Meeting Abstract
S9-7 Monday, Jan. 6 11:00 - 11:30 Integrating Studies of Function and Ecology to Inform Conservation and Management MCBRAYER, LD*; ORTON, RW; NEEL, LK; KAUNERT, MD; TUCKER, DB; WILLIAMS, SC; Georgia Southern University; University of Texas Arlington; Arizona State University; Ohio University; Arizona State University; Georgia Southern University lancemcbrayer@georgiasouthern.edu https://sites.google.com/a/georgiasouthern.edu/lance-d-mcbrayer/
The Ocala National Forest covers roughly 383,000 acres, 60% of which is critically threatened Florida scrub habitat. Florida Scrub is home to many threatened or endangered species such as the Red Cockaded Woodpecker, Florida Scrub Jay, Gopher Tortoise, Indigo Snake, Sand Skink and Florida Scrub Lizard. The Ocala National Forest is predominantly managed for timber and pulp industries via clear-cutting of sand pines on a 20 to 30 year schedule. Yet within the Ocala, seven long leaf pine sand hills are managed via periodic prescribed fires to ensure survival of certain threatened and endangered species. These contrasting management practices provide fertile ground for comparisons of the ecology and evolution of a variety of functional traits at the population level. I will present data from several studies to serve as a case study in how hypothesis driven functional biologists may work in such systems to the benefit of managers, conservation biologists, and basic scientists alike. This case study may also serve as an example of how junior faculty might establish a research program that serves multiple purposes. I will highlight initial work on foraging behavior and diet in the Florida Scrub Lizard that began to assess the effects of management practices. This work helped to frame subsequent studies on locomotion, population biology, predation, and physiology. Collectively, these studies allow managers to assess the impacts of management decisions on target (e.g. Red Cockaded Woodpecker) and non-target species (Florida Scrub Lizards). Recently, a new 20-year management plan was adopted such that past and future data will significantly inform the effectiveness of management practices, while also serving as an excellent system to test hypotheses on local adaptation and population level variation in functional traits.