Fire regime changes in La Michilia Biosphere Reserve, Durango, Mexico
Article Abstract:
Fire-scarred tree samples have been used to reconstruct fire regimes at five study sites having about 230 ha in pine (Pinus spp.) and oak (Quercus spp.) forests in La Michilia Biosphere Reserve, Durango, Mexico, on the dry east slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental. A 20-km environmental gradient of topography, elevation and human land uses was included. Fires were frequent at all sites before 1930 when large-scale grazing of domestic animals started. Widespread fires have been kept out of four of the five sites since 1945. To some degree fire occurrence correlated with the Southern Oscillation climate pattern. Only in a small, central protected area has the natural process, the long-term frequent-fire regime, been conserved, but that is an indicator that the biosphere reserve model has been successful in that 7000 ha area. Ability of reserves to keep natural ecosystem processes, among them fire disturbance regimes, is central to long-term conservation.
Publication Name: Conservation Biology
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0888-8892
Year: 1999
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Dispersal behavior and its implications for reserve design in a rare Oregon butterfly
Article Abstract:
Construction of corridors does not appear to be the most effective reserve design for the rare Fender's blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides fenderi) of Oregon's Willamette Valley, according to a study of its dispersal behavior. The study suggests that stepping stones between existing lupine patches may offer a better design to facilitate exchange of individuals. The butterflies tend to stay in lupine patches but often stray into nonlupine environments.
Publication Name: Conservation Biology
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0888-8892
Year: 1998
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