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Managing protected areas effectively requires information about patterns of visitor use, but these data are often limited. We explore how geotagged photos on Flickr, a popular photo-sharing social-media site, can generate hotspot maps and distribution models of temporal and spatial patterns of use in two mountain-protected areas of high conservation value. In Aconcagua Provincial Park (Argentina), two routes to the summit of Aconcagua were used in summer, but most visitors stayed close to the main road, using formal and informal walking trails and the Visitor Centre, while in winter, there was very limited visitation. In Kosciuszko National Park (Australia), alpine walking trails were popular in summer, but in winter, most visitors stayed in the lower altitude ski resorts and ski trails. Results demonstrate the usefulness of social-media data alone as well as a complement for visitor monitoring, providing spatial and temporal information for site-specific and park-level management of visitors and potential impacts in conservation areas.

It is widely recognized that protected areas can strongly influence ecological systems and that hybridization is an important conservation issue. However, previous studies have not explicitly considered the influence of protected areas on hybridization dynamics. Eastern wolves are a species of special concern and their distribution is largely restricted to a protected population in Algonquin Provincial Park (APP), Ontario, Canada, where they are the numerically dominant canid. We studied intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing survival and cause-specific mortality of hybrid and parental canids in the three-species hybrid zone between eastern wolves, eastern coyotes, and gray wolves in and adjacent to APP. Mortality risk for eastern wolves in areas adjacent to APP was significantly higher than for other sympatric Canis types outside of APP, and for eastern wolves and other canids within APP. Outside of APP, the annual mortality rate of all canids by harvest (24%) was higher than for other causes of death (4-7%). Furthermore, eastern wolves (hazard ratio = 3.5) and nonresidents (transients and dispersing animals, hazard ratio = 2.7) were more likely to die from harvest relative to other Canis types and residents, respectively. Thus, eastern wolves dispersing from APP were especially vulnerable to harvest mortality. For residents, eastern wolf survival was more negatively influenced by increased road density than for other Canis types, further highlighting the sensitivity of eastern wolves to human disturbance. A cycle of dispersal from APP followed by high rates of mortality and hybridization appears to maintain eastern wolves at low density adjacent to APP, limiting the potential for expansion beyond the protected area. However, high survival and numerical dominance of eastern wolves within APP suggest that protected areas can allow rare hybridizing species to persist even if their demographic performance is compromised and barriers to hybridization are largely absent in the adjacent matrix.

Forest ecosystems across western North America are experiencing increasingly large and severe wildfire disturbances. From 2012 to 2024, approximately 600,000 ha of forest in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, British Columbia's largest protected area, were impacted by wildfires. These wildfires burned primarily through lower elevation subboreal forests, but high‐severity fire also impacted subalpine and treeline ecosystems across the mountainous provincial park. Whitebark pine is a long‐lived and endangered high‐elevation tree species experiencing extensive mortality throughout western North America from an invasive pathogen and recent large‐scale outbreaks of mountain pine beetle. To understand the impacts of changing fire regimes on subboreal and subalpine whitebark pine ecosystems, we reconstructed the first fire history in North Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. Eleven study sites containing whitebark pine were sampled along lakeshores, islands, knolls, and ridgelines. Our fire history record indicated two key findings. First, fire‐scarred trees provided evidence of low‐severity fire at all 11 study sites. Our dendrochronological record covered 830 years (1190–2020) and included 127 fire scars during a 580‐year period (1377–1957), with a composite mean fire interval of 8 years in the period 1580–1957 recorded across the study area. Second, our results highlight centuries of Indigenous fire stewardship that, combined with lightning, comprised the historical fire regime. Prior to 20th century fire suppression policies, the fire regime was characterized by shorter fire intervals than the contemporary period, effectively reducing available fuels, and creating a mosaic of burned and unburned forests across the landscape. Our research findings highlight the need for proactive and dynamic wildfire management that supports multiple cultural and ecological values across protected areas.

