In a warming climate, changing snow conditions and consistency could play a notable role in how predators hunt prey. SEFS associate professor Laura Prugh is working with UW professor of civil and environmental engineering Jessica Lundquist to measure snow properties that led to a “danger zone,” where prey would sink but predators would not.
Their research was featured in a UW News article and video highlighting findings from a recent publication.
A recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters by UW researchers, including SEFS Associate Professor Laura Prugh, examines the relationship between early-season snow and total snowfall in the western U.S. Using data from a network of snow sensors, the researchers looked at air temperature and accumulated precipitation from 2001 to 2022 for over 800 sites. They found that in some western states, including Alaska, Oregon and Washington, and parts of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, autumn snowfall is a good predictor of the total snow an area will get throughout the winter-spring season. The relationship between autumn snowfall and total snowpack was harder to predict in California, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona, where weather patterns varied too much or most precipitation fell after December.
New research led by SEFS Ph.D. Candidate Catherine (Katie) Breen highlights remote cameras deployed to monitor wildlife as an untapped source of snow cover observations. Published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment last week, Breen and her advisor, Associate Professor Laura Prugh, worked with colleagues at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and NASA on a method combining international datasets to validate and improve satellite observations of snow cover using imagery from wildlife camera networks.
Globally, snow cover observations are used for hydrological forecasting, predicting the timing of snow melt and seasonal snow patterns, water resource planning, and animal migration patterns. Currently, satellite observations provide daily data on snow cover, but cloud and forest cover among other factors can impede the accuracy of the information.
To address this limitation and improve snow cover observations, Breen and Prugh sought to combine their respective backgrounds in remote sensing and wildlife science to explore how existing networks of wildlife cameras could supplement satellite observations to produce a more accurate picture of snow cover patterns. Colleagues in Norway working with expansive wildlife camera dataset presented an opportunity to pursue the novel concept.
“Dr. Prugh’s experience ensured expert use of camera trap datasets, and I helped bring experience with satellite datasets. Our collaborators at NASA are leaders in remote sensing for snow. The final missing piece was an extensive camera trap dataset from a highly respected Norwegian research team,” said Breen.
Breen received a NASA Graduate Fellowship and a Fellowship from the American Scandinavian Foundation and traveled to Norway to work with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA). NINA, an applied ecological research center, hosts a network of camera traps across the country to track wildlife populations and biodiversity.
The researchers used data from over one thousand wildlife cameras, spread across 10 degrees of latitude through the forested, mountainous, and coastal regions of Norway. Along with information on wildlife habits and movement, each camera provides a trove of observations about on-the-ground snow conditions throughout the year.
Whether the observations would align with satellite imagery given the differences in scale was uncertain. While the wildlife cameras capture a field of view of about 20 to 30 meters, satellite observations are made at a scale of 500 meters, or the size of several football fields. To their surprise, the team found strong agreement between the camera trap data and satellite observations on the presence or absence of snow across the region.
“In some ways, the cameras are even more accurate because they allow you to see below the tree crowns and get some of the on-the-ground information that satellites don’t have access to,” said Breen.
However, the datasets diverge after several days of consistent cloud cover. Satellites measure snow cover based on the reflectivity of the ground surface, and in the presence of clouds, the last clear-day observation is used to predict what current conditions may be. After three or four cloudy days, the predicted value could stray significantly from true conditions on the ground as snow or rainfall may have rapidly increased or decreased the total area under snow.
Positioned beneath the cloud cover and vegetation that could hinder satellite observations, wildlife cameras provide an avenue to pinpoint sources of inaccuracies in the imagery. This research highlights the potential of remote camera networks to supplement satellite observations and create more reliable snow cover maps, particularly in regions that see heavy cloud cover throughout the winter, such as Norway and the Pacific Northwest.
As the wildlife ecology community continues to expand camera networks to monitor biodiversity, a growing opportunity exists to enhance our understanding of changing snow conditions with ground-based remote sensing data on a global scale. In a changing climate, there is an urgent need for information on the rapidly changing water availability and wildlife patterns.
