Life Sciences Commons^™

Remote Sensing Of Forests Using Discrete Return Airborne Lidar, Hamid Hamraz, Marco A. Contreras

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Airborne discrete return light detection and ranging (LiDAR) point clouds covering forested areas can be processed to segment individual trees and retrieve their morphological attributes. Segmenting individual trees in natural deciduous forests, however, remained a challenge because of the complex and multi-layered canopy. In this chapter, we present (i) a robust segmentation method that avoids a priori assumptions about the canopy structure, (ii) a vertical canopy stratification procedure that improves segmentation of understory trees, (iii) an occlusion model for estimating the point density of each canopy stratum, and (iv) a distributed computing approach for efficient processing at the forest level. …

Testing The Underlying Chemical Principles Of The Biotic Ligand Model (Blm) To Marine Copper Systems: Measuring Copper Speciation Using Fluorescence Quenching, Tara N. Tait, James C. Mcgeer, Scott Smith

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Speciation of copper in marine systems strongly influences the ability of copper to cause toxicity. Natural organic matter (NOM) contains many binding sites which provides a protective effect on copper toxicity. The purpose of this study was to characterize copper binding with NOM using fluorescence quenching techniques. Fluorescence quenching of NOM with copper was performed on nine sea water samples. The resulting stability con- stants and binding capacities were consistent with literature values of marine NOM, show- ing strong binding with log K values from 7.64 to 10.2 and binding capacities ranging from 15 to 3110 nmole mg C ^{−1 …}

Predicted Suitable Habitat Declines For Midwestern United States Amphibians Under Future Climate And Land-Use Change Scenarios, Brock Struecker, Joseph Milanovich

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

With current declines of vertebrate taxa meeting or exceeding those of historic mass extinction events, there is a growing need to investigate the main drivers of losses. Two of the main drivers of declines are global climate and land-use changes, both affecting multiple groups of taxa. Amphibians are at great risk from these two drivers of change and investigations into the impact of future change could assist with the formation of conservation plans to mitigate losses. Forecasting changes in suitable habitat with ecological niche modeling serves as a useful tool to begin to understand how species may respond to anthropogenic …

Reduced Light Availability Diminishes Mycorrhizal Growth Response Of Invasive Forb, Regina O'Kelley

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form mycorrhizae, a common, well-studied symbiotic relationship. Controls on the magnitude and direction of plant mycorrhizal growth response (MGR) remain obscured. Specifically, the influence of light availability in the MGR of an invasive forb, spotted knapweed Centaurea stoebe, has not been studied. Greenhouse studies exploring the growth response of knapweed to arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) often fail to report light intensity levels, which could impact the quality of their data. I conducted a greenhouse experiment studying the MGR in spotted knapweed under shaded and unshaded conditions, designed to approximate light availability in ambient greenhouse and full-sun …

Translating Statistical Species-Habitat Models To Interactive Decision Support Tools, Lyndsie S. Wszola, Victoria L. Simonsen, Erica F. Stuber, Caitlyn R. Gillespie, Lindsey N. Messinger, Karie L. Decker, Jeffrey J. Lusk, Christopher F. Jorgensen, Andrew A. Bishop, Joseph J. Fontaine

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Understanding species-habitat relationships is vital to successful conservation, but the tools used to communicate species-habitat relationships are often poorly suited to the information needs of conservation practitioners. Here we present a novel method for translating a statistical species-habitat model, a regression analysis relating ring-necked pheasant abundance to landcover, into an interactive online tool. The Pheasant Habitat Simulator combines the analytical power of the R programming environment with the user-friendly Shiny web interface to create an online platform in which wildlife professionals can explore the effects of variation in local landcover on relative pheasant habitat suitability within spatial scales relevant to …

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: December 2017 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for December 2017. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Evaluating Spatial Variability In Sediment And Phosphorus Concentration-Discharge Relationships Using Bayesian Inference And Self-Organizing Maps, Kristen L. Underwood, Donna M. Rizzo, Andrew W. Schroth, Mandar M. Dewoolkar

