Pacific Southwest Research Station

Programs and Projects

(RWU-4251)

Maintaining Faunal Diversity in Forested Ecosystems of the Coastal and Intermountain West

Our mission is to provide the information and understanding needed to sustain wildlife diversity in dynamic landscapes with multiple resource demands. Toward this goal, members of the Unit investigate the life histories and determine the functional roles of vertebrate species associated with self-sustaining and resilient riparian and late-seral environments on various spatial scales. The unit uses this information to develop efficient monitoring strategies for individual species and for more general metrics of ecosystem condition. Please see our Research Work Unit Description. An accounting of our most recent accomplishments and publications can be found in our 2009 Attainment Report.

Selected Publications Amphibians as metrics of critical biological thresholds in forested headwater streams of the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. Wolfe, J.D. and C.J. Ralph. 2009. Correlations between El Niño-Southern Oscillation and changes in nearctic-neotropic migrant condition in Central America. The Auk 126(4):809-814. Broadening the focus of bat conservation and research in the USA for the 21st century. Developing and testing a landscape habitat suitability model for the American marten (Martes americana) in the Cascades mountains of California.

RESEARCH EMPHASIS AREAS Biotic Responses to Changing Landscapes There is an urgent need to develop approaches for assessing and planning for risks to biological resources through understanding of both natural and anthropogenic landscape patterns and processes across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Biodiversity Assessment: Tools and Applications Improved quantitative methods are needed to improve our understanding of the distributions, status, and viability of animal populations and to assess and monitor changing habitat conditions. Ecology of Species of Concern The management of natural resources continues to require an understanding of the ecology of individual species and higher taxa of conservation concern.

About Us Maintaining Faunal Diversity in Forested Ecosystems of the Coastal and Intermountain West with its primary location at the Redwood Sciences Laboratory in Arcata, CA, is a research unit of the Pacific Southwest Research Station, headquartered in Albany, California. The unit and research station are part of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. See more of our research under the Research Topics area of the Station's website: Amphibians & Reptiles Marbled Murrelet & Landbird Monitoring Fish: Invasive Species