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USGS2011

Bird community response to filter strips in Maryland

Filter strips are strips of herbaceous vegetation planted along agricultural field margins adjacent to streams or wetlands and are designed to intercept sediment, nutrients, and agrichemicals. Roughly 16,000 ha of filter strips have been established in Maryland through the United States Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Filter strips often represent the only uncultivated herbaceous areas on farmland in Maryland and therefore may be important habitat for early-successional bird species. Most filter strips in Maryland are planted to either native warm-season grasses or cool-season grasses and range in width from 10.7 m to 91.4 m. From 2004 to 2007 we studied the breeding and wintering bird communities in filter strips adjacent to wooded edges and non-buffered field edges and the effect that grass type and width of filter strips had on bird community composition. We used 5 bird community metrics (total bird density, species richness, scrub-shrub bird density, grassland bird density, and total avian conservation value), species-specific densities, nest densities, and nest survival estimates to assess the habitat value of filter strips for birds. Breeding and wintering bird community metrics were greater in filter strips than in non-buffered field edges but did not differ between cool-season and warm-season grass filter strips. Most breeding bird community metrics were negatively related to the percent cover of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata) in ???1 yr. Breeding bird density was greater in narrow (<30 m) compared to wide (>60 m) filter strips. Our results suggest that narrow filter strips adjacent to wooded edges can provide habitat for many bird species but that wide filter strips provide better habitat for grassland birds, particularly obligate grassland species. If bird conservation is an objective, avoid planting orchardgrass in filter strips and reduce or eliminate orchardgrass from filter strips through management practices. Copyright ?? 2011 The Wildlife Society.

Journal of Wildlife Management↗

USGS2014

Carnivore distributions across chaparral habitats exposed to wildfire and rural housing in southern California

Chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitats in southern California support biologically diverse plant and animal communities. However, native plant and animal species within these shrubland systems are increasingly exposed to human-caused wildfires and an expansion of the human–wildland interface. Few data exist to evaluate the effects of fire and anthropogenic pressures on plant and animal communities found in these environments. This is particularly true for carnivore communities. To address this knowledge gap, we collected detection–non-detection data with motion-sensor cameras and track plots to measure carnivore occupancy patterns following a large, human-caused wildfire (1134 km 2 ) in eastern San Diego County, California, USA, in 2003. Our focal species set included coyote ( Canis latrans ), gray fox ( Urocyon cinereoargenteus ), bobcat ( Lynx rufus ) and striped skunk ( Mephitis mephitis ). We evaluated the influence on species occupancies of the burned environment (burn edge, burn interior and unburned areas), proximity of rural homes, distance to riparian area and elevation. Gray fox occupancies were the highest overall, followed by striped skunk, coyote and bobcat. The three species considered as habitat and foraging generalists (gray fox, coyote, striped skunk) were common in all conditions. Occupancy patterns were consistent through time for all species except coyote, whose occupancies increased through time. In addition, environmental and anthropogenic variables had weak effects on all four species, and these responses were species-specific. Our results helped to describe a carnivore community exposed to frequent fire and rural human residences, and provide baseline data to inform fire management policy and wildlife management strategies in similar fire-prone ecosystems.

California↗

USGS2008

Effects of disturbance on germination and seedling establishment in a coastal prairie grassland: A test of the competitive release hypothesis

1. We evaluated the responses of native grassland sods to a variety of types of disturbance in order to assess hypotheses about the competitive effects of established vegetation on seed germination and seedling establishment. In particular, we consider whether germination is more responsive to the magnitude and duration of vegetation removal (competitive release) or to individual disturbance types (specific effects). 2. Field-collected sods of coastal tallgrass prairie were subjected to no manipulation, cutting with clippings left, cutting with clippings removed (hayed), burning, and complete destruction of established vegetation under greenhouse conditions. The emergence and fate of seedlings, as well as light penetration through the canopy, were followed for a period of 4.5 months. 3. Total seedling emergence increased from cut to control, hayed, burned and plants-removed treatments. Several periods of increased seedling emergence suggested responses to both light penetration and seasonal change. 4. Species richness was lowest in cut sods and highest in sods that had plants removed or were burned. Rarefaction analysis showed that these differences were largely those expected from differences in seedling number, except for the cut treatment, which produced fewer species per seedling than other treatments. 5. Indicator species analysis and ordination methods revealed that seedling community composition overlapped strongly across all treatments, although the area of ordination space did increase with increasing numbers of seedlings. 6. Overall, most of the effects of disturbance could be explained by cumulative light penetration to the soil surface, an indicator of total competitive release, although a few specific effects could be found (particularly for the cutting treatment). Thus, these results generally support the competitive release hypothesis.

