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Invasion Potential Of Nonnative Fishes Through A Large Western Dam Into A Prized And Vulnerable Ecosystem, Barrett T. Friesen Aug 2024

Invasion Potential Of Nonnative Fishes Through A Large Western Dam Into A Prized And Vulnerable Ecosystem, Barrett T. Friesen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Native river fish face threats from habitat fragmentation, water overallocation, invasive species establishment, and powerful synergies amongst these factors. In the Colorado River Basin, USA, these threats coalesce at Glen Canyon Dam (GCD), which impounds the Colorado River to create Lake Powell, a reservoir inhabited by nonnative fish species. There is widespread concern low water level in Lake Powell may allow nonnative fish to escape through the dam, adversely affecting native fish species downstream in the Grand Canyon. In this study we characterized the seasonal distribution of nonnative fishes in the vicinity of GCD and identified environmental conditions that may …


Informing Control Efforts For A Prolific Invasive Species: Characterizing Common Carp Spatio-Temporal Distribution And Evaluating The Impacts Of Gear Selectivity In Utah Lake, Rae Fadlovich May 2024

Informing Control Efforts For A Prolific Invasive Species: Characterizing Common Carp Spatio-Temporal Distribution And Evaluating The Impacts Of Gear Selectivity In Utah Lake, Rae Fadlovich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Management programs that aim to reduce the consequences of invasive species are often challenged by populations that can rapidly recover from removal efforts. Selectivity, the relative impact of harvest on different size classes, can contribute to population recovery when younger fish are not effectively targeted. In Utah Lake, the location of one of the world’s largest freshwater fish control programs, managers have been attempting to control the common carp (Cyprinus carpio, hereafter “carp”) population since 2009 but efforts have been hindered by the use of selective fishing gears. I conducted a lake-wide field study to gain insights into …


The Path To U.S. National Registration Of A Toxic Bait For The Control Of The Small Indian Mongoose, Carmen C. Antaky, Steven C. Hess, Emily W. Ruell, Israel L. Leinbach, Shane R. Siers, Robert T. Sugihara Jan 2023

The Path To U.S. National Registration Of A Toxic Bait For The Control Of The Small Indian Mongoose, Carmen C. Antaky, Steven C. Hess, Emily W. Ruell, Israel L. Leinbach, Shane R. Siers, Robert T. Sugihara

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata [syn. Herpestes auropunctatus]; mongoose) is a highly invasive species in its introduced range that negatively impacts ecosystems. Mongooses depredate native species, serve as a vector of disease posing a risk to human health, and cause sanitation issues in food processing facilities and public areas. Introduced for biocontrol in the late 1800s in Hawaiʻi and the Caribbean, mongooses currently have well-established populations across multiple islands in both island archipelagos and have invaded numerous other locations throughout the world. The concern of accidental introduction to mongoose-free islands, the difficulty in species detection, and the …


Establishing A Volunteer Group To Assist In The Eradication Of Invasive Brown Treesnakes From Islan Dåno' (Cocos Island), Guam, Martin Kastner, Olympia Terral Jan 2023

Establishing A Volunteer Group To Assist In The Eradication Of Invasive Brown Treesnakes From Islan Dåno' (Cocos Island), Guam, Martin Kastner, Olympia Terral

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Islan Dåno’ (Cocos Island) is an islet of high conservation value located 2.5 km off Guam, USA, in the Western Pacific. It has long been considered free from invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis; BTS). A recently confirmed breeding population of BTS puts its wildlife populations, including U.S. Endangered Species Act-listed lizard and bird species, at risk. In response, we established Guam’s first volunteer group dedicated to BTS eradication, which we named Friends of Islan Dåno’. We provided training to local volunteer snake searchers and organized regular night searches for BTS on Islan Dåno’. We completed 25 searches between …


Life And Death In A Dynamic Environment: Invasive Trout, Floods, And Intraspecific Drivers Of Translocated Populations, Brian D. Healy, Phaedra Budy, Mary M. Conner, Emily C. Omana Smith Apr 2022

Life And Death In A Dynamic Environment: Invasive Trout, Floods, And Intraspecific Drivers Of Translocated Populations, Brian D. Healy, Phaedra Budy, Mary M. Conner, Emily C. Omana Smith

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Understanding the relative strengths of intrinsic and extrinsic factors regulating populations is a long-standing focus of ecology and critical to advancing conservation programs for imperiled species. Conservation could benefit from an increased understanding of factors influencing vital rates (somatic growth, recruitment, survival) in small, translocated populations, which is lacking owing to difficulties in long-term monitoring of rare species. Translocations, here defined as the transfer of wild-captured individuals from source populations to new habitats, are widely used for species conservation, but outcomes are often minimally monitored, and translocations that are monitored often fail. To improve our understanding of how translocated populations …


