Habitat Management

Habitat Management (Definition)

A habitat represents the totality of abiotic factors with which the biota (living organisms) interacts to survive.

Habitat manipulation (management) can be done to:

• Enhance abiotic features and quality
• Increase a habitat's capacity to provide for one threatened species
• Preserve natural supplies such as wood, fuel, new foods and medicines
• Change biodiversity interactions (e.g. the number of mesopredators).

Ways to achieve manage or change a habitat include physical environmental changes, e.g. soil creation, social, e.g. resource allocation among individuals or chemical, e.g. pH alteration.

Habitat Management for Conservation

The carrying capacity of an environment can be managed to select for desirable species in a habitat.

One such desirable element can be an old tree. Even one single individual of a tree species has the potential to become a (micro)habitat.

Such a tree would be part of a habitat management plan that creates permanent vegetation for wildlife. Additionally, controlling invasive species, building boxes and nests, improving forest edges and creating wildlife corridors all promote biodiversity conservation. Habitat management for conservation considers the individual needs and characteristics of each species that occurs or may occur inside it.

Habitat management is even more important for habitat specialists, which are those species that are highly adapted to survive in relation to one or very few other species.

Habitat Management Plan (Sampling and Indexes)

Management plans are important for biodiversity conservation, especially for captive breeding and release programmes, in-situ conservation projects and carbon sink projects. They all need to be backed by field data.

Habitat management techniques

To get this data and assess the health of a habitat, ecological sampling techniques are needed, such as belt transects (squares of biodiversity sampled along a line).

Then, we count biodiversity using specific indexes. Two popular ones are Simpson's Diversity Index and Shannon Diversity Index.

OK, this will look more complicated than it actually is, but bear with me!

Simpson's Diversity Index (D) can be used here to assess a habitat's biodiversity and management practices.

D = (n / N)²

or

D = 1 - Ʃ 𝑛(𝑛-1)/𝑁(𝑁-1)

𝑛 = the number of individuals identifiable as from one species

𝑁 = the total number of all individuals

Ʃ = sigma (sum up the number obtained after applying the shown n or N formula)

The Shannon Diversity Index (H) is based on the 20th-century physicist's Claude Shannon, and is a measure of the variability and richness of a given ecosystem. The Shannon biodiversity index can be used to compare different ecosystems, or to track changes in the diversity of a single ecosystem over time.

H = - Σ(n/N) x Ln(n/N)

There are other community and biodiversity index calculation methods too, but these two are among the most used.

Habitat Management Area

A habitat area refers to the total space that wildlife needs in order to survive and thrive. Some species, such as Eurasian wolves, need large areas of up to, or more than 1,000 square kilometres sometimes due to prey scarcity and pack size. Great-crested newts may prefer small ponds only a few meters wide and sometimes even less than one meter deep. This is to avoid predatory fish that could eat their eggs.

Changes to a habitat management area can occur due to natural elements such as natural succession or climate change.

Habitats are visually identifiable. Hundreds of them exist, from the mangroves of Panama to the Atlantic benthos (sea floor), but for the most part, large habitat areas can be split into woodland, fields and wetlands.

Habitat management examples

Forest habitats in the UK may include Caledonian pine forests, broadleaved forests, plantations or temperate Atlantic rainforests. Unique animals such as lynxes, European bison and pine martens can only live there.

Field habitats have been intensively used by people for millennia, and represent open lands that support grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees are scarcer than in woodlands and the soils more exposed, with a higher degree of sunlight that allows for example for the plantation of crop plants such as wheat and corn.

Wetlands are characterized by wet conditions, either permanently or seasonally, and either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. Organisms living in these types of environments typically need specialized adaptations, such as webbing, impermeable fur oils or feathers or root systems that help plants anchor in place. They are especially sensitive to pollution and changes in water pH, oxygen levels and salinity (e.g.

Principles of Habitat Management

For the most part, the principles of habitat management for all types of habitats are based on modifying biotic and abiotic factors. This is to ensure four primary aspects that allow for survival: water, food, shelter and space (along with the competition that comes with it).

The management of abiotic factors has significant impacts on the health of its inhabitants. Temperature, pH, habitat shape, light, level of fragmentation, vegetation age structure, mineral levels and moisture levels are all examples of abiotic factors that must be controlled within a habitat. If any of these factors become too extreme, it can cause stress or even death to the organisms living there.

The management of biotic factors includes food availability, for example, red meat for raptors and nectar for pollinators, control of predation (e.g. bears, cats), control of prey (e.g. deer, rabbits), control of pathogens (e.g. rabies), and especially, species reintroductions (e.g. beavers in England, European bison in Scotland) and habitat rehabilitation.

I hope that this article helps bring a better understanding of the primary types of habitat management and of general habitat management techniques. An important element of dynamism is attributed to all environments, as they are likely to evolve and change as the climate changes too.