Journal of Ecology↗

USGS2012

Elk herbivory alters small mammal assemblages in high elevation drainages

Heavy herbivory by ungulates can substantially alter habitat, but the indirect consequences of habitat modification for animal assemblages that rely on that habitat are not well studied. This is a particularly important topic given that climate change can alter plant–herbivore interactions. We explored short-term responses of small mammal communities to recent exclusion of Rocky Mountain elk ( Cervus elaphus ) in high-elevation riparian drainages in northern Arizona, where elk impacts on vegetation have increased over the past quarter century associated with climate change. We used 10-ha elk exclosures paired with unfenced control drainages to examine how browsing influenced the habitat use, relative abundance, richness and diversity of a small mammal assemblage. We found that the small mammal assemblage changed significantly after 5 years of elk exclusion. Relative abundance of voles ( Microtus mexicanus ) increased in exclosure drainages, likely due to an increase in habitat quality. The relative abundances of woodrats ( Neotoma neomexicana ) and two species of mice ( Peromyscus maniculatus and P. boylii ) decreased in the controls, while remaining stable in exclosures. The decline of mice in control drainages was likely due to the decline in shrub cover that they use. Thus, elk exclusion may have maintained or improved habitat for mice inside the exclosures while habitat quality and mouse abundance both declined outside the fences. Finally, small mammal species richness increased in the exclosures relative to the controls while species diversity showed no significant trends. Together, our results show that relaxation of heavy herbivore pressure by a widespread native ungulate can lead to rapid changes in small mammal assemblages. Moreover, exclusion of large herbivores can yield rapid responses by vegetation that may enhance or maintain habitat quality for small mammal populations.

Arizona↗

USGS2016

Integrating remote sensing with species distribution models; Mapping tamarisk invasions using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM)

Early detection of invasive plant species is vital for the management of natural resources and protection of ecosystem processes. The use of satellite remote sensing for mapping the distribution of invasive plants is becoming more common, however conventional imaging software and classification methods have been shown to be unreliable. In this study, we test and evaluate the use of five species distribution model techniques fit with satellite remote sensing data to map invasive tamarisk ( Tamarix spp.) along the Arkansas River in Southeastern Colorado. The models tested included boosted regression trees (BRT), Random Forest (RF), multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), generalized linear model (GLM), and Maxent. These analyses were conducted using a newly developed software package called the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM). All models were trained with 499 presence points, 10,000 pseudo-absence points, and predictor variables acquired from the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor over an eight-month period to distinguish tamarisk from native riparian vegetation using detection of phenological differences. From the Landsat scenes, we used individual bands and calculated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and tasseled capped transformations. All five models identified current tamarisk distribution on the landscape successfully based on threshold independent and threshold dependent evaluation metrics with independent location data. To account for model specific differences, we produced an ensemble of all five models with map output highlighting areas of agreement and areas of uncertainty. Our results demonstrate the usefulness of species distribution models in analyzing remotely sensed data and the utility of ensemble mapping, and showcase the capability of SAHM in pre-processing and executing multiple complex models.

Journal of Visualized Experiments↗

USGS2015

Desert tortoise use of burned habitat in the Eastern Mojave desert

Wildfires burned 24,254 ha of critical habitat designated for the recovery of the threatened Mojave desert tortoise ( Gopherus agassizii ) in southern Nevada during 2005. The proliferation of non-native annual grasses has increased wildfire frequency and extent in recent decades and continues to accelerate the conversion of tortoise habitat across the Mojave Desert. Immediate changes to vegetation are expected to reduce quality of critical habitat, yet whether tortoises will use burned and recovering habitat differently from intact unburned habitat is unknown. We compared movement patterns, home-range size, behavior, microhabitat use, reproduction, and survival for adult desert tortoises located in, and adjacent to, burned habitat to understand how tortoises respond to recovering burned habitat. Approximately 45% of home ranges in the post-fire environment contained burned habitat, and numerous observations ( n  = 12,223) corroborated tortoise use of both habitat types (52% unburned, 48% burned). Tortoises moved progressively deeper into burned habitat during the first 5 years following the fire, frequently foraging in burned habitats that had abundant annual plants, and returning to adjacent unburned habitat for cover provided by intact perennial vegetation. However, by years 6 and 7, the live cover of the short-lived herbaceous perennial desert globemallow ( Sphaeralcea ambigua ) that typically re-colonizes burned areas declined, resulting in a contraction of tortoise movements from the burned areas. Health and egg production were similar between burned and unburned areas indicating that tortoises were able to acquire necessary resources using both areas. This study documents that adult Mojave desert tortoises continue to use habitat burned once by wildfire. Thus, continued management of this burned habitat may contribute toward the recovery of the species in the face of many sources of habitat loss.

