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Minnesota's Wildlife Action Plan 2015-2025

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Minnesota's Wildlife Action Plan 2015-2025 Glossary of Terms and Acronyms Terms adaptive management. A decision process that promotes flexible decision making in the face of uncertainty or changing conditions, and allows for adaptation as the effect of management actions and outcomes become better understood. Monitoring of conservation actions and outcomes is a key component of adaptive management. biological diversity. The variety of living organisms that are recognized and analyzed by biologists at three levels of organization: ecosystems; the species that comprise those ecosystems; and the genetic variability within those species (Wilson 2001). Species present in an ecosystem include animals, plants, fungi, protists, and bacteria and range enormously in size and ecological functions. Functional diversity (see definition) is an aspect of biological diversity that some scientists believe may be of particular importance to ecosystem resilience. Biological diversity can be measured at different spatial scales (Whittaker 1960): • alpha-diversity: the number of species found in a small homogeneous area. • beta-diversity: extent of change in species composition among habitats or communities. • gamma-diversity: total species diversity in a landscape. Conservation Focus Areas. Priority areas for working with partners to identify, design, and implement conservation actions and report on the effectiveness toward achieving the goals and objectives defined in the Wildlife Action Plan. Conservation Focus Areas are intended to focus conservation efforts over the next 10 years to maintain and enhance the resiliency of the Wildlife Action Network. ecological classification system. A system used to identify, describe, and map progressively smaller areas of land with increasingly uniform ecological features. The system uses associations of biotic and environmental factors, including climate, geology, topography, soils, hydrology, and vegetation. Map units for six levels occur in Minnesota: Provinces, Sections, Subsections, Land Type Associations, Land Types, and Land Type Phases. For more information see http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ecs/index. html. ecological engineers. Species that alter the habitat to such a degree that they modify the fates and opportunities of other species (for example, beavers). ecosystem function. The flows of energy and material in food webs and cycles. ecosystem process. A natural phenomenon in an ecosystem that leads toward a particular result. ecosystem services. The benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. These include a wide range of products and services that include provisioning services such as food, water, timber, and fiber; regulation services such as the regulation of climate, floods, disease, wastes, and water quality; cultural services such as recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, and spiritual fulfillment; and supporting services such as soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling. ecosystem structure. The distribution of energy, materials, and species. ecotone. A region of transition between two biological communities. focal species. Species that have key, broad-scale ecosystem-level effects. These species affect ecological systems in diverse ways and can be further described as indicator species, keystone species, ecological engineers, umbrella species, and link species. See separate definitions for these concepts. Glossary of Terms and Acronyms Minnesota’s Wildlife Action Plan 2015‐2025 67 functional diversity. Species that influence ecosystem dynamics such as stability, productivity, nutrient balance, and water purification. Functional groups of species are sets of species that have similar traits, which contribute to the likelihood that the group will be similar in its effects on ecosystem functioning (Tilman 2001). Another aspect of species function in osec ystems is response diversity (see definition). Measures of functional diversity can take various forms; some examples are as fol- lows: • functional richness: the number of functional groups present in an area. • functional diversity: the number of functional groups present relative to the abundance of indi- viduals within a functional group (Jost 2007, Tuomisto 2010). • functional evenness: calculated as the quotient between functional diversity and functional rich- ness (Tuomisto 2012). • functional redundancy: the number of species contributing similarly to an ecosystem function (Laliberte et al. 2010) and can be measured as the average number of species within each func- tional group (Allen et al. 2005). • cross-scale redundancy: the average number of spatial scales at which each function is repre- sented (Allen et al. 2005). habitat. A place (ecosystem) where a species lives and interacts with the physical environment and other species. Some species require multiple habitats at different stages in their life cycle. hydrologic unit code (HUC). A mapping system of watersheds at nested scales, where a smaller number represents a coarser scale. indicator species. Species that tell us about the status of other species and habitats or the impacts of a stressor. keystone species. Species that have greater effects on ecological processes than would be predicted from their abundance or biomass alone. Lakes of Biological Significance. https://gisdata.mn.gov/dataset/env-lakes-of-biological-signific link species. Species that exert critical roles in the transfer of matter and energy across trophic levels (of a food web) or provide critical links for energy transfer within complex food webs. Marxan. A conservation prioritization mapping software that assists in finding the most efficient ways of physically linking conservation target areas. recruitment. The increase in a natural population as juveniles are born and survive, or immigrants arrive. Usually measured or detected by the presence multiple age-classes of juveniles. resilience. The capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, and feedbacks, and therefore identity (Folke et al. 2010). response diversity. The variability of responses to environmental change among species contributing to the same ecosystem function (Elmqvist et al. 2003, Laliberte et al. 2010). Sites of Biodiversity Significance. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/mcbs/biodiversity_guidelines.html species. A population whose members are able to interbreed freely under natural conditions. species viability. A viable species is one with self-sustaining and interacting populations that are well- distributed throughout the species’ range. Self-sustaining populations are those that are sufficiently Glossary of Terms and Acronyms Minnesota’s Wildlife Action Plan 2015‐2025 68 abundant and have sufficient diversity to display the array of life-history strategies and forms to provide for their long-term persistence and adaptability over time. The definition of the term well- distributed can vary based on current, historic, and potential population and habitat conditions. Maintaining viability is a means of ensuring, as much as possible, that a species will not go extinct in the foreseeable future (U.S. Department of Agriculture. Committee of Scientists 1999). status and trend monitoring. Long-term measurement of one or more variables, such as species abun- dance or water clarity, used to identify patterns of change and determine the state of one or more species, habitats, or ecosystems. stewardship species. A stewardship species is defined as either: A. Species for which populations in Minnesota represent a significant portion of their North American breeding or wintering population, or B. Species whose Minnesota populations are stable, but whose populations outside of Minnesota have declined or are declining in a substantial part of their range. C. Species for which migrating populations congregating in Minnesota represent a significant portion of the North American population. Stream Index of Biological Integrity. http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/water/water-monitor- ing-and-reporting/biological-monitoring/index-of-biological-integrity.html stressor. A condition that directly or indirectly negatively impacts a habitat or species. target habitat. Habitats that are present in a Conservation Focus Area that are utilized by Species in Greatest Conservation Need and require management attention to be sustained or enhanced over time. Target habitats are identified for individual Conservation Focus Areas. target species. An individual or group of Species in Greatest Conservation Need that inhabit target habi- tats and require special management attention or could serve as focal species for monitoring purpos- es. Target species are identified for individual Conservation Focus Areas. umbrella species. Species that either have large area requirements or use multiple habitats and thus overlap the habitat requirements of many other species. vulnerability assessment. A tool used in adaptation planning for informing the development and im- plementation of resource management practices. Vulnerability assessment as it pertains to climate change is usually structured around three distinct components: sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity. Wildlife Action Network. Mapped aquatic and terrestrial habitats, buffers, and connections that rep- resent a diversity of quality habitats that contain populations of Species in Greatest Conservation Need. Acronyms AMSD Adaptive Management Spatial Database BMP Best Management Practice CFA Conservation Focus Area DNR Department of Natural
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