Habitat heterogeneity and wetland area play important roles in aquatic biodiversity; however, other factors are equally important in the composition and distribution of ecological communities. Over a 3-year period, including a year of drought, we demonstrate how beavers physically altered isolated shallow-water wetlands in Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, Canada, which then influenced aquatic invertebrates diversity and abundance of functional feeding groups and taxa. Digging channels by beavers extended aquatic habitats over 200 m into the upland zone and created unique aquatic habitats, which became hot-spots for predaceous aquatic invertebrates. Some taxa (e.g., Gerridae and Gyrinidae) were found exclusively in beaver ponds, while Culicidae were primarily in wetlands without beavers. Amphipoda were strongly associated with beaver ponds in drought and post-drought years. During extreme drought in 2009, species richness, diversity and abundance declined dramatically, but recovered quickly in 2010. Although species richness was associated with wetland area, increased niche availability through active maintenance of wetlands by beavers played an important role in aquatic invertebrate diversity and distribution. Understanding the role of common, but seldom surveyed within-wetland habitats in boreal wetlands expands our ability to understand aquatic biodiversity, the importance of habitat heterogeneity and the role of other taxa in species assemblages.

Negative co-occurrence patterns are intriguing because they may reflect the outcome of interspecific interactions and therefore signal how competition shapes communities. However, other factors also contribute to these patterns. For example, theoretical studies as well as two survey-based studies have all suggested that dispersal may also impact these patterns. While natural communities commonly have nonrandom patterns of negative co-occurrence, understanding how different processes drive these patterns requires further research. We tested the influence of dispersal on co-occurrence patterns using a zooplankton mesocosm experiment with four different dispersal treatments varying in the number of dispersers delivered into mesocosms on regular intervals. Our dispersal treatments were intended to adjust the relative importance of dispersal and competition experienced within mesocosms (i.e., high dispersal results in a relatively low influence of competition on species composition and vice versa). Higher dispersal translated into increased zooplankton species richness and inter-mesocosm compositional similarity, and also changed species occupancy patterns such that species occurrences were more even across mesocosms in higher-dispersal treatments. Dispersal treatments also differed markedly in species co-occurrence patterns. Negative co-occurrence patterns were significant for all but the lowest-dispersal treatment, peaked in the intermediate-dispersal treatments, and declined in the highest-dispersal treatment. Stability analyses illustrate that co-occurrence differences are robust to the exclusion of any single mesocosm in null model analyses. Dispersal treatments did not significantly differ with respect to abiotic variation, which has been recognized as a potential driver of negative co-occurrence patterns. These results suggest that not only can dispersal influence patterns of negative co-occurrence via changes to species richness and distribution (occupancy patterns among mesocosms), but the degree to which they do so varies nonlinearly with the strength of dispersal. Critically, because negative co-occurrence patterns were nonsignificant when the contribution of dispersal was lowest, it is possible that dispersal contributes strongly to many observed patterns of negative co-occurrence. Consequently, great care should be taken prior to interpreting significant co-occurrence tests as a product of species interactions.

The acidification and ongoing pH recovery of lakes in Killarney Provincial Park, Canada, provide a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of the role of dispersal as communities respond to environmental change. Time lags in community recovery following pH increases in acidified lakes have typically been attributed to local factors; however, no studies have been conducted to determine if colonist availability could also play a role. Moreover, the rates and mechanisms of dispersal to recovering lakes are poorly understood. In this study, we sought to determine if dispersal limitation could impede the recovery of zooplankton communities affected by a regional stressor. To achieve this objective, we used a combination of empirical data collection along with spatial modeling and variation partitioning techniques. Data were collected by measuring dispersal to four recovering lakes in Killarney Park. Dispersal traps were placed next to lakes to measure immigration overland, drift nets were used to measure immigration via streams, and in situ emergence traps were used to quantify immigration from historically deposited resting eggs. Documented dispersal levels were then compared with the theoretical critical density required for reproduction ( N C ) to determine if adequate numbers were dispersing to establish populations of acid-sensitive species in recovering lakes. Spatial modeling and variation partitioning were conducted using community and physical/chemical data for 45 park lakes that were collected in 1972-–1973, 1990, and 2005. Field data demonstrated that a variety of zooplankton species were dispersing to recovering lakes through streams and the egg bank, but few individuals were collected dispersing overland. Although we identified 24 species of zooplankton dispersing, only six species absent from the communities of our study lakes were identified from our traps, and two of these species did not disperse in high enough numbers to surpass N C . Local environmental variables explained the largest proportion of the variation in zooplankton communities (18-–37%%); however, spatial variables were also important (7-–18%%). The significant spatial patterns we found in the park's zooplankton communities, combined with the low overland dispersal levels we documented, suggest that dispersal limitation may be a more important impediment to recovery than was previously thought.