Nevada↗

USGS2025

Analysis of a human-mediated microbioinvasion: The global spread of the benthic foraminifer Trochammina hadai Uchio, 1962

A non-indigenous species (NIS) of benthic foraminifera was first identified in a core collected in 1993 in San Francisco Bay, California, USA, and subsequently identified as Trochammina hadai Uchio, 1962. Archived samples and literature reviews were used to determine that the species, which is native to Asia, arrived in San Francisco Bay between the early 1960s and 1983. Through molecular analyses of specimens, archived samples and literature reviews from 1930–1983, and site surveys of harbors and estuaries along the western North American seaboard in 1994–2024, in total more than 2500 samples, we documented the presence of T. hadai at 73 locations in the USA and four in Canada. Trochammina hadai has also been recovered at nine sites in Sweden, two in France, three in Brazil, and two locations at one site in Australia. The rapid temporal and geographic spread of the NIS T. hadai in a non-native location is illustrated by a time series from 1930 to 2024 in San Francisco Bay. Between 1980 and 1986, the species' range expanded from low abundance (1.5 %) at a single site to cover nearly the entire South Bay with > 70 % abundance at some locations. By 1995 and continuing into 2010, the species expanded its range into the central and northern portions of San Francisco Bay, commonly with abundances of > 30 % and sometimes exceeding 70 %. This expansion may predate 1995, but a lack of samples makes it difficult to be more precise. Unfortunately, two Pb-210 and Cs-137-dated cores (BC01 and BC02) recovered from northern South Bay and Central Bay did not clarify this point, but additional cores may. Trochammina hadai is an infaunal opportunist that thrives in polluted locations. We surmise the species was introduced along the west coast of the USA in Puget Sound between 1902 and the 1920s, with cultivated oysters and oyster larvae and associated plant matter and residual sediment. This probably also happened in some areas of France, Sweden, and Brazil, where Japanese oysters were introduced in 1966, 1970, and 1975, respectively. After World War II, commercial shipping expanded dramatically and, with it, the release of ballast water and sediment in receiving ports, which introduced NIS worldwide. This primary vector of introduction occurred in large industrial harbors in several countries, sometimes followed by secondary introductions in small industrial centers and marinas by mud attached to the anchors and anchor chains of smaller boats.

Journal of Micropalaeontology↗

USGS2020

Wildfire reveals transient changes to individual traits and population responses of a native bumble bee ( Bombus vosnesenskii )

1. Fire-induced changes in the abundance and distribution of organisms, especially plants, can alter resource landscapes for mobile consumers driving bottom-up effects on their population sizes, morphologies, and reproductive potential. We expect these impacts to be most striking for obligate visitors of plants, like bees and other pollinators, but these impacts can be difficult to interpret due to the limited information provided by forager counts in the absence of survival or fitness proxies. 2. Increased bumble bee worker abundance is often coincident with the pulses of flowers that follow recent fire. However, it is unknown if observed postfire activity is due to underlying population growth or a stable pool of colonies recruiting more foragers to abundant resource patches. This distinction is necessary for determining the net impact of disturbance on bumble bees: are there population-wide responses or do just a few colonies reap the rewards? 3. We estimated colony abundance before and after fire in burned and unburned areas using a genetic mark-recapture framework. We paired colony abundance estimates with measures of body size, counts of queens, and estimates of foraging and dispersal to assess changes in worker size, reproductive output, and landscape-scale movements. 4. Higher floral abundance following fire not only increased forager abundance, but also the number of colonies from which those foragers came. Importantly, despite a larger population size we also observed increased mean worker size. Two years following fire, queen abundance was higher in both burned and unburned sites, potentially due to the dispersal of queens from burned into unburned areas. The effects of fire were transient; within two growing seasons, worker abundance was substantially reduced across the entire sampling area and body sizes were similar between burned and unburned sites. 5. Our results reveal how disturbance can temporarily release populations from resource limitation, boosting the genetic diversity, body size, and reproductive output of populations. Given that the effects of fire on bumble bees acted indirectly through pulsed resource availability, it is likely our results are generalizable to other situations, such as habitat restorations, where resource density is enhanced within the landscape.

