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Articles 1 - 9 of 9
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Exploring Beaver-Facilitated Restoration In Grassland Channelized Streams, Jessica L. Sikora
Exploring Beaver-Facilitated Restoration In Grassland Channelized Streams, Jessica L. Sikora
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
Freshwater streams provide vital ecosystem services, but their ecological function is gravely impacted by agricultural practices especially in grassland ecosystems. Though there is evidence that the re-introduction of beavers can help restore the ecological function of streams, little is known about their restorative impacts in grasslands. At Nachusa Grasslands Preserve in Franklin Grove, IL, we investigated the presence and impact of beaver dams on their waterways. With increasing beaver dam volume, we found an increase in sediment retention and less sediment retention with increasing beaver dams upstream from a dam. Though we did not find evidence that beaver dam volume …
Dataset For: Mapping Fire History And Quantifying Burned Area Through 35 Years Of Prescribed Fire History At An Illinois Tallgrass Prairie Restoration Site Using Gis, Erin G. Rowland-Schaefer, Elizabeth M. Bach, Bill P. Kleiman, Holly P. Jones
Dataset For: Mapping Fire History And Quantifying Burned Area Through 35 Years Of Prescribed Fire History At An Illinois Tallgrass Prairie Restoration Site Using Gis, Erin G. Rowland-Schaefer, Elizabeth M. Bach, Bill P. Kleiman, Holly P. Jones
Research Datasets
Fire was important to pre-colonization prairies. In today’s remnant and reconstructed prairies, managers frequently employ prescribed fire, a historical management practice that limits woody encroachment, suppresses non-native species, and promotes nutrient cycling. However, few long-term prescribed fire spatial datasets are available for study. We used archived images of prescribed fire maps and hand-drawn fire records to generate a geospatial record of the prescribed fire history at Nachusa Grasslands, a combination remnant and restored preserve in northern Illinois. This record contains maps of the prescribed fire history of the preserve across the entirety of its 35-year history. We used the maps …
Grassland Bird Responses To Bison And Prescribed Fire Disturbances At Nachusa Grasslands And Kankakee Sands, Antonio Del Valle
Grassland Bird Responses To Bison And Prescribed Fire Disturbances At Nachusa Grasslands And Kankakee Sands, Antonio Del Valle
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
Grazing from native herbivores such as bison (Bison bison), in combination with prescribed fire, are applied to tallgrass prairies by managers to recreate important disturbance patterns in this ecosystem. Bird communities may be indirectly impacted by these disturbances through their direct impact on plants that provides critical breeding habitat for grassland birds. The objectives of this research are to determine the impacts that bison and prescribed fire have on grassland breeding birds in two tallgrass prairie preserves, Kankakee Sands and Nachusa Grasslands. Birds, vegetation structure, and bison activity were surveyed systematically at these two preserves in 2020 and 2021. Prescribed …
Fly On The Wall: Comparing Arthropod Communities Between Islands With And Without House Mice (Mus Musculus), Wieteke A. Holthuijzen
Fly On The Wall: Comparing Arthropod Communities Between Islands With And Without House Mice (Mus Musculus), Wieteke A. Holthuijzen
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
Invertebrates are key to island ecosystems but impacts from invasive mammalian predators are not well documented or understood. Given this knowledge gap, we studied terrestrial arthropod communities in the presence of a common invasive rodent (house mice, Mus musculus) on a subtropical atoll—Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge (MANWR). Here, invasive mice recently began to attack and depredate nesting seabirds, prompting a mouse eradication. Although eradication planning efforts are underway, uncertainty remains regarding the ecosystem’s response to mouse removal. As part of a pre-eradication investigation, we conducted a baseline survey of MANWR’s arthropod community structure and diversity, comparing islands with and …
Pumping Fees And Spillovers In The Groundwater Commons: An Evaluation Of A Conservation Tool And Irrigator Competitive Behavior, Godwin Kwabla Ekpe
Pumping Fees And Spillovers In The Groundwater Commons: An Evaluation Of A Conservation Tool And Irrigator Competitive Behavior, Godwin Kwabla Ekpe
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
