We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Sentinels of Ecological Processes: The Case of the Northern Flying Squirrel.
- Authors
SMITH, WINSTON P.
- Abstract
Indigenous forests across North America have been and continue to be transformed. The implications of these changes are far reaching and include the loss of habitat, biological diversity, and ecological services, as well as diminished air and water quality. The northern flying squirrel is a forest obligate that achieves its highest density in old growth, facilitates critical symbiotic relationships, and is an essential prey of disturbance-sensitive predators. Its reliance on old-forest attributes varies with community diversity, and its sensitivity to isolation renders it an ideal indicator of landscape connectivity. The results of numerous studies reveal the squirrel's acute sensitivity to disturbance at multiple spatial scales, which renders it an effective sentinel of forest ecosystem processes and condition over both geological and ecological time scales. Therefore, a thorough understanding of its ecology can inform projections and the effective mitigation of continued disturbance of ecological communities of boreal and montane coniferous forests.
- Subjects
NORTH America; NORTHERN flying squirrel; SQUIRREL ecology; BIOINDICATORS; FOREST animals; ECOLOGICAL disturbances; FOREST biodiversity monitoring; FOREST degradation; OLD growth forest ecology; TAIGA ecology; ECOSYSTEM services
- Publication
BioScience, 2012, Vol 62, Issue 11, p950
- ISSN
0006-3568
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1525/bio.2012.62.11.4