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Browsing by Subject "Voyageurs National Park"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Economic Impacts of Federal Closure of NPA Sites in Minnesota
    (University of Minnesota Crooston - EDA Center, 2014) Walker, E.G.; Tuck, Brigid; Cooper, K.
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    Effect of Temperature on Habitat Use by Moose in Voyageurs National Park in the Summer
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2015) Moen, Ronald; Joyce, Michael; Windels, Steven K
    Moose (Alces alces) are an integral part of biological processes and a favorite sight of visitors to Voyageurs National Park (VNP). In the face of global climate change moose may also become a bellwether species for the persistence of northern species in VNP and the surrounding area. Climate change will affect national parks like VNP in many ways, ranging from changes in vegetation and possible loss of wildlife species to altered visitation rates by people. Minnesota is at the southern edge of moose distribution. Climate change predictions are for a 3o to 4o C increase in average summer temperatures by 2100, which would result in an increased number of summer days during which moose would be heat stressed. We deployed GPS collars on moose in VNP to evaluate changes in habitat use and activity as related to fine-scale changes in ambient temperature. We captured and radiocollared 21 moose by aerial darting or net-gunning. We measured black globe temperatures in habitats across VNP. The annual Minimum Convex Polygon home range area was about 15 km2, while seasonal home ranges were about 10 km2. Home range size was slightly less than in adjoining areas of northeast Minnesota. There was no difference in proportional cover type in the home range among annual, winter, and summer home ranges, and cover type use was similar to cover type use by moose in northeast Minnesota. Wet bog and wet marsh/fen cover types were preferred in hot summer temperatures, while open water was not used very much, with less than 1% of locations in water when temperatures were above 30 C. Use of almost all cover types was similar whether temperature, dew point, or heat index were used as the metric. For future analysis of cover type use ambient or black globe temperature should be an adequate metric. Habitats that are of most use to moose in hot temperatures have a wet substrate and some canopy cover during the day. At night moose seemed to be less limited by heat dissipation because of colder temperatures and the lack of solar radiation. Monitoring the population status of moose at Voyageurs National Park is of critical importance in order to make contrasts with the declining moose populations in other regions of Minnesota.
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    GIS and Modeling in Ecological Studies: Analysis of Beaver Pond Impacts on Runoff and its Quality
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 1994-02) Nawrocki, Tatiana; Johnston, Carol A; Sales, James
    The ARC/INFO GRID module was used to derive watershed variables for input to AGNPS, a cell-based runoff model that estimates water volume, peak flow, eroded and delivered sediment, chemical oxygen demand, and nutrient export from watersheds (Young et al. 1987). The boundary of a 534 ha watershed in Voyageurs National Park was hand-digitized from 1:24,000 topographic maps, and used to clip elevation data from a 7~ minute U.S.G.S. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with 30 m mesh-point spacing. ARC/INFO GRID was used to generate slope, slope shape, and field slope length for each of the 90x90 m cells used to subdivide the watershed. A surface runoff network was then generated using the FLOWDIRECTION, FLOWACCUMULATION, and STREAMLINE hydrologic modeling tools in ARC/INFO GRID. Each of the 90x90 m cells was uniquely numbered, and receiving cell numbers were derived for each source cell based on FLOWDIRECTION results. A 1:24,000 land cover map (Allen et al. 1993) was digitized and gridded to derive Manning's roughness coefficient, surface condition constant, and chemical oxygen demand factor for each cell. Detailed soil maps have never been made for the wilderness study site used, so land cover classes were coupled with information about soil series from nearby mapped sites to estimate soil texture, soil erodibility factor, and hydrologic group (to derive SCS curve numbers). The drainage area for each beaver impoundment in the watershed was derived from a digital database of subwatersheds. All variables were exported from ARC/INFO into the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program, which was used to generate a data file in the appropriate format for AGNPS. The methodology was applied to the 534 ha, third order stream watershed to determine the influence of beaver ponds on water quality and quantity. Beavers influence runoff by: 1) constructing dams that retard the flow of water, 2) creating ponds that promote sediment deposition and increase phosphorus retention, and 3) changing forest land cover to water and wetland vegetation. We ran the model for a range of storms with average 24-hour rainfalls equivalent to a 1 yr, 2 yr, 5 yr, 10 yr, 25 yr, 50 yr, and 100 yr storm, based on National Weather Service records for the region. Model runs for the