Fire restructures plant communities and can be an important modifier of ecosystems. Increases in forage quantity and quality in burned areas attract large ungulates, and may result in changes to animal distributions. In mountainous northern British Columbia where prescribed fire is used to enhance ungulate range, there is concern that expanding elk (Cervus elaphus) populations will move in response to burning into the traditional ranges of another grazing species, Stone's sheep (Ovis dalli stonei), and have adverse effects on them. We compared patterns of resource selection and use by both species on a landscape with 138 prescribed burns varying from 0 to 31 years of age. Seasonal range sizes of global positioning system (GPS)-collared individuals were smallest in winter and late winter and largest in summer for both female Stone's sheep and elk. Both species selected for south aspects and against conifer stands in all seasons. Stone's sheep selected for burned areas in fall, winter, and late winter and selected to be close to a burn in every season except summer. Elk selected for burned areas in every season, with the highest selection for burn-shrub areas. Stone's sheep typically used younger burns, whereas elk were less specific and often used older burns. The highest potential for seasonal overlap in the use of burned areas occurs during winter and late winter, but Stone's sheep and elk at current population levels overlap minimally because they partition their use of the landscape through elevation and topography. Stone's sheep always selected and used steeper rugged terrain than elk, and were at higher elevations, often in rocky areas. Elk avoided alpine and rocky areas, and were at lower elevations than Stone's sheep, on flatter less rugged terrain. We recommend continued monitoring of post-fire effects on resource selection and use by these sympatric grazers, particularly relative to the distribution of expanding elk populations, which could enable competitive interactions and change predator-prey dynamics. Ó 2015 The Wildlife Society.
All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL U SER S The quality of this reproduction is dep en d en t upon the quality of the copy submitted.In the unlikely even t that the author did not sen d a com plete manuscript and there are m issing p a g es, th e se will be noted. Also, if material had to be rem oved, a note will indicate the deletion. Landsat imageiy, survey flights and GPS telemetry at a landscape scale. By one year after burning, forage digestibility and rates of forage growth were higher on burned than unbumed areas. At both scales Stone's sheep and elk always used bums more than control areas in winter. UMIStone's sheep and elk appeared to partition their use o f the landscape through topography and land cover. Increased use o f burned areas suggests that prescribed fire enhanced habitat value for grazing ungulates in the short-term. By altering animal distributions, however, the use of prescribed fire has the potential to change complex predator-prey interactions in northern BC.
Fire is the dominant single natural disturbance influencing northern mountain and boreal landscapes. We evaluated fire-induced changes in forage resources for 2 focal ungulates, Stone's sheep (Ovis dalli stonei) and elk (Cervus canadensis), in northern British Columbia, Canada. We implemented 4 prescribed fires and monitored short-term vegetation (quantity and quality) and ungulate (Stone's sheep and elk) responses. We took measurements prior to burning, the year of burning, and 1 year after burning in treatment areas and adjacent unburned control areas in winter and summer at 2 scales. At a fine scale, we used vegetation transects and pellet counts; at the landscape scale, we used Landsat imagery for vegetation and aerial survey flights for animals. Following prescribed fire, shrub cover declined and burned communities increased in herbaceous cover. Plant species diversity also declined but increased to almost that of unburned areas by 1 year after burning. Burning increased quality of forage most (2-7 percentage points more digestibility and 0.3-6.3 percentage points more crude protein than unburned areas) in the summer of the burn. In winter, forage biomass and available digestible dry matter increased to pre-burn levels by 1 year after burning. Stone's sheep and elk always used burned areas more than unburned control areas in winter at both scales. Whereas elk used sites with higher forage quantity, Stone's sheep appeared to respond to forage quality at the fine scale. Ungulate grazing during the 2 years of this study did not alter forage quantity on burned or unburned sites, as determined from range exclosures. Based on our findings in this area, maximum benefits to elk would be achieved from large prescribed fires on south-aspect slopes that result in the greatest amounts of forage biomass. Smaller prescribed fires at high burn intensities on west-aspect slopes intermixed with rocky outcrops and talus scree (less frequented by elk) would most benefit Stone's sheep requirements for highquality forage and escape terrain. Ó 2018 The Wildlife Society.
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