The unexpected opportunity to collaborate with an ecological institute across the globe has made this research possible, said Breen. Her time with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research allowed her to immerse herself in a new culture while completing her PhD, and even explore her own Scandinavian heritage.
“It’s exciting to draw together datasets from different research teams, different technologies, and even different fields of science, and still find they can build on one another,” said Breen.
Led by SEFS Associate Professor Laura Prugh, new research published the journal Science shows that in Washington state, the presence of apex predators like wolves and cougars can push coyotes and bobcats into areas with higher levels of human activity. The team, made up of researchers at the University of Washington, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Spokane Tribe of Indians, found that these smaller predators were more than three times as likely to die from human activity, like hunting or trapping, than by the apex predators they were moving away from.
The study sheds light on the impact of human-wildlife interactions and how interactions among species are changing. Former UW postdoctoral researcher Calum Cunningham, SEFS Research Analyst Lead Taylor Ganz, and SEFS Professor Aaron Wirsing are co-authors on the publication.
After many months of planning and set-up, room renovations and equipment tweaks, we are very pleased to announce that our new SEFS Shared Genetics Laboratory is fully open and operational in Bloedel 170!
Funded by Professor Laura Prugh, SEFS and a Student Technology Fee grant that alumna Melissa Pingree secured, the newly refurbished lab is designed to focus on non-invasive, low-quality/low-quantity DNA genetic testing from hair, scat, saliva, water, soil and other collected material that doesn’t require the capture of an animal (though the lab is also capable of handling blood and tissue sampling). It’s equipped with highly specialized technologies, including a droplet digital PCR machine to detect very low levels of DNA, and is open to SEFS graduate and undergraduate students in need of space and equipment for their genetic research, whether they’re exploring bacterial communities in soil, or identifying species through hair samples. While using the equipment is free—dependent on availability—students do have to provide their own supplies.
Several graduate students are already using the lab, including a project that involves swabbing bite marks on killed ungulates to determine predator identification. There’s also a new citizen science project on Vashon Island through the Vashon Nature Center that involves a pilot coyote study to try to isolate quality DNA from scat samples to determine individual identification.
The possibilities range widely, and the best way to see how the lab might support your own research is to contact the lab manager, Kelly Williams. Originally from Upstate New York, Kelly earned a master’s in ecology from Colorado State University, and her graduate research involved developing a method of detecting feral pig DNA in water samples (she just had her paper accepted in PLOS ONE!). In addition to assisting graduate student projects, she is currently training and working with three undergraduate student volunteers this summer to help extract DNA scat samples from Alaska as part of one of Laura’s grants.
If you’d like to learn more about the lab or set up a tour, contact Kelly anytime!
Professor Laura Prugh was recently awarded a National Science Foundation grant for $898,551—provided through the Faculty Early-Career Development (CAREER) program—to support a new project in northern Washington, “Integrating positive and negative interactions in carnivore community ecology.”
Large carnivores are key components of ecosystems, and as wolves naturally recolonize Washington, their presence could have cascading effects on a variety of species, including smaller carnivores, known as mesopredators. While wolves can reduce populations of mesopredators through killing and intimidation, they may also benefit these smaller carnivores by providing easy meals in the form of carrion. This study, in turn, will focus on the movements and population dynamics of two common mesopredators, coyotes and bobcats, as part of a collaborative investigation of wolves, cougars, deer and elk—with the ultimate aim of improving carnivore conservation and management.
“I’m fascinated by the fact that large carnivores provide food to small carnivores in the form of carrion, and yet they also kill small carnivores,” says Laura, an assistant professor of quantitative wildlife sciences in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS). “Scavenging and intra-carnivore killing have been treated as separate phenomena, but I’ve proposed that they are in fact closely linked: carrion could be an ecological trap that makes small carnivores vulnerable to being killed by their larger cousins. I’m looking forward to testing this ‘fatal attraction’ hypothesis and learning more about complex interactions at the top of the food chain.”
The project—which will run from June 15, 2017, to May 31, 2022—includes several collaborators, including Professor Leslie Herrenkohl from the UW College of Education; Professor Jonathan Pauli from the University of Wisconsin; Angela Davis-Unger from the UW Office of Educational Assessment; the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; the Alaska Native Science and Education Program (ANSEP); and Symbio Studios.