In this complete and up-to-date guide, first-time campers will find answers to all their questions about where to go, how to pack, and what to do. Seasoned campers will find helpful tips to streamline their planning and make their next trip better than ever.

Frontenac Provincial Park is located on the Frontenac Axis, a southern extension of the Canadian Shield, linking Algonquin Park to the Adirondack Mountains. To better understand the lichen biota of this interesting ecosystem, an inventory was conducted during several field visits from 2016–2019. During these surveys, 280 species of lichens and allied fungi in 115 genera were discovered. Presented is the first published record of Lempholemma cladodes (Tuck.) Zahlbr. in Canada, as well as the first published discoveries of Cladonia petrophila R. C. Harris, Coccocarpia palmicola (Spreng.) Arv. & D. J. Galloway, and Leprocaulon adhaerens (K. Knudsen, Elix & Lendemer) Lendemer & B. P. Hodk. in Ontario. Sixteen species are provincially ranked as critically imperilled (S1, S1S2 or S1S3), sixteen species as imperilled (S2 or S2S3), and nineteen species as vulnerable (S3 or S3S4). Unranked species reported for the second time in Canada are Dermatocarpon muhlenbergii (Ach.) Müll. Arg. and Cladonia atlantica A. Evans. An undescribed species of Lempholemma growing on flooded deciduous tree bases in vernal pools was also discovered. A discussion of Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm., a pollution and habitat disturbance sensitive species, is presented. The records of L. pulmonaria discovered in Frontenac quite possibly represent the most southern observations in the province and are of conservation concern. It is recommended that a lichen awareness and education program be created for the park staff and visitors to highlight these rare and sensitive lichens and habitats within the park in the hope that lichens are protected through appropriate management and planning.

The badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park (Alberta, Canada) are renowned for the exceptional abundance and diversity of Campanian-aged vertebrate body fossils, especially dinosaurs. Due to the steep exposures and rapid erosion, dinosaur tracks and trackways are considered extremely rare but have been recorded from a small number of concretionary casts, which pertain to hadrosaurids and a single tyrannosaurid. Here, we document the first multitaxic dinosaur footprint assemblage from the Dinosaur Park Formation based on a new locality that contains multiple individual ceratopsids, two tyrannosaurids, a possible ankylosaurian, and a small theropod-like taxon. Ceratopsid tracks are globally rare but dominate the new tracksite, suggesting gregarious behaviour, which is also supported by their regular spacing and parallel arrangement. The possible ankylosaurian track is identified (in part) on account of having three distinct pedal digits, consistent with the pedal anatomy of several Dinosaur Park ankylosaurids ( Euoplocephalus, Dyoplosaurus ) and the newly erected ichnotaxon Ruopodosaurus clava but differentiating it from other ankylosaurian tracks ( Tetrapodosaurus isp.). Importantly, the new tracks are the first natural moulds (concave epirelief) found in Dinosaur Provincial Park, which, due to the unique geomorphology of the area, can only be recognised in outcrops where there are prominent sediment displacement rims. The new search image outlined here has already resulted in several subsequent trackway discoveries, and has the potential to transform ichnological studies in the Dinosaur Park Formation and related formations where badlands prevail.

Mapping and valuing of forest recreation is time-consuming and complex, hampering its inclusion in forest management plans and hence the achievement of a fully sustainable forest management. In this study, we explore the potential of crowdsourced social media data in tackling the mapping and valuing of forest recreation demand. To do so, we assess the relationships between crowdsourced social media data, acquired from over 350,000 Flickr geotagged pictures, and demand for forest recreation in British Columbia (BC) forests. We first identify temporal and spatial trends of forest recreation demand, as well as the countries of origin of BC forests visitors. Second, we estimate the average number of annual recreational visits with a linear regression model calibrated with empirically collected secondary data. Lastly, we estimate recreational values by deriving the average consumer surpluses for the visitors of BC forested provincial parks. We find that annually, on average, over 44 million recreational experiences are completed in BC forests, with peaks during the summer months and during the weekends. Moreover, a crowdsourced travel cost approach allowed us to value the recreational ecosystem service in five forested provincial parks ranging from ~2.9 to ~35.0 million CAN$/year. Our findings demonstrate that social media data can be used to characterize, quantify and map the demand for forest recreation (especially in peri-urban forests), representing a useful tool for the inclusion of recreational values in forest management. Finally, we address the limitations of crowdsourced social media data in the study of forest recreation and the future perspectives of this rapidly growing research field.