Under the radar: advances in murrelet monitoring.

Abstract

Future choices in managing federal and private forest lands in the Pacific Northwest, particularly for commodity production, are partly dependent on how the threatened marbled murrelet responds to the Northwest Forest Plan. Is the plan functioning for this elusive species, and are populations stabilized or increasing?

Because the murrelet forages at sea but nests on land in order forests, its condition is affected by many factors: its status at sea, its nesting habitat on land, and the link between the two. Several tools are available to monitor long-term population trends, and studies in nesting habitat have illuminated habitat requirements. The stage is set for correlating habitat trends with population trends.

But what is becoming increasingly clear is that ecosystem interactions in the murrelet's world are even more complicated than was previously understood.

Citation

Duncan, Sally. 2001. Under the radar: advances in murrelet monitoring. Science Findings. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. November (39): 1-5