Post-fire movements of Pacific marten (Martes caurina) depend on the severity of landscape change.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Wildfires and forestry activities such as post-fire salvage logging are altering North American forests on a massive scale. Habitat change and fragmentation on forested landscapes may threaten forest specialists, such as Pacific marten (Martes caurina), that require closed, connected, and highly structured habitats. Although marten use burned landscapes, it is unclear how these animals respond to differing burn severities, or how well they tolerate additional landscape change from salvage logging.

Methods

We used snow tracking and GPS collars to examine marten movements in three large burns in north-central Washington, USA (burned in 2006) and central British Columbia, Canada (burned in 2010 and 2017). We also assessed marten habitat use in relation to areas salva

SUBMITTER: Volkmann LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8501742 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature