@article{bragina_kays_hody_moorman_deperno_mills_2019, title={Effects on white‐tailed deer following eastern coyote colonization}, volume={83}, ISSN={0022-541X 1937-2817}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/JWMG.21651}, DOI={10.1002/jwmg.21651}, abstractNote={The expansion or recovery of predators can affect local prey populations. Since the 1940s, coyotes (Canis latrans) have expanded into eastern North America where they are now the largest predator and prey on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). However, their effect on deer populations remains controversial. We tested the hypothesis that coyotes, as a novel predator, would affect deer population dynamics across large spatial scales, and the strongest effects would occur after a time lag following initial coyote colonization that allows for the predator populations to grow. We evaluated deer population trends from 1981 to 2014 in 384 counties of 6 eastern states in the United States with linear mixed models. We included deer harvest data as a proxy for deer relative abundance, years since coyote arrival in a county as a proxy of coyote abundance, and landscape and climate covariates to account for environmental effects. Overall, deer populations in all states experienced positive population growth following coyote arrival. Time since coyote arrival was not a significant predictor in any deer population models and our results indicate that coyotes are not controlling deer populations at a large spatial scale in eastern North America. 2019 The Wildlife Society.}, number={4}, journal={The Journal of Wildlife Management}, publisher={Wiley}, author={Bragina, Eugenia V. and Kays, Roland and Hody, Allison and Moorman, Christopher E. and Deperno, Christopher S. and Mills, L. Scott}, year={2019}, month={Mar}, pages={916–924} }
 @article{shchur_bragina_sieber_pidgeon_radeloff_2017, title={Monitoring selective logging with Landsat satellite imagery reveals that protected forests in Western Siberia experience greater harvest than non-protected forests}, volume={44}, ISSN={["1469-4387"]}, DOI={10.1017/s0376892916000576}, abstractNote={SUMMARY When timber harvesting is an important source of local income and forest resources are declining, even forests that are designated as protected areas may become vulnerable. Therefore, regular monitoring of forest disturbance is necessary to enforce the protection of forest ecosystems. However, mapping forest disturbance with satellite imagery can be complicated if the majority of the harvesting is selective logging and not clearcuts. Our goal was to map both selective logging and clearcuts within and outside of protected areas in Western Siberia, a region with a highly developed timber industry. Combining summer and winter imagery allowed us to accurately estimate not only clearcuts, but also selective logging. Winter Landsat images substantially improved our classification and resulted in a highly accurate forest disturbance map (97.5% overall accuracy and 86% user accuracy for the rarest class, clearcuts). Selective logging and stripcuts were the dominant disturbance types, accounting for 96.3% of all forest disturbances, versus 3.7% for clearcuts. The total annual forest disturbance rate (i.e. disturbance rate for clearcuts, stripcuts and selective logging together) was 0.53%, but total forest disturbance within protected areas was greater than in non-protected forest (0.66% versus 0.50%, respectively), and so was the annual rate of selective logging (i.e. without clearcuts, 0.37% versus 0.25%, respectively). Our results highlight that monitoring only clearcuts without assessing selective logging might result in significant underestimation of forest disturbance. Also, when timber harvesting is important for the local economy and when protected areas have valuable timber resources that have already been depleted elsewhere, then additional protection may be necessary in order to maintain natural forests within protected areas. We suggest that this is the situation in our study area in Western Siberia right now and is likely the situation in many other parts of the globe as well.}, number={2}, journal={ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION}, author={Shchur, Alexander and Bragina, Eugenia and Sieber, Anika and Pidgeon, Anna M. and Radeloff, Volker C.}, year={2017}, month={Jun}, pages={191–199} }