Fire effects on Cape Sable seaside sparrow demography: year one interim report.
Lockwood JL. 2002. Fire effects on Cape Sable seaside sparrow demography: year one interim report.
An interim report to the US National Park Service, Everglades National Park, Homestead, Florida; December 1, 2002. Between 1948 and 1992 the wetland areas of Everglades National Park experienced 752 fires for an average of 17 fires per year (Gunderson and Snyder 1994). Fire is a necessary component of the Everglades. It maintains a habitat mosaic and prevents hardwood shrubs from invading the characteristically open Everglades marshes (Robertson 1953, Egler 1952, Taylor 1983). The Cape Sable seaside sparrow (Ammodramus miratimus mirabilis), an endangered subspecies endemic to the southern Everglades, relies on marl prairies that are influenced by fire regimes (Werner 1975). The sparrow lives exclusively on Federally protected land, principally within Everglades National Park (ENP). Currently ENP manages fires through prescribed burning andstrategic control of naturally caused fires. Of central concern to ENP officials is the development of a fire management protocol that promotes USFWS recovery goals for this subspecies. The conception of this fire management plan is profoundly inhibited by the lack of knowledge surrounding the sparrow's response to, and recovery from, fire. By ENP fire managers allowing a recent fire to burn through a portion of an existing study plot, I had the option of utilizing a study design that can better detect fire effects than previous research. This includes evaluating the possibility that sparrow populations are not noticeably effected by fire (except through the immediate loss of individuals), and evaluating the nature of any lasting population effects.In 2002, I proposed a detailed demographic study of individuals subjected to this fire event. This report provides initial results from the first year of this four-year study.