My dissertation examines the effectiveness of pumping fees in groundwater commons agricultural irrigation as a conservation tool in the presence of varying water scarcity levels and spatial interdependence among irrigators. The first chapter provides a brief overview of three important areas of groundwater commons irrigation addressed in this dissertation. The second chapter’s objectives are two-fold. First, I review the common-pool resources literature relative to concerns of sustainable extraction and implementation of conservation policies focusing on pricing incentives in the management of groundwater commons where irrigators share the same underlying aquifer. Second, I introduce a theoretical model involving incorporating a non-constant …
An Investigation Of Endangered And Threatened Plants Using Phylogenomics, Phylogenetic Metrics, And Geography To Prevent Species Loss, Phyllis H. Pischl
An Investigation Of Endangered And Threatened Plants Using Phylogenomics, Phylogenetic Metrics, And Geography To Prevent Species Loss, Phyllis H. Pischl
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
The conservation of endangered and threatened plant species plays an integral part of preserving biodiversity. Loss of habitat is one of the main reasons that plants become endangered or threatened. In Illinois much of the native habitat has been lost to the conversion of industry, agriculture and urban areas. The goals of this dissertation are to 1) determine where endangered and threatened species are finding habitats in relation to land use, 2) produce a robust phylogeny of endangered and threatened species of grasses and apply phylogenetic diversity analysis to better understand the plight of these species, and 3) use climate …
Wildlife Ecology And Conservation In A Suburban Preserve Matrix: Applications Of Long-Term Monitoring Data, John Peter Vanek
Wildlife Ecology And Conservation In A Suburban Preserve Matrix: Applications Of Long-Term Monitoring Data, John Peter Vanek
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
Wildlife is important to humans, offering economic, nutritional, ecological, and socio-cultural value. However, vertebrate biodiversity is being lost at rates 100 times greater than the background extinction rate, threatening human livelihood via the loss of ecosystem services. These human-induced species losses are primarily due to habitat destruction, which is increasingly tied to urban development. Conservation of wildlife resources is therefore imperative in a world where more than 50% of the human population, and 80% of people living in the United States, now live in urban areas. In this dissertation, I demonstrate how monitoring data can be applied to answer questions …
Controlling Lonicera Maackii (Amur Honeysuckle): Basal Bark And Prescribed Fire Efficacy And Impacts, Kaleb Baker
Controlling Lonicera Maackii (Amur Honeysuckle): Basal Bark And Prescribed Fire Efficacy And Impacts, Kaleb Baker
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
Lonicera maackii is a non-native shrub that has invaded eastern and midwestern North American deciduous forests, altering the ecosystem functions and reducing biodiversity. Managers tasked with controlling L. maackii, being resource limited, require effective methods that are quick and easy to use without inflicting extensive nontarget damage. This study explores prescribed fire and seasonal basal applications of triclopyr as control methods and examines their extent of off-target damage. Paired-split plots were established to implement seasonal basal bark treatments within burned/unburned units where individual L. maackii were tracked to determine mortality and the hyperlocal impacts of management. Basal bark treatments were …
Growth And Survival Of Wild And Head-Started Blanding’S Turtles (Emydoidea Blandingii), Callie Klatt Golba
Growth And Survival Of Wild And Head-Started Blanding’S Turtles (Emydoidea Blandingii), Callie Klatt Golba
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
Blanding’s Turtles (IUCN Endangered) are long-lived reptiles with delayed sexual maturity. Anthropogenic landscape changes have increased threats to juvenile turtles, resulting in unnaturally low recruitment. Head-starting has become a popular conservation strategy that aims to increase juvenile recruitment by avoiding the increased predation of the vulnerable nest and hatchling age-class. However, there is still debate about whether or not it is an effective management tool. Assessments of head-starting are becoming more prevalent, but long-term studies are needed to critically evaluate the success of such interventions. In particular, information is needed on how head-starts fare compared to wild-born turtles. The Lake …