beaver-impounded landscape ("with ponds") were compared with those for the same watershed without the influence of beaver ("no ponds"), based on historical vegetation and adjacent forest types. The ''with ponds" scenario resulted in slightly increased water flow at the mouth of the watershed. This is because, assuming that the pond is full, 100% of the rain that falls onto it will flow off of it. This caused a 10% increase in runoff at the lowest rainfall intensity, but only a 1% difference during the 100 yr storm. The runoff contribution of individual cells changed relatively little between the two scenarios, but there were easily discernable differences in accumulated runoff per cell ii: with distance downstream. Sediment deposition in the beaver ponds also had an effect that accumulated downstream, so that the ''with ponds" scenario yielded 7 to 12% less sediment than the ''no ponds" scenario, an effect that increased with storm intensity. The model predicted a 4% decrease in watershed nitrogen output with ponds for a 1 yr storm, but there was no effect for storms with a 10 to 50 yr frequency, and a net increase for a 100 yr storm. This implies that while beaver ponds may retain N during low-intensity storms, there may be a flushing of that retained N during high-intensity storms. This pattern is visible on GIS maps for "with ponds" scenario with low intensity storm: higher nitrogen concentrations were observed at the locations, where no ponds were situated, and nitrogen content in runoff had remarkable alterations in cells adjacent to ponds. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) showed the largest effect of any of the parameters predicted: the presence of beaver ponds was associated with a 10 to 17% reduction of COD, depending on the storm intensity. This is because a forest has a lot more primary productivity than a pond, and therefore contributes more organic matter (and therefore COD) to the system. This model-based approach provided insight into the landscape scale influence of beaver ponds that could not have been derived using conventional field techniques. The modeling was done at a spatial level of detail that would have been impractical using manual data entry to AGNPS. Automating the derivation and interchange of variables with a GIS made this research possible.
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    Lynx habitat suitability in and near Voyageurs National Park
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2009) Moen, Ronald; Windels, Steven K
    Voyageurs National Park (VOYA) is within historical distribution limits of Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis). Records of lynx exist for the area in and near VOYA since the 1970s, and recent sightings have been confirmed with DNA analysis. We initiated this project to determine habitat suitability for lynx in VOYA, and if possible to deploy radiocollars on lynx in VOYA. The lynx radiotelemetry project on the Superior National Forest provided data on home range size, density, cover type use, and prey density to which VOYA could be compared. We used remote cameras and snow-tracking to search for lynx in and near VOYA in 2007 and 2008. We estimated density of the lynx’s primary prey, snowshoe hare (Lepus americanns) with hare pellet counts, extrapolated hare density to the landscape level, and contrasted VOYA with lynx home ranges from the Superior National Forest radiotelemetry project. Remote cameras and track searches did not provide evidence to suggest there were resident lynx in VOYA. No lynx were seen in pictures taken at camera stations where other carnivore species were photographed during this project. We did not positively identify any tracks to be from lynx. The hare pellet data indicated that VOYA and the surrounding area may not be good habitat for lynx at the present time. Hare pellet densities in core areas of lynx home ranges in northeastern Minnesota were 1.5 to 2.0 times higher than hare pellet densities in and near VOYA. If hare density were to increase in or near VOYA, at least 3 to 4 female lynx home ranges and 2 male lynx home ranges could fit in VOYA and the surrounding area. Although there may be local areas of high hare density a lynx could use for a short period, it does not appear that there are currently resident lynx in VOYA given the search effort over the past seven years. Lynx documented on and near VOYA are probably transient animals.
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    The Opinions of Minnesota Residents Toward Voyageurs National Park
    (Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, 1978-05) Loesch, Michael A.; Merriam, Lawrence C.; Knopp, Timothy B.
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    Voyageurs National Park 1996 Recreation Survey. Final Report.
    (Center for Community & Regional Research, University of Minnesota, Duluth., 1996) Vlaming, Jonathan; Freundschuh, Scott
    This report is based on a study of resort and houseboat visitors to the Voyageurs National Park Region in Northern Minnesota. The study was done in July and August of 1996. Data collected included activity participation data, activity preference data, information sources used in making the decision to visit the region, information sources used to decide what to do while visiting, trip characteristics and demographic data.