California↗

USGS2023

Marshbird response to herbicide control of cattail in northwestern Minnesota

Wetlands provide essential habitat for a wide variety of wildlife species. In the once wetland-rich Prairie Pothole Region and adjacent areas of central North America, many wetlands have been converted to agricultural production. Many remaining wetlands experience ecological change via the invasion and spread of non-native plant species, such as non-native narrowleaf ( Typha angustifolia ) and hybrid cattail ( Typha x glauca ), which spread aggressively and displace native vegetation, especially in large, impounded wetlands. Management of wetlands in these landscapes often includes broad-scale herbicide application intended to break up mats of cattail and restore areas to more wildlife-friendly conditions. Although restoration of wildlife habitat is a common goal of such management, marshbird response to invasive cattail control is poorly understood. To evaluate the effects of cattail management on wetland wildlife, we conducted standardized call-broadcast surveys for 5 species of marshbirds at 9 study sites that included survey locations associated with areas treated with herbicide and paired areas not treated with herbicide in wetland impoundments in northwestern Minnesota, USA, using a before-after, control-impact study design. We surveyed American bitterns ( Botaurus lentiginosus ), least bitterns ( Ixobrychus exilis ), pied-billed grebes ( Podilymbus podiceps ), soras ( Porzana carolina ), and Virginia rails ( Rallus limicola ) during the breeding season prior to herbicide application (late summer and early autumn of 2015) and during the 3 breeding seasons after herbicide application (2016–2018). We modeled species counts using a generalized linear mixed model with year-by-treatment interactions as fixed effects and site as a random effect. Before herbicide application, expected mean counts did not differ between treatment and control survey locations. Three years post-treatment, we detected significant increases in expected mean counts at treatment compared to control survey locations for soras ( t 193 = −3.373, P = 0.020) and Virginia rails ( t 193 = −3.167, P = 0.037), and point estimates for all species except least bittern were higher at treatment survey locations. Overall, our results suggest that these marshbird species responded positively to herbicide control of invasive cattail and that breeding marshbirds in these and similar wetland systems may experience positive population response over a period of at least 3 years following treatment.

Minnesota↗

USGS2018

Demographic consequences of conservation reserve program grasslands for lesser prairie‐chickens

Knowledge of landscape and regional circumstances where conservation programs are successful on working lands in agricultural production are needed. Converting marginal croplands to grasslands using conservation programs such as the United States Department of Agriculture Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) should be beneficial for many grassland‐obligate wildlife species; however, addition of CRP grasslands may result in different population effects based on regional climate, characteristics of the surrounding landscape, or species planted or established. Within landscapes occupied by lesser prairie‐chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus), CRP may provide habitat only for specific life stages and habitat selection for CRP may vary between wet and dry years. Among all study sites, we captured and fitted 280 female lesser prairie‐chickens with very high frequency (VHF)‐ and global positioning system (GPS) transmitters during the spring lekking seasons of 2013–2015 to monitor habitat selection for CRP in regions of varying climate. We also estimated vital rates and habitat selection for 148 individuals, using sites in northwest Kansas, USA. The greatest ecological services of CRP became apparent when examining habitat selection and densities. Nest densities were approximately 3 times greater in CRP grasslands than native working grasslands (i.e., grazed), demonstrating a population‐level benefit (CRP = 6.0 nests/10 km2 ± 1.29 [SE], native working grassland = 1.7 nests/10 km2 ± 0.62). However, CRP supporting high nest density did not provide brood habitat; 85% of females with broods surviving to 7 days moved their young to other cover types. Regression analyses indicated lesser prairie‐chickens were approximately 8 times more likely to use CRP when 5,000‐ha landscapes were 70% rather than 20% grassland, indicating variation in the level of ecological services provided by CRP was dependent upon composition of the larger landscape. Further, CRP grasslands were 1.7 times more likely to be used by lesser prairie‐chickens in regions receiving 40 cm compared to 70 cm of average annual precipitation and during years of greater drought intensity. Demographic and resource selection analyses revealed that establishing CRP grasslands in northwest Kansas can increase the amount nesting habitat in a region where it may have previously been limited, thereby providing refugia to sustain populations through periods of extreme drought. Nest survival, adult survival during breeding, and nonbreeding season survival did not vary between lesser prairie‐chickens that used and did not use CRP grasslands. The finite rate of population growth was also similar for birds using CRP and using only native working grasslands, suggesting that CRP provides habitat similar to that of native working grassland in this region. Overall, lesser prairie‐chickens may thrive in landscapes that are a mosaic of native working grassland, CRP grassland, with a minimal amount of cropland, particularly when nesting and brood habitat are in close proximity.