These partners will use a powerful combination of animal-borne GPS and video tracking technology, stable isotope enrichment of carcasses, fecal genotyping, and cameras at kill sites to jointly examine facilitation and suppression. This research will be integrated into a wildlife course at SEFS with 150 students per year—ESRM 150: Wildlife in the Modern World—by creating new inquiry-based labs using photos from carcass sites. In addition, this study will involve Alaska Native students in field and lab research in partnership with the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, and video vignettes about carnivore ecology will be created in partnership with Symbio Studios to reach 2 million K-12 students per year for five to seven years.
Photos © Laura Prugh.
From September 16 to 22, Professor Laura Prugh and her new postdoc, Madelon Van de Kerk, headed to the field in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. They were deploying remote cameras and snow stakes to monitor snow conditions as part of Laura’s NASA ABoVE project involving Dall sheep.
A major goal of this study is to determine how snow conditions affect Dall sheep movement and survival rates. So they put up 22 snow-monitoring stations in an area of the park where their agency collaborators will be putting GPS collars on sheep later this fall. Each monitoring station consists of a camera mounted on a t-post that will take a photo of a snow stake every hour all winter. Their ground-based snow monitoring will be used to improve a model of snow conditions based on satellite remote sensing and meteorological data. Then, combining this model with the GPS location data from collared sheep will allow the researchers to determine—for the first time—how snow conditions like depth and hardness affect Dall sheep movements.
Joining Laura and Madelon for the fieldwork were her co-PI at Oregon State University, Professor Anne Nolin, and Anne’s doctoral student, Chris Cosgrove. The four of them flew to the Wrangells in a small plane—a Piper Super Cub—to reach their little cabin, well above the tree line on a large, alpine mesa. They then set up the snow-monitoring stations along elevational transects, which Laura says was extremely challenging work due to steep and rocky terrain. Their packs were also quite heavy and awkward, weighing more than 40 pounds, as they had to pack around the steel t-posts, PVC snow stakes, cameras and two 16-pound post drivers.
“We all had pretty sore muscles,” says Laura, “but it was worth it! The scenery was breathtaking, weather was great, and we saw lots of sheep, pikas, ptarmigan and some arctic ground squirrels.”
Take a look at a gallery of photos from their trip, and also a great little video of Laura explaining the project while on site last month!
Photos and video © Laura Prugh.
This summer, Professor Laura Prugh has taken two trips to the field—first with one of her current graduate students near Mount Rainer, and then to southeast Alaska with a master’s student who’s joining her lab and starting at SEFS this fall.
For the first excursion in June, Laura spent a few days south of Mount Rainier in Gifford Pinchot National Forest with her current master’s student, Mitch Parsons, and his summer field technician, Aaron Black. Mitch’s project is looking at trophic relationships of reintroduced fishers in the South Cascades. Fishers were reintroduced this past winter, and another round of releases will occur this winter. So Mitch is assessing prey availability using sign surveys and small mammal trapping, and assessing the occupancy of competing carnivores using camera trapping.
Then, two weeks ago Laura traveled to Glacier Bay National Park in southeast Alaska to check out future study sites for her incoming master’s student, Mira Sytsma. Using camera traps, Mira’s project will involve looking at how visitor shore excursions affect the activity of terrestrial wildlife. They spent three days on a research boat with National Park Service Biologist and project collaborator Tania Lewis, and they visited many sites—enjoying amazing wildlife sightings along the way, too, including a wolf with three pups, two brown bears, lots of humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, Stellar sea lions, harbor seals, moose, mountain goats and even a porcupine!
We look forward to hearing how these projects progress!
Photos © Laura Prugh.
This past spring, Professor Laura Prugh took her first turn teaching ESRM 351: Wildlife Research Techniques, a field-intensive course that involves several weekend trips to sites around the state.
Through a combination of classroom time and field excursions, the course introduces students to common techniques used to assess wildlife populations and their habitat, and also how to communicate observations through field journals. Students gain hands-on experience with species identification, non-lethal methods of capturing and handling a variety of wildlife species, and non-invasive methods of wildlife research that do not involve capturing animals. By the end of the quarter, they should be able to identify a host of regional birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and plants, and they should be proficient at keeping detailed field notes and have a basic understanding of the scientific writing and the publication process.
