Friday, August 6, 2010: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
306-307, David L Lawrence Convention Center
OOS 53 - Beyond the Pavement: Road Network Structure, Use and Ecological Responses in Backcountry Environments
Road ecology explains the effects of road systems on surrounding ecosystem patterns and processes. Much research describes the effects of higher order road networks in fragmenting landscapes and populations; or ecosystem effects caused by the presence of roads. This session builds on contributed road ecology sessions at past ESA meetings, by exploring the function of secondary and tertiary road networks, especially use, as a significant landscape ecological stimulus which cannot be ignored or separated from road network structure. Land use in remote areas, e.g. for resource extraction and utilization, requires accessibility, usually by roads. Shifts in climate are manifest in changing seasonal land use patterns, linked to changing accessibility of the landscape by road networks. Surmising the ecological effects of roads by measuring the structure of major road networks provides an incomplete picture. Rather, critical information about road use at local levels is necessary to model ecological effects, particularly at local and regional scales. To be able to model and evaluate change scenarios and their potential effects on ecosystems, information about this important stimulus, i.e. the function of the road network, must be included. The goal of this session is to advance ecological understanding about the relationship between the uses of lower order road networks, their structure and the remote landscapes where they are embedded. Specific objectives include: 1), establish the significance and rationale for studying the use and ecological effects of secondary and tertiary road networks; 2), present innovative case studies focusing on ecosystem and landscape responses to local road network structure and use; and, 3), describe methods that can be used by ecologists and land managers to study road use and integrate traffic data into ecological models and management systems. The first speaker will introduce the relevance of integrating road network function and structure in road ecology studies, and how such an approach could lead to advances in our understanding of road ecology. Subsequent speakers will focus on case studies and methods describing the integration of road-use data in ecological studies, the “nuts and bolts” of traffic data collection in remote landscapes, and the challenges of mapping and monitoring standards for secondary and tertiary roads in the United States. The final speaker will address the challenges of moving toward an integrated understanding of road network structure and function for ecological modeling and the potential for integrating climate change scenarios in road effect models.
Organizer:	Alisa W. Coffin, USGS
Co-organizers:	Douglas S. Ouren, USGS Raymond D. Watts, USGS
Moderator:	Jay E. Diffendorfer, United States Geological Survey
8:00 AM	OOS 53-1		Beyond the pavement: Scientific methods for quantifying ecological responses to off-highway vehicle use Douglas S. Ouren, USGS, Fort Collins Science Center, Raymond D. Watts, USGS, Alisa W. Coffin, USGS
8:20 AM	OOS 53-2		Modeling animal movements in response to human disturbance using stochastic differential equations and potential functions Haiganoush K. Preisler, US Forest Service, David R. Brillinger, University of California Berkeley, Michael Wisdom, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Alan A. Ager, USDA Forest Service
8:40 AM	OOS 53-3		The relationship between human use and wildlife use of backcountry trails: A remote camera study from the southern Rockies of Alberta, Canada Michael Quinn, Miistakis Institute for the Rockies, University of Calgary, Danah Duke, Miistakis Institute for the Rockies, University of Calgary
9:00 AM	OOS 53-4		Road network development and land cover change in rural environments of Florida and Colorado Alisa W. Coffin, USGS
9:20 AM	OOS 53-5		Modeling and inference of animal movement using artificial neural networks Jeff Tracey, SigmaLogistic Consulting, Inc., Jun Zhu, Colorado State University, Kevin R. Crooks, Colorado State University
9:40 AM			Break
9:50 AM	OOS 53-6		Road avoidance behavior, traffic volumes, and road network configuration: How do they affect extinction thresholds? Jochen A. G. Jaeger, Concordia University
10:10 AM	OOS 53-7		Integrating road network structure and function in ecological modeling and road effect models Raymond D. Watts, USGS, Douglas S. Ouren, USGS, Fort Collins Science Center, Alisa W. Coffin, USGS
10:30 AM	OOS 53-8		Road to perdition: The impacts of roads and runoff on a wetland amphibian Steven Patrick Brady, Yale University
10:50 AM	OOS 53-9		Impacts of chronic low level nitrogen deposition along a roadside deposition gradient Neil D. Bettez, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Robert W. Howarth, Cornell University, Roxanne Marino, Cornell University, Eric A. Davidson, The Woods Hole Research Center, Massachusetts
11:10 AM	OOS 53-10		The spread of invasive propagules by road maintenance activities Emily S. J. Rauschert, The Pennsylvania State University, David A. Mortensen, The Pennsylvania State University

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