Environmental and managerial factors associated with pack stock distribution in high elevation meadows: Case study from Yosemite National Park

Abstract

Parks and protected areas are integral strategies for biological diversity conservation, and their management often involves balancing visitor use with resource protection. Effectively balancing these objectives requires data about how use is distributed within areas of interest and how management strategies and environmental conditions interact to minimize negative impacts. This study examined which environmental and managerial factors most influenced the distribution of domestic pack stock animals, a common visitor use-related activity, when released to graze in high elevation meadows. Using a species distribution modelling approach, MaxEnt, managerial factors were found to be among the top contributors to models. Pack stock animals concentrated use near the locations where they were released as well as portable enclosure fencing confining the lead animal even though the remainder were allowed to roam freely. Elevation was the environmental factor contributing most, with animals remaining at similar elevations to the meadow even if moving into nearby understory. Results highlight the importance of release point and fence locations to overall pack stock animal distribution and rotational or strategic placement can be a tactic for mitigating impacts to sensitive habitats.

Multi-scale drivers of soil resistance predict vulnerability of seasonally wet meadows to trampling by pack stock animals in the Sierra Nevada, USA

“…This was the case regardless of the MGC over the entire study period. Exposure to pack stock use in wet PCTs may seem unlikely in wet areas; however, a recent Yosemite stock behavior study showed that horses and mules graze on Carex vesicaria (the wettest PCT in our study), which makes this plant community type vulnerable to trampling when soil moisture conditions are high (Walden-Schreiner et al 2017). In contrast, we found that local-scale plant community vulnerability to soil physical damage was modulated by Table 4 Spatial interactions between plant community type (PCT, n = 4) and meadow gradient class (MGC, n = 2) within subalpine meadows sampled (n = 5) that were significant based on ANOVA (n = 252 for all variables).…”

Predicting distribution of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. in China

“…The high and medium suitability areas are similar to the actual main production areas of Z. bungeanum in China. The veracity of the model is influenced not only by types of environmental factors but also by the amount of species distribution points [17].…”

“…The species distribution under the ideal state is almost impossible in reality, so it may occur that the predicted area is larger than the actual distribution area. On the other hand, due to the self-adaptability of plants as well as the influence of human activity, plants can survive in areas beyond the original basic niche [17,28]. In this situation, the modeled species distribution area may be smaller than the actual distribution area.…”

“…The accuracy of model simulation results is proportional to AUC value. AUC evaluation criteria were divided into five cases: failed (0.50-0.60), poor (0.60-0.70), fair (0.70-0.80), good (0.80-0.90), and excellent (0.90-1.00) [37]. Besides, TSS and Kappa were also selected to evaluate the accuracy because of their characteristic of being not affected by the size of the validation set [15].…”

Using crowd-sourced photos to assess seasonal patterns of visitor use in mountain-protected areas

“…As with any modelling approach, MaxEnt is sensitive to model parameters, specifically the selection of background data for the potential area of occurrence. To address these concerns, this analysis followed recommendations in the literature as summarized by Walden-Schreiner et al (2017). For vector data, the factor was characterized by the distance to the polygon (e.g., campsite and ski resort) or line (e.g., trail and road) feature for the model.…”