Journal of Wildlife Management↗

USGS2021

Weather and distance to fire refugia limit landscape‐level occurrence of fungal disease in an exotic annual grass

The enemy release hypothesis proposes that invasion by exotic plant species is driven by their release from natural enemies (i.e. herbivores and pathogens) in their introduced ranges. However, in many cases, natural enemies, which may be introduced or managed to regulate invasive species, may fail to impact target host populations. Landscape heterogeneity, which can affect both the population dynamics of the pathogen and the susceptibility and the density of hosts, may contribute to why pathogens fail to control hosts despite established negative disease impacts. We explored patterns of post‐fire infection of the fungal head‐smut pathogen Ustilago bullata on the invasive annual cheatgrass Bromus tectorum , which has caused the notorious grass‐fire cycle and ecosystem degradation across Western North America. We asked whether infection level was a driver of host density or vice‐versa, and how weather affected infection and how spatial patterns of infection varied with time since fire, using a combination of structural equation modelling (SEM), proportional odds modelling and entropy‐based local indicator of spatial association (ELSA) on data from >700 plots spanning >100,000 ha remeasured annually for 4 years. Observed infection levels increased with greater prior‐year cheatgrass cover, and disease severity did not suppress cheatgrass populations. Warm, humid fall/winters and proximity to fire refugia (unburned patches) were associated with more infections. Infection clustering was most evident 2–3 years following fire with warm‐wet fall–winter conditions and decreased after two drier, colder winters. Synthesis . Severity of fungal disease did not result in measurable reductions of populations of a non‐native, invasive host species, cheatgrass, which suggests that natural enemies may not strongly regulate cheatgrass in its introduced range. Landscape heterogeneity associated with disturbance and weather limited population‐level infection of hosts by the fungal pathogen. Disturbance (specifically wildfire) and variable weather are key components of this and similar invasion systems, and likely need to be considered when evaluating disease dynamics and potential for natural enemies to influence invasion potential.