The four primary field trips included overnights at Friday Harbor Labs on San Juan Island and the Olympic Natural Resource Center in Forks, Wash., as well as camping at Teanaway and Mount Rainier. While at these field sites, students get to experiment with all sorts of skills and techniques, including radiotelemetry, learning regional birds by sight and sound (call/song), conducting rabbit burrow counts and small mammal trapping, field identification and capture methods for birds, amphibian surveys in terrestrial and aquatic habitats, and much more.
It’s an incredibly popular and memorable course, and one of the students in this year’s class, Kacy Hardin, set up a public Facebook group to capture scenes from their trips. The page offers a fun photo journal of their various research endeavors, with loads of great shots and clips, so check it out!
Photo of Laura Prugh with snake © Laura Prugh; photo of Laurel Peelle handling a Keen’s mouse (below) © Andrew Wang.
This March, the Institute of Forest Resources awarded four grants through the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research program, totaling $374,877 in funding. After final approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these projects will begin during the 2016 Fall Quarter and last two years, wrapping up by September 30, 2018.
Read more about the funded projects below!
Awarded Projects
1. Sustainable Development of Nanosorbents by Catalytic Graphitization of Woody Biomass for Water Remediation
PI: Professor Anthony Dichiara, SEFS
Co-PI: Professor Renata Bura, SEFS
The present research proposes the development of a simple, sustainable and scalable method to produce high-value carbon nanomaterials from woody biomass. As-prepared carbon products will be employed as adsorbents of large capacity and high binding affinity to remove pesticides from hydrological environments. This project will (i) help mitigate forest fires by limiting the accumulation of dry residues in forest lands, (ii) create new market opportunities to transform the wood manufacturing industry and reinvigorate rural communities, and (iii) minimize potential exposure to hazardous contaminants.
Award total: $109,869
2. Trophic Relationships of Reintroduced Fishers in the South Cascades
PI: Professor Laura Prugh, SEFS
In 2015, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) began reintroducing fishers (Pekania pennanti) to the South Cascades. The west coast fisher population has been proposed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (decision due by April 2016), and fisher recovery is thus a high priority in Washington. Fisher habitat use has been studied with respect to denning and rest site characteristics, but effects of forest management and stand characteristics on establishment success of reintroduced fishers remains unknown. In collaboration with agency partners, we propose to study how forest structure and management impact prey availability, competitor abundance and fisher establishment in the South Cascades.
Award total: $99,679
3. High-value Chemicals and Gasoline Additives from Pyrolysis and Upgrade of Beetle-killed Trees
PI: Professor Fernando Resende, SEFS
Co-PI: Professor Anthony Dichiara, SEFS
In this project, we will convert beetle-killed lodgepole pine into fuel additives and valuable chemicals (hydrocarbons) using a technique called ablative pyrolysis combined with an upgrading step. We developed a novel and unique system for pyrolysis of wood that has the capability of converting entire wood chips into bio-oil. This characteristic is important for mobile pyrolysis units, because it eliminates the need of grinding wood chips prior to pyrolysis.
Award total: $109,861
4. Bigleaf Maple Decline in Western Washington
PI: Professor Patrick Tobin, SEFS
Co-PI: Professor Greg Ettl, SEFS
We propose to investigate the extent and severity of a recently reported decline in bigleaf maple, Acer macrophyllum, in the urban and suburban forests of Western Washington, and to differentiate between possible abiotic and biotic drivers of the decline. Specifically, we propose to (1) survey the spatial extent of bigleaf maple decline (BLMD) and record associated environmental, anthropogenic, and weather conditions that are associated with BLMD presence and absence; (2) use dendrochronological techniques to analyze and compare growth rates of healthy and symptomatic trees to further differentiate the potential roles of abiotic and biotic drivers of the decline; and (3) to link the data collected under Objectives 1 and 2 with previous records of BLMD collected by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to ascertain the spatial-temporal pattern associated with BLMD in Western Washington.
Award total: $55,468