RESEARCH
EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE ON WILDLIFE PHYSIOLOGY
Although wildlife have remarkable capacity to respond to environmental change, many species face complex stressors that may compromise their ability to persist. Our research aims to elucidate the responses of wildlife to environmental change using measures of physiology combined with landscape-level analyses and modeling. For example, our team is examining whether potential stressors, including habitat fragmentation, influence physiology, nutrition, and immune function in moose (Carlie O'Brien & Carl-Evan Jefferies), Stone’s sheep (Westin Creyke), and caribou (Lauren Elviss). This work involves the use of existing data, field studies, and lab analyses.
PREDATOR-PREY DISEASE RESEARCH PROJECT
Predators play a key role in wildlife disease dynamics. For example, the ‘healthy herds’ hypothesis predicts that predators reduce parasite prevalence in prey through selective predation of infected individuals. However, predators can also amplify disease transmission by contributing to pathogen spread or persistence. Given different phenotypic targets, non-human predators and humans (i.e., hunters) might have divergent effects on disease transmission. Our team is investigating this question using literature reviews and modeling.
PARASITE-HOST INTERACTIONS
Currently, little is known about the relationship between parasite-host interactions and anthropogenic landscape change such as habitat fragmentation and road density. Our team (led by Ben Spitz) is using the ungulate-winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) system to study the effects of anthropogenic landscape change on parasite-host interactions. Landscape structure could influence tick transmission by affecting the survival rates of larval stages in the environment and/or through effects on ungulate foraging decisions and movements. For instance, fragmentation might concentrate animals into smaller areas of suitable habitat, thereby facilitating tick transmission.
THE MUSKWA-KECHIKA MANAGEMENT AREA (M-KMA)
The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area spans 6.4 million hectares in northern British Columbia, which is nearly twice the size of Vancouver Island. The Management Area is situated on the traditional territories of the Kaska Dena, Treaty 8, and Carrier-Sekani Nations and is commonly referred to as the ‘Serengeti of the North’ due to an abundance of large mammals. The purpose of the Management Area is to maintain wilderness values, wildlife, ecosystems, and cultures that exist in the region through an innovative management system that allows for sustainable resource development. As part of the governance system of the M-KMA, an Advisory Board comprising members representing diverse perspectives was established to provide the government of British Columbia with advice on management.
Since 1999, the University of Northern British Columbia has partnered with the Advisory Board to support research in the M-KMA. Dr. Katherine Parker was the Ian McTaggart Cowan Muskwa-Kechika Research Professor at UNBC until 2019. Since Dr. Parker’s retirement, Dr. Bryan has been appointed to this position. Current research in our lab related to the M-KMA focuses on examining the effects of prescribed burns on Stone’s sheep health and populations (Collaboration with Alicia Woods, Ridgeline Wildlife Enhancement and the Wild Sheep Society of BC), the use of coarse woody debris by small mammals (Led by Alice Tew, Collaboration with the Halfway River First Nation and Cara Snell, UNBC), and the effects of forest fragmentation on mammalian diversity (led by Josh Green, collaboration with Chu Cho Environmental and the Tsay Keh Dene Nation.