Data from: Forest productivity mitigates human disturbance effects on late-seral prey exposed to apparent competitors and predators

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Description:
Primary production can determine the outcome of management actions on ecosystem properties, thereby defining sustainable management. Yet human agencies commonly overlook spatio-temporal variations in productivity by recommending fixed resource extraction thresholds. We studied the influence of forest productivity on habitat disturbance levels that boreal caribou – a threatened, late-seral ungulate under top-down control – should be able to withstand. Based on 10 years of boreal caribou monitoring, we found that adult survival and recruitment to populations decreased with landscape disturbance, but increased with forest productivity. This benefit of productivity reflected the net outcome of an increase in resources for apparent competitors and predators of caribou, and a more rapid return to the safety of mature conifer forests. We estimated 3-fold differences in forest harvesting levels that caribou populations could withstand due to variations in forest productivity. The adjustment of ecosystem provisioning services to local forest productivity should provide strong conservation and socio-economic advantages.
Author(s):
Fortin, Daniel

Fortin, Daniel

Université Laval
, Barnier, Florian

Barnier, Florian

Université Laval
, Drapeau, Pierre

Drapeau, Pierre

University of Quebec at Montreal
, Duchesne, Thierry

Duchesne, Thierry

Université Laval
, Dussault, Claude

Dussault, Claude

Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs
, Heppell, Sandra

Heppell, Sandra

Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs
, Prima, Marie-Caroline

Prima, Marie-Caroline

Université Laval
, St-Laurent, Martin-Hugues

St-Laurent, Martin-Hugues

Université du Québec à Rimouski
, and Szor, Guillaume

Szor, Guillaume

Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs
Source Repository:
Dryad
URL:
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5jf43
Publication date:
2020-02-20
Keywords:
vital rates, ecosystem provisioning services, Rangifer tarandus caribou, Canis lupus, forest harvesting, and Alces americanus

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Citation

APA Citation:
Fortin, D., Barnier, F., Drapeau, P., Duchesne, T., Dussault, C., Heppell, S., Prima, M.-C., St-Laurent, M.-H., & Szor, G. (2020). Data from: Forest productivity mitigates human disturbance effects on late-seral prey exposed to apparent competitors and predators [Data set]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5jf43
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