Revegetation Of Native Plant Communities In Great Salt Lake Wetlands: The Effects Of Native Seed Mix Composition And Sowing Density, Laura Beck Apr 2021

Revegetation Of Native Plant Communities In Great Salt Lake Wetlands: The Effects Of Native Seed Mix Composition And Sowing Density, Laura Beck

Student Research Symposium

One of the threats currently facing Great Salt Lake wetlands is Phragmites australis. Its rapid expansion since 1987 has displaced native vegetation and changed the composition of plant communities. Removal is very costly and takes multiple years of different treatments like herbicide, mowing, and flooding. To ensure Phragmites australis does not return, native seeds will need to be sown. This experiment is to determine the best seed composition and sowing density. In the USU greenhouse, I will sow four different native seed mixes: 100% desirable perennial natives, 75% perennial natives and 25% fast growing natives, 50% perennial natives and 50% …


Establishment Of Introduced Reptiles Increases With The Presence And Richness Of Native Congeners, Rodrigo Barbosa Ferreira, Karen H. Beard, Stephen L. Peterson, Sharon A. Poessel, Colin M. Callahan Jan 2012

Establishment Of Introduced Reptiles Increases With The Presence And Richness Of Native Congeners, Rodrigo Barbosa Ferreira, Karen H. Beard, Stephen L. Peterson, Sharon A. Poessel, Colin M. Callahan

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Darwin proposed two contradictory hypotheses to explain the influence of congeners on the outcomes of invasion: the naturalization hypothesis, which predicts a negative relationship between the presence of congeners and invasion success, and the pre-adaptation hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between the presence of congeners and invasion success. Studies testing these hypotheses have shown mixed support. We tested these hypotheses using the establishment success of non-native reptiles and congener presence/absence and richness across the globe. Our results demonstrated support for the pre-adaptation hypothesis. We found that globally, both on islands and continents, establishment success was higher in the presence …


Invertebrate Community Changes Along Coqui Invasion Fronts In Hawaii, Ryan T. Choi May 2011

Invertebrate Community Changes Along Coqui Invasion Fronts In Hawaii, Ryan T. Choi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Puerto Rican coqui frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui, was introduced to Hawaii in the late 1980s via the commercial horticulture trade. Previous research has shown that coquis can change invertebrate communities, but these studies were conducted at small scales using controlled, manipulative experiments. The objective of this research was to determine whether coqui invasions change invertebrate communities at the landscape scale across the island of Hawaii. At each invasion front, we measured environmental variability on either side of the front and removed sites that were too variable across the front to ensure that the impacts we measured were the result …


Five-Year Review Of Executive Order 13112 On Invasive Species, The National Invasive Species Council (Nisc) Jan 2005

Five-Year Review Of Executive Order 13112 On Invasive Species, The National Invasive Species Council (Nisc)

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

No abstract provided.


An Invasive Species Assessment Protocol: Evaluating Non-Native Plants For Their Impact On Biodiversity, Version 1, Larry E. Morse, John M. Randall, Nancy Benton, Ron Hiebert, Stephanie Lu, Natureserve May 2004

An Invasive Species Assessment Protocol: Evaluating Non-Native Plants For Their Impact On Biodiversity, Version 1, Larry E. Morse, John M. Randall, Nancy Benton, Ron Hiebert, Stephanie Lu, Natureserve

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

NatureServe, in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. National Park Service, developed this Invasive Species Assessment Protocol as a tool for assessing, categorizing, and listing non-native invasive vascular plants according to their impact on native species and natural biodiversity in a large geographical area such as a nation, state, province, or ecological region. This protocol is designed to make the process of assessing and listing invasive plants objective and systematic, and to incorporate scientific documentation of the information used to determine each species’ rank. NatureServe’s methodology has previously included assessments of the conservation significance of native species; this …


National Strategy And Implementation Plan For Invasive Species Management, U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Forest Service Jan 2004

National Strategy And Implementation Plan For Invasive Species Management, U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Forest Service

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

The Chief of the U.S.Department of Agriculture Forest Service has identified invasive species as one of the four critical threats to our Nation’s ecosystems. In response to this national threat,we have evaluated the role of the Forest Service as a leading forest research, forest health, and Federal resource management agency.We are aware of our significant role in addressing invasive species threats at the local, State, and national levels, as well as internationally.We have found the best opportunity for success comes from working strategically, using all our scientific, management, and partnership resources in unison. This document is not designed to serve …