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

Given the variable biogeochemical, physical, and hydrological processes driving fluvial sediment and nutrient export, the water science and management communities need data-driven methods to identify regions prone to production and transport under variable hydrometeorological conditions. We use Bayesian analysis to segment concentration-discharge linear regression models for total suspended solids (TSS) and particulate and dissolved phosphorus (PP, DP) using 22 years of monitoring data from 18 Lake Champlain watersheds. Bayesian inference was leveraged to estimate segmented regression model parameters and identify threshold position. The identified threshold positions demonstrated a considerable range below and above the median discharge—which has been used previously …

Weed Establishment And Persistence After Water Pipeline Installation And Reclamation In The Mixed Grass Prairie Of Western North Dakota, Erin K. Espeland, Lora B. Perkins

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Weeds in reclamations interfere with success by: 1) competing with desirable species seeded during revegetation; 2) preventing recolonization of reclamations by native species; and 3) reducing the integrity of landscapes by expanding from reclamations into adjacent, intact areas. In the Bakken oilfield of western North Dakota, dispersed reclamation activity and increased traffic may provide many opportunities for weeds to spread. To determine the potential for disturbance and reclamation to increase resident weed populations and introduce new weed species, we tracked twenty-one weed (non-native/ruderal/invasive) species over a four-year period after the installation of a 1.8 km livestock water pipeline and subsequent …

Functional Predictions Of Microbial Communities In Soil As Affected By Long‐Term Tillage Practices, Janani Hariharan, Aditi Sengupta, Parwinder Grewal, Warren A. Dick

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Core Ideas

• Microbial function is important but difficult to assess in soil.
• An omics‐driven tool, PICRUSt, was used to characterize functions of soil microbial communities.
• No‐tillage compared with plow tillage was functionally enriched for most nutrient cycles.
• Many other functions integral to soil health can be explored by the PICRUSt omics approach.

Soil microbial communities affect the soil's biological, chemical, and physical properties, but there is still a knowledge gap regarding the long‐term impact of tillage practices on soil microbial dynamics. Additionally, the accurate identification of belowground microbial functions is a topic of active interest. In this study, microbial community …

A Swift Guide To Butterflies Of North America, Second Edition., Ann B. Swengel

The Prairie Naturalist

As soon as I got my hands on A Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America, I immediately checked the species account for Aphrodite Fritillary (Speyeria aphrodite). The prairie version of this species can be sufficiently different from the typically illustrated nominate subspecies such that it must be specifically explained as being distinct. This book passed my first test—describing details that were not only essential for identifying this fritillary species but also for realizing how similar its underside can be to our prairie specialty, the stunning Regal Fritillary (S. idalia).

Much of my research on butterflies occurs in grasslands. For …

Avian Diversity, Abundance, And Nest Success Among Managed Prairies And Agricultural Plots In Oklahoma And Texas, Phillip J. Leonard, Douglas R. Wood, Wayne E. Meyer

The Prairie Naturalist

Over the last 50 years, grassland birds experienced rapid declines due to habitat loss and degradation as a result of agricultural practices. Our objective was to document the diversity, abundance, and nest success of bird communities using managed prairie and agricultural plots at the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in southern Oklahoma and Hagerman NWR in northern Texas. From April 1 to July 15, 2013–2014, point count surveys, nest searches, nest monitoring, and vegetation sampling were conducted among three habitat treatments: managed prairie, unharvested wheat, and fallow agricultural plots. Species richness values for potential nesting species were higher in managed …

Severe Drought Impacts Female Pheasant Physiology In Southwest Nebraska, Jessica A. Laskowski, Gwen C. Bachman, Joseph J. Fontaine

The Prairie Naturalist

In 2012, Nebraska experienced one of the worst droughts since the 1930s, accompanied by abnormally high temperatures. We studied the impacts of the 2012 summer drought on female ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) body condition and baseline and stress-induced corticosterone concentrations (CORT). We hypothesized that drought conditions would reduce pheasant body condition, increase chronic stress resulting in elevated baseline CORT levels, and down-regulate pheasant stress response to acute stressors, resulting in reduced stress-induced CORT concentrations. In southwestern Nebraska, we captured female pheasants in 2012 (pre-drought) and 2013 (post-drought). Pheasants had poorer body condition after the drought. Although female CORT measures were …

Energy Sprawl Solutions, Nicola Koper

The Prairie Naturalist

Energy sprawl affects all the major conservation issues of our age, from habitat loss and fragmentation to anthropogenic noise and climate change. As such, minimizing and solving its associated problems should be a key focus for conservation biologists. Kiesecker and Naugle provide an impressive and compact book that focusses on solving environmental and social problems likely to result from a transition from non- renewable to far less efficient renewable energy sources.

