framework.
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