Michigan ZoomIN

Project Justification

The loss of carnivores is of growing concern because of the role they play in animal communities. Top mammal carnivores such as cougars (Puma concolor) and gray wolves (Canis lupus) help control herbivores such as deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Therefore, these species can have large impacts not only on other animal species but entire ecosystems through indirect effects on vegetation. Because people are changing landscapes by converting areas to grow food and live, and altering climates, understanding how carnivores and other species respond becomes increasingly important. Our research aims to study the distribution of carnivore communities and their prey throughout the state of Michigan with varying environmental conditions and levels of disturbance. Such information will help us anticipate consequences of future changes and understand sensitivities of species.

Specifically, the Applied Wildlife Ecology (AWE) Lab at the Yale School of the Environment will use your animal classification from our remote camera survey to:

1. Compare mammal species occurrence to broad-scale species distribution maps
2. Estimate biomass across trophic levels using capture frequencies
3. Investigate occupancy patterns of carnivores
4. Investigate resource-use overlap including activity patterns among carnivore species, across
   populations, and between predator-prey species

Michigan

Named as “The Great Lake State”, Michigan touches 4 of the 5 Great Lakes and is abundant in water resources containing over 11,000 inland lakes. Michigan is uniquely comprised of two peninsulas separated by the Mackinac Straits. Like the other states in the Midwest, Michigan has a temperate climate with moderately warm summers and cold winters due to heavy lake-effect snow. Flat lowlands dominate the landscape in the east of both land masses, while the relatively mountainous region of the Upper Peninsula reaches up to 2,000 feet in elevation. Deciduous forest species (oak, hickory, maple, and beech) compose the vegetation of the Lower Peninsula to the south, while evergreen species (white spruce, balsam fir, jack pine) appear as the latitude increases, expanding the plant diversity of the forests.

With just under 10 million residents across the state, the center of the population is located in Shiawassee County in southeast Michigan. Michigan’s economy is largely based on the automotive and tech industry. Therefore, human development and urbanization often invade into the natural wilderness. Even in the Upper Peninsula where human population is sparse, the logging industry drives the economy and simultaneously affects the forest composition. Human intervention has altered the ecological communities of wildlife species. Of the 65 species of mammals native to Michigan, some are endangered or threatened in their environments, notably the gray wolf (Canis lupus) and Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis). These species spark conservation concerns and the state government continues to improve regulations and restrictions to revive these endangered populations. However, the bigger picture of conservation urges for maintaining ecological interactions within communities in order to secure them for the future.

Study Areas