Energy Sprawl Solutions summarizes numerous relevant peer-reviewed academic papers, and outlines management and planning implications of each one, ultimately resolving these into fairly clear prescriptive recommendations for moving forward. …

Unique Nesting Behavior By Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus Buccinator), Heather M. Johnson, Michael Forsberg, Letitia Reichart, Mark P. Vrtiska

The Prairie Naturalist

Nesting behavior by Trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) has been well documented for most populations. Both sexes cooperate in nest construction, which takes 11–35 days to complete (Hansen et al. 1971, Cooper 1979). Nests generally range from 1.5–3.6 meters in diameter and 1.5 meters in height and are typically built on solid structures such as a muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) house or an island (Hansen et al. 1971, Cooper 1979). However, we discovered an atypical Trumpeter swan nest built of cattail (Typha angustifolia L.) located on Vaughn Lake, in Cherry County, Nebraska on 13 May 2016.

We monitored the atypical nest by …

The Considerations Given To Determining Authorship, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

Greetings GPNSS members! Over the past year, I have been asked by prospective authors and colleagues whether The Prairie Naturalist has criteria for authorship. Given that this issue continues to arise, it is comforting to know that I am not the only one who struggles with considerations given to determining authorship. I checked the current submission guidelines and found nothing specific, which in turn motivated me to explore what other journals such as the Journal of Wildlife Management, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Ecology recommend to prospective authors (Merrill 2015). Much to my surprise, discussions of authorship …

One More Warbler: A Life With Birds., Laura Erickson

The Prairie Naturalist

Imagine going on a Victor Emanuel Nature Tour, seated in the van next to Victor Emanuel himself. Between birding stops, this man who has seen over 6,000 species as a world-renowned conservationist and innovator in ecotourism regales you with stories. He starts with his “spark bird”: when he was eight years old, he was taken with the beauty of a pair of Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis), and was hooked. Whenever people pile back into the van after a birding stop, he starts another story.

That’s how One More Warbler: A Life with Birds reads, as if Emanuel sat down with …

Notes: Range Extension Of The Virginia Opossum (Didelphis Virginiana) In North Dakota, Lisa L. Walsh, Robert Seabloom, Cody W. Thompson

The Prairie Naturalist

The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is broadly distributed across North America from Costa Rica in the south to southern Ontario in the north and from the southern Great Plains in the west to the eastern United States. The Virginia opossum also was introduced multiple times to thePacific Coast beginning in the late 1800s and has established populations in that region (Gardner and Sunquist 2003). This species is a habitat generalist known to frequent wetland and hardwood habitats but also can be found in grasslands, along forest edges, and in agricultural and suburban settings throughout its range (Gardner and Sunquist 2003, …

Prairie Falcon Depredation Attempts On A Greater Prairie-Chicken Lek In South-Central Nebraska, Andrew J. Caven, Joshua D. Wiese, William R. Wallauer

The Prairie Naturalist

Little information exists concerning Prairie falcons’ (Falco mexicanus; PRFA) seasonal movements, habitat use, and diet outside of the breeding season; this is especially true in the eastern portion of its wintering and migratory range (Steenhof 1998, Sharpe et al. 2001, Steenhof et al. 2005). Prairie falcons prey on ground squirrels (Spermophilus spp.), prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), wood rats (Neotoma spp.), and other rodents during the breeding season (Bond 1936, 1942, MacLaren et al. 1988, Steenhof 1998, Steenhof et al. 1999, Johnsgard 2013). They utilize avian prey regionally as well, including western meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta …

The Prairie Naturalist: The Journal Of The Great Plains Natural Science Society

The Prairie Naturalist

TABLE OF CONTENTS

45 EDITOR’S NOTE

RESEARCH ARTICLES

48 Avian Diversity, Abundance, and Nest Success among Managed Prairies and Agricultural Plots in Oklahoma and Texas Phillip J. Leonard, Douglas R. Wood, and Wayne E. Meyer

