Elk in the Shrub-Steppe Region of Washington: An Authentic Record

Rickard, W.H.; Hedlund, J.D.; Fitzner, R.E.

doi:10.1126/science.196.4293.1009

Cited by 28 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…In 1972, a few animals travelled to the Hanford Site from the distant Cascade Mountains to the west and have now established year-round residency (McCorquodale et al, 1986). In some ways, elk can be considered as aliens to the Columbia River Plain (Rickard et al, 1977).…”

Section: Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alien taxa in the North American shrub-steppe four decades after cessation of livestock grazing and cultivation agriculture

Brandt

Rickard

1994

Biological Conservation

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Because of its use as a nuclear materials production area, the 800-kin 2 sagebrush steppe of the Columbia River Plain in Washington State has functioned as a quasinatural area protected from livestock grazing and agricultural development since 1944. Alien vegetation and animals have invaded the eastern Washington region in the past century and are currently represented in the Columbia River Plain. Investigations were undertaken to evaluate the distribution of alien species, particularly vegetation, and their relationships to other flora and fauna in this region.Recently disturbed areas were dominated by the alien annuals Russian thistle Salsola kali, tumble mustard Sisymbrium altissimum, prickly lettuce Lactuca serriola, and bur ragweed Ambrosia acanthicarpa. Oldfield habitats were composed almost entirely of the alien annual cheatgrass Bromus tectorum. Alien vegetation also comprised a portion of the flora in habitats that had not been disturbed or grazed by cattle in the past. Cheatgrass and spring whitlow-grass Draba verna were able to set seed in undisturbed habitats, whereas Russian thistle and tumble mustard seldom did. These two species continue as components of undisturbed habitat primarily through seed dispersal from disturbed sites.Old-fieM habitats support a depauperate fauna compared to undisturbed sagebrush steppe vegetation. Shrubnesting birds such as the sage sparrow Amphispiza belli were absent from old fields, and even ground-nesting species were found in abnormally low densities. Old fields supported relatively few mammal species, in part as a result of poor food supplies. Alien birds, the rock dove Columba livia and the European starling Sturnus vulgaris, visited undisturbed habitat, but did not nest there.No alien mammals were found in undisturbed sagebrush steppe vegetation; the only alien mammals found in the area, the house mouse Mus musculus and Norway rat Rattus norvegicus, being limited to riparian areas and the vicinity of buildings.Alien taxa are likely to remain a component of any quasi-natural area in the sagebrush steppe ecoregion.Conservation 0006-3207/94/$07.00 © 1994 Elsevier Science Limited, England. Printed in Great Britain Human disturbance need not be spatially extensive to maintain alien plants within undisturbed communities. Successional patterns after land disturbance produce conditions unfavorable for native fauna, but have not enhanced the distribution of alien fauna.

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Section: Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alien taxa in the North American shrub-steppe four decades after cessation of livestock grazing and cultivation agriculture

Brandt

Rickard

1994

Biological Conservation

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“…Loss of Elk in these areas was due to human influence, not lack of adaptability to the habitat (Laliberte and Ripple 2004). In recent years Elk have recolonized areas in treeless, sagebrush-steppe habitats in central Washington (Rickard et al 1977;McCorquodale et al 1986;McCorquodale 1991) similar to those used by the WC Elk.…”

Section: The Canadian Field-naturalistmentioning

confidence: 98%

Colonization of Non-Traditional Range in Dispersing Elk, <em>Cervus elaphus nelsoni</em>, Populations

Dyke

2007

Can Field Nat

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On traditional ranges, animals typically concentrate use in the most productive patches of habitat (Charnov 1976;Parker and Stuart 1976). However, intraspecific population pressure, often associated with population growth, can cause a species to increase its range of habitat use in less predictable ways (Rosenzweig 1991). For non-territorial species, the tendency to increase range of habitat use with increasing population density has been formalized as the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) Theorem. The Ideal Free Distribution Theorem asserts that individuals choose habitats at densities associated with equal levels of fitness (Fretwell and Lucas 1970). Thus, IFD predicts that when populations occupy new ranges at low densities, individuals will occupy only optimal habitat. As density increases, so does interference with conspecifics, causing individual fitness to decline. Individuals leave optimal habitat when fitness drops below what they could achieve in a suboptimal habitat at a lower population density.Among ungulates, the behavior of Elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) in populations experiencing long-term population growth corresponds to predictions of IFD. Dispersive behavior associated with population growth and an increasing range of habitat use might contribute to the initial stages of colonization and the establishment of a permanent population in a previously unoccupied area (Safriel and Ritte 1983). The colonization of vacant habitat without decreased fitness of colonists is an alternative to increased intraspecific competition on traditional range. Although the IFD Theorem makes density-dependent dispersal theoretically plausible, such dispersal has been difficult to demonstrate in ungulates (Clutton-Brock et al. 1985;Boyce 1989), and determination of the mechanisms of colonization by individuals dispersing from established ungulate populations, or their relation to population growth, has been problematic.In three increasing populations in south-central Montana, USA, Elk demonstrated changes in habitat use and home-range characteristics, increasing spatial separation of adjacent populations, and fissioning of individual populations into multiple populations (Van Dyke and Klein 1996;Van Dyke et al. 1998), all of which can lead to an increasing range of habitat use. The last response, population fissioning, was initiated by the formation of a dispersing group that made seasonal movements to new range, often containing a distribution of vegetation communities different from the traditional range of the established population. In investigating the role of such groups in expanding range and habitat use of established populations, I sought to determine what changes dispersing Elk make in their use of home range and habitats compared to their populations of origin that might enable them to persist on new ranges that the established population did not use. Study AreaThree populations of Elk in south-central Montana (USA) were investigated, locally known as the Line Creek (LC), Picket Pin (PP), and Silver Run (SR) pop...

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“…This is not to say that wapiti are not expected in the central Columbia Basin throughout the Holocene, but instead only that wapiti seem to have been quite rare during the Middle Holocene if they were present at all. A historically documented immigration into central basin-like habitats in the Yakima Valley and establishment of a year-round resident herd of wapiti in those arid shrub (sagebrush) steppe habitats was completely unanticipated (Rickard et al, 1977;Haegen et al, 2001). Had the Holocene history of wapiti in the Central Basin been better known at the time, this event would not have been so surprising.…”

Section: Fluctuation In Taxonomic Abundancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene mammalian change in the central Columbia Basin of eastern Washington state, USA

Lyman

2016

Quaternary Science Reviews

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Elk in the Shrub-Steppe Region of Washington: An Authentic Record

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

Alien taxa in the North American shrub-steppe four decades after cessation of livestock grazing and cultivation agriculture

Alien taxa in the North American shrub-steppe four decades after cessation of livestock grazing and cultivation agriculture

Colonization of Non-Traditional Range in Dispersing Elk, <em>Cervus elaphus nelsoni</em>, Populations

Holocene mammalian change in the central Columbia Basin of eastern Washington state, USA

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