This dissertation is an applied research study focused on identification and implementation of quantitative wildlife assessment techniques as part of a robust adaptive management framework for hemiboreal forest communities within the 1836 Treaty Ceded Territory, with snowshoe hares as a focus. Based on the Sault Tribe Wildlife Programs assessment of research needs regarding snowshoe hare (Lepus Americanus) and climate change, the following chapters seek to evaluate approaches to these programmatic research priorities with a focus on using state-space modeling frameworks that rely on software that is easily accessible to agency staff. These models focus on understanding the relationships between landscape pattern, climate dynamics and snowshoe hare population performance. In Chapter one, I developed a model that evaluates coarse-scale relationships between snowshoe hare occupancy, bioclimatic variables, and landcover composition and configurations. In Chapter two, I implemented a spatial capture-recapture model for snowshoe hare on the east zone of the Hiawatha National Forest which was parameterized using landscape-scale forest composition and configuration metrics. And in Chapter three, in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey, we conducted a serosurey and implemented a prevalence model that was parameterized with individual snowshoe hare characteristics and ecological land type.
Read