57 Severe Drought Impacts Female Pheasant Physiology in Southwest Nebraska Jessica A. Laskowski, Gwen C. Bachman, and Joseph J. Fontaine

66 Field Discrimination of Prairie Deer Mice and White-footed Mice using Morphological Characteristics Jacob L. Berl, Kelton M. Verble, Elizabeth A. Flaherty, and Robert K. Swihart

NOTES

72 Range Extension of the Virgina Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) in North Dakota Lisa L. Walsh

76 Prairie Falcon …

The Great Plains Natural Science Society

The Prairie Naturalist

The Great Plains Natural Science Society, formerly the North Dakota Natural Science Society, was founded in 1967 and seeks to promote interest in and understanding of natural history in the Great Plains, to encourage the conservation of natural resources, and to provide communication among individuals, institutions, and organizations of like interests. The GPNSS actively promotes the study of natural history of the Great Plains region, including geology, plants, birds, mammals, fish, insects, and other forms of life. Together with local, state, and national conservation organizations, the GPNSS fosters natural resource conservation and preservation of outstanding natural areas. The GPNSS publishes …

Distributions Of Krill And Antarctic Silverfish And Correlations With Environmental Variables In The Western Ross Sea, Antarctica, L. Brynn Davis, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck, Andrea Piñones, Michael S. Dinniman

CCPO Publications

Antarctic krill Euphausia superba, crystal krill E. crystallorophias, and Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarctica are key mid-trophic level species in the Ross Sea, connecting primary production to the upper trophic levels. Distributions of these species were constructed from observations made in the western Ross Sea from 1988 to 2004. Distributions of environmental conditions were obtained from a 5-km resolution circulation model (temperature, mixed layer depth, surface speed) and satellite-derived observations (chlorophyll, sea ice cover). A hierarchy of statistical methods determined correlations and relationships between species and environmental conditions. Each species occupies a localized habitat defined by different environmental characteristics. …

Book Reviews: Raptors Of Mexico And Central America. William S. Clark And N. John Schmitt., Jack Jack Eitniear

The Prairie Naturalist

Whether a raptor is cryptically perched in the shadows or is viewed only as a silhouette soaring in the clouds below the glaring midday sun, raptor identification can be challenging. If you are observing raptors in the North Temperate Zone, several guides (e.g., Clark and Wheeler 2001 Dunne et al.2012) will aid you with such identifications, but few resources exist for visitors south of this zone. So, if you are interested in identifying the 69 species of diurnal raptors found in Mexico and Central America, the recently released Raptors of Mexico and Central America by William S. Clark and N. …

Field Discrimination Of Prairie Deer Mice And White-Footed Mice Using Morphological Characteristics, Jacob L. Berl, Kelton M. Verble, Elizabeth A. Flaherty, Robert K.S. Swihart

The Prairie Naturalist

Field discrimination of prairie deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii) and white-footed mice (P. leucopus noveboracensis) can be difficult throughout much of the central United States where they co-occur. We live-trapped prairie deer mice and white-footed mice within forested and row-crop habitats in central Indiana and used multiplex PCR with species-specific primers to positively determine species identification. We collected a suite of commonly measured external morphological traits (body weight and lengths of ear, hindfoot, tail, and body) from each captured animal. Individuals were assigned to species based on analysis of DNA; discriminant function analysis was used to …

Challenges In Characterizing The Environmental Fate And Effects Of Carbon Nanotubes And Inorganic Nanomaterials In Aquatic Systems, Peter Laux, Christian Riebeling, Andy M. Booth, Joseph D. Brain, Josephine Brunner, Cristina Cerrillo, Otto Creutzenberg, Irina Estrela-Lopis, Thomas Gebel, Gunnar Johanson, Harald Jungnickel, Heiko Kock, Jutta Tentschert, Ahmed Tlili, Andreas Schäffer, Adriënne J. A. M. Sips, Robert A. Yokel, Andreas Luch

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

The current lack of commonly used protocols for dispersion, characterization, and aquatic toxicity testing of nanomaterials (NMs) has resulted in inconsistent results, which make meaningful comparisons difficult. The need for standardized sample preparation procedures that allow the reproducible generation of relevant test conditions remains a key challenge for studies of the environmental fate and aquatic toxicity of NMs. Together with the further development of optimized and cost-effective analytical techniques for physicochemical characterization that depend on reproducible sample preparation, such methods have the potential to overcome the current uncertainties with regard to NM dispersion properties, effective dose, and particle dissolution. In …

