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oai:mountainscholar.org:10217/802202025-12-30T03:18:01Zcom_10217_100532com_10217_100000com_10217_100395com_10217_100303col_10217_100538col_10217_100398

Goad, Erica H., author Pejchar, Liba, advisor Knight, Richard L., advisor Reed, Sarah E., committee member Sibold, Jason S., committee member 2007-01-03T05:55:19Z 2007-01-03T05:55:19Z 2013 Goad_colostate_0053N_11868.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10217/80220 https://doi.org/10.25675/3.018429 "Exurban" development occupies nearly five times more land in the United States than urban and suburban development combined. Understanding the effects of exurban development on biodiversity thus has important and wide-ranging implications for the planning, construction and stewardship of sustainable communities and surrounding rural lands. To assess the impact of exurban development on mammalian habitat use, wildlife cameras were placed along a unique development gradient designed to capture landscape permeability in a rapidly growing rural region of Colorado. Multiple-season species occupancy and relative activity (frequency of detections) were measured in summer and winter seasons and these data were analyzed in conjunction with a novel, acoustic-based approach to assessing human activity. Impacts of exurban housing varied by mammal species, with some species, such as bobcats, elk, and coyotes, showing decreased activity and occupancy levels at higher housing densities, whereas others, including red foxes and Abert's squirrels, occurred more frequently in these areas. Human-sourced activities associated with development and non-natural sound levels emerged as top models for most species. Relative activity rates corroborated occupancy results, indicating that some species not only use habitat in high density areas, they use it more frequently. In addition, some species, including black bears, preferentially used embedded greenbelts in high-density exurban subdivisions, suggesting that greenbelts may be important for structural and functional connectivity. This study demonstrates that the impacts of exurban development are species-dependent. However, incorporating well-designed and naturally vegetated open spaces into development projects and minimizing human disturbance may be critical to mitigating development impacts to most wildlife in regions undergoing continued exurban expansion. born digital masters theses English eng Colorado State University. Libraries 2000-2019 Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright. anthropogenic noise development gradient exurban development multiple-season occupancy relative activity wildlife cameras Mammalian habitat use along a residential development gradient in northern Colorado Text Master of Science (M.S.) Masters Ecology Colorado State University This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). open.access