Journal of Ecology↗

USGS2019

Natural resource condition assessment: Channel Islands National Park

The Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) Program aims to provide documentation about the current conditions of important Park natural resources through a spatially explicit, multidisciplinary synthesis of existing scientific data and knowledge. Findings from the NRCA will help Channel Islands National Park (CINP) managers to develop near-term management priorities. The central objectives of this assessment were to evaluate the current conditions and trends of key Park resources, identify important knowledge gaps, and determine key stressors and threats. Because a recent report provided an assessment of marine resources (Engle 2006), which constitute 50% of the park, this NRCA focused on terrestrial resources. For this NRCA, CINP resource managers identified that the greatest Park need was to know whether or not vegetation (primarily woody vegetation) is recovering on the Channel Islands and how this may be influencing recovery of the native terrestrial vertebrates. To address this, the CINP NRCA team evaluated the condition of island vegetation and vertebrate communities using both: 1) already available, summarized information from reports, theses, and journal articles and 2) new analyses of recently available, existing data collected on the islands. Descriptions of specific methods used to analyze available data by the NRCA team are provided within the assessment sections in Chapter 4 of this report. The Team used the Vital Signs indicators as identified by Fancy et al. (2009) for monitoring the condition of Natural Resources in U.S. National Parks. Using this framework, the focal study resource components were the five CINP islands, because these are the bio-geophysical resources of greatest interest to the CINP. Each of the islands has its own unique history of human impacts, ecological conditions, restoration efforts, and natural resource monitoring. The Team evaluated island scrub recovery by assessing changes over time in two metrics: 1) vegetation community structure (species composition, cover, and spatial extent), and 2) vertebrate abundance, relative to the reference condition of each island. The reference conditions for this NRCA were the particular island’s ecological state prior to European settlement or ranching, which represent the ecological state to which the NPS desires the park return. For each metric, the Team determined the Reference Conditions/Values, Current Condition, Trend, and Recovery Potential (based on a review of the literature and from the NRCA team’s analysis of newly available data), Threats and Stressors, Data Gaps, Overall Condition. A qualitative statement of overall current condition was created for each metric, after all data and literature relevant to the measures (i.e., vegetation and vertebrates) of each resource component (i.e., island) were reviewed and evaluated. All information gathered for this NRCA is available and managed by CINP, so that the compilation of resources would be available not only for the assessment team, but will be provided for future Park reference. Chapter 1 of this NRCA provides a descriptive background of NRCAs. Chapter 2 provides Park-wide natural resource background information, while Chapter 3 describes the overall methodological approach used in this assessment. Chapter 4 provides a detailed assessment of each island’s condition, which is then summarized Park-wide and for each island in Chapter 5. Based on both vegetation recovery and vertebrate population abundances, our assessment found Santa Cruz Island (SCI), Santa Rosa Island (SRI), San Miguel Island (SMI), and Anacapa Island (AI) to be, overall, in moderate condition and slowly recovering following the removal of non-native herbivores. The condition of Santa Barbara Island (SBI) is poor and remains in a state that is not likely to improve without assisted recovery by the Park. All islands have exhibited some level of native vegetation recovery, with most of the observed natural recovery occurring on SCI, SRI, SMI, and AI; very little recovery has occurred at present on SBI. Vegetation recovery is uneven across each island and largely limited to mesic areas, such as north-facing slopes. Areas that will likely require some assisted recovery efforts are those that are: at risk of erosion, isolated, lacking native seed banks, and plagued with high competition of non-native grasses and other invasives. Some plant communities, such as exposed upland vegetation on SRI, also have lower natural recovery potential and will likely require assisted recovery. The overall condition of the Park’s terrestrial island vertebrate species generally appears to be good and improving, with high potential for further recovery to reach pre-ranching era reference conditions. This is particularly true for vertebrates on SCI, SRI, and SMI. Although there are limited data for AI, the data that are available suggest that vertebrates on that island are in good condition and improving as well. However, the condition of SBI vertebrates is only moderate, with natural recovery potential being low, with many landbird species’ populations currently declining, extinct, or not improving. An overarching theme across the Park’s terrestrial island vertebrate populations is that many of them are in good condition because the particular animals are habitat generalists, so their population dynamics are not strongly tied to habitat conditions. However, those landbirds associated with riparian vegetation are not showing signs of recovery across the Park islands, and riparian areas appear to be one of the habitats with limited natural recovery potential on the islands. Overwhelmingly, the most critical data gap that emerged from our analysis was the lack of current vegetation maps for most of the islands (AI, SCI, SRI, SMI). The lack of this information made it difficult to assess spatial changes in island vegetation over time, and to relate those changes to observed changes in vertebrate species abundances. Therefore, we were limited in our spatial assessment of vegetation recovery for AI, SCI, SRI, and SMI, and were only able to relate the current vegetation with island landbird analysis for SBI. Another common theme across islands was the lack of information on best techniques for shrub reintroduction and recovery, and the success of invasive species removal and re-vegetation efforts. Abundance, distribution, and habitat affinities of reptiles and amphibians are poorly known for AI, SCI, SRI, and SMI, making it difficult to assess their population condition and trends, and their potential responses to shrub recovery. Mammal and landbird populations are reasonably well-sampled across most of the islands, but data are lacking for most vertebrates from AI, especially West and Middle AI where no vertebrate sampling occurs. The population status, cause of declines, and recovery needs are lacking for several landbird species across multiple islands, including loggerhead shrikes ( Lanius ludovicianus ssp.) on SCI and SRI, and Santa Cruz Island rufous crowned sparrows ( Aimophila ruficeps obscura ) on AI. Additionally, island song sparrows ( Melospiza melodia graminea ) remain extirpated on SBI and data are needed for assessing their recovery potential on the island. The potentially major threats facing the islands’ flora and fauna today are: areas of continued erosion, potential new non-native introductions, and climate change. The Park islands have already experienced warming over the last several decades due to human-induced climate change, and are projected to experience continued warming. These increasing stresses imposed by climate change may slow and inhibit natural recovery potentials for island fauna, and especially flora.

California↗