Phenology Largely Explains Taller Grass At Successful Nests In Greater Sage-Grouse, Joseph T. Smith, Jason D. Tack, Kevin Doherty, Brady W. Allred, Jeremy D. Maestas, Lorelle I. Berkeley, Seth J. Dettenmaier, Terry A. Messmer, David E. Naugle

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Much interest lies in the identification of manageable habitat variables that affect key vital rates for species of concern. For ground-nesting birds, vegetation surrounding the nest may play an important role in mediating nest success by providing concealment from predators. Height of grasses surrounding the nest is thought to be a driver of nest survival in greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse), a species that has experienced widespread population declines throughout their range. However, a growing body of the literature has found that widely used field methods can produce misleading inference on the relationship between grass height and nest success. Specifically, …

Sampling Effort And Uncertainty In Leaf Litterfall Mass And Nutrient Flux In Northern Hardwood Forests, Yang Yang, Ruth D. Yanai, Craig R. See, Mary A. Arthur

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Designs for litterfall sampling can be improved by understanding the sources of uncertainty in litterfall mass and nutrient concentration. We compared the coefficient of variation of leaf litterfall mass and nutrient concentrations (nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and potassium) at different spatial scales and across years for six northern hardwood species from 23 stands in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA. Stands with steeper slopes (P = 0.01), higher elevations (P = 0.05), and more westerly aspect (P = 0.002) had higher interannual variation in litter mass, probably due to a litter trap design that allowed litter …

No Evidence For Trace Metal Limitation On Anaerobic Carbon Mineralization In Three Peatland Soils, Jason K. Keller, Jillian Wade

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Peatlands store roughly one-third of the terrestrial soil carbon and release the potent greenhouse gas methane (CH₄) to the atmosphere, making these wetlands among the most important ecosystems in the global carbon cycle. Despite their importance, the controls of anaerobic decomposition of organic matter to carbon dioxide (CO₂) and CH₄ within peatlands are not well understood. It is known, however, that the enzymes responsible for CH₄ production require cobalt, iron and nickel, and there is a growing appreciation for the potential role of trace metal limitation in anaerobic decomposition. To explore the possibility of …

Evaluation Of Striped Bass Stocks In Virginia: Monitoring And Tagging Studies, 2015-2019 Progress Report 1 September 2016 - 31 November 2017, Philip W. Sadler, Lydia M. Goins, John M. Hoenig, Savannah Michaelsen, Maya L. Groner, Robert E. Harris

Reports

This report presents the results of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) tagging and monitoring activities in Virginia during the period 1 September 2016 through 31 August 2017. It includes an assessment of the biological characteristics of striped bass taken from the 2017 spring spawning run and estimates of annual survival and fishing mortality based on annual spring tagging. Also included is an investigation on the potential use of close-kin analyses to determine the size of the spawning stock in the Rappahannock River and an evaluation of mortality rates associated with the bacterial dermal disease mycobacteriosis in relation to water …

Ncer Assistance Agreement Annual Progress Report For Grant #83582401 - Assessment Of Stormwater Harvesting Via Manage Aquifer Recharge (Mar) To Develop New Water Supplies In The Arid West: The Salt Lake Valley Example, Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean, Richard C. Peralta, Sarah E. Null, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The aims of the original proposed project remain the same, that is, to test the hypothesis that Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for stormwater harvesting is a technically feasible, socially and environmentally acceptable, economically viable, and legally feasible option for developing new water supplies for arid Western urban ecosystems experiencing increasing population, and climate change pressures on existing water resources. The project is being carried out via three distinct but integrated components that include: 1) Monitoring of existing distributed MAR harvesting schemes involving a growing number of demonstration Green Infrastructure (GI) test sites; 2) Integrated stormwater/vadose zone/groundwater/ ecosystem services modeling; and …

Climate Change And Food Systems: Assessing Impacts And Opportunities, Meredith T. Niles, Richie Ahuja, Jimena M. Esquivel, Nelson Mango, Mil Duncan, Martin Heller, Cristina Tirado

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.