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USGS, Western Ecological Research Center, Dixon Field Station

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Indices of habitat suitability and animal abundance provide useful proxy-based measures adaptive management (Coates et al. 2015a). Doherty et al. (in review) derived a range-wide population index model for sage-grouse using such indices that incorporated sage-grouse habitat suitability generated from Random Forest models (Evans et al. 2011), and spatially explicit abundance measures based on fixed kernel density functions informed by distributions of lek locations (lek locations defined by Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, see Coates et al. 2015b). The kernels were generated using two bandwidth distances representing the majority of breeding habitat in relation to leks (6.4 km) and seasonal movements...
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Greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus; hereinafter, sage-grouse) are a sagebrush obligate species that has declined concomitantly with the loss and fragmentation of sagebrush ecosystems across most of its geographical range. The species has been considered for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act multiple times, and was most recently ruled to not warrant protection as of September 2015. Nevertheless, the species faces threats from increasing wildfire frequency and changing climate, which are identified frequently as two environmental drivers contributing to declines of sage-grouse populations. To help inform a threat assessment within the Great Basin for listing sage-grouse in 2015 under the...
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