Life Sciences Commons^™

Investigating Birds As Dispersal Vectors Of Litylenchus Crenatae Subsp. Mccannii (Anguinidae), The Nematode Associated With Beech Leaf Disease, Spencer Rock Parkinson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Beech leaf disease (BLD) is an emerging forest pathogen primarily affecting American beech (Fagus grandifolia, Ehrh.) in North America and has been attributed to tree mortality of sapling sized trees within five to seven years of infection. Symptoms typically occur in regenerating American beech thickets sprouting from roots of trees killed by beech bark disease. Scientists first observed BLD in Ohio in 2012 and currently has spread to 15 states in the USA and one Canadian province. The nematode Litylenchus crenatae subsp. mccannii (Lcm) is highly associated with BLD symptoms, interveinal chlorosis and defoliation of leaves, and is currently …

Undp-Gef Grasslands Project: The Tanzania Montane Grasslands Project, T. Davenport, W. A. Rodgers

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

The Tanzania Southern Highlands and adjacent Nyika montane grasslands in Malawi form a distinct centre of plant diversity and endemism. The area is characterised by complex geology with old basement mountains and much more recent volcanoes (Mount Rungwe) adjacent to the rift valet faulting with Lakes Malawi (Nyasa) and Rukwa. Lake proximity generates rainfall up to 3,000 mm per annum. The maximum altitude is 3,000 m asl.

Optimum Area Of Semi-Natural Grassland To Maintain Maximum Butterfly And Avian Species Richness In Japan, A. Shoji, K. Kohyama, H. Sasaki

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

To evaluate the optimum area of semi-natural grassland to maintain maximum butterfly and avian species richness in Japan, digitalized grid data of butterfly and avian distribution, as well as vegetation distribution, throughout the country were used. After obtaining logistic regression models explaining the probabilities of occurrence of each species with semi-natural grassland area and latitude as variables, the optimum value was calculated. The expected maximum species richness of butterflies in the country was the highest in the case of about 40 square kilometers of semi-natural grassland per 100 square kilometers, though the value varied somewhat with latitude. The expected maximum …

Generalist Bird Exhibits Site-Dependent Resource Selection, Samantha M. Cady, Craig A. Davis, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Rheinhardt Scholtz, Daniel R. Uden, Dirac Twidwell

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Quantifying resource selection (an organism's disproportionate use of available resources) is essential to infer habitat requirements of a species, develop management recommendations, predict species responses to changing conditions, and improve our understanding of the processes that underlie ecological patterns. Because study sites, even within the same region, can differ in both the amount and the arrangement of cover types, our objective was to determine whether proximal sites can yield markedly different resource selection results for a generalist bird, northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). We used 5 years of telemetry locations and newly developed land cover data at two, geographically distinct but …

Patterns And Potential Causes Of Changing Winter Bird Distributions In South Dakota, David L. Swanson, Reza Goljani Amirkhiz, Mark D. Dixon

The Prairie Naturalist

Average winter temperatures in the north-central United States have been increasing since the 1970s, and this warming might influence winter distributions of birds in the region. Species potentially influenced by such winter warming include short-distance migrants for which the northern boundary of the winter range is influenced by temperature, such as hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus), yellow-rumped warbler (Setophaga coronata), and fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca). We examined winter records during 1974–2017 from a citizen-science bird observation database for South Dakota to determine recent trends in winter records for these three species. We compared their occurrence patterns with those for three benchmark …

Where Birds Chill: An Assessment Of The Habitat Preferences Of Birds Overwintering In Hudson Valley Forests, Elizabeth Claire Axley

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Many avian species overwinter in eastern North America; however, studies on bird populations are rarely undertaken during this critical survival time, and little is known as to their habitat preferences and foraging behavior. In this observational study, we performed a survey of birds overwintering in the Hudson Valley’s temperate, primarily-deciduous forests, assessing avian populations’ habitat preferences through the vegetative structural variables surrounding overwintering birds as they forage. Our results suggest that high canopy cover is critically important to predicting overwintering bird occupancy on a microhabitat scale. Moreover, overwintering birds preferentially occupy forest plots not dominated by sugar maples, in spite …

Fire Legacies In Eastern Ponderosa Pine Forests, Caleb P. Roberts, Victoria M. Donovan, Carissa L. Wonkka, Larkin A. Powell, Craig R. Allen, David G. Angeler, David A. Wedin, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Disturbance legacies structure communities and ecological memory, but due to increasing changes in disturbance regimes, it is becoming more difficult to characterize disturbance legacies or determine how long they persist. We sought to quantify the characteristics and persistence of material legacies (e.g., biotic residuals of disturbance) that arise from variation in fire severity in an eastern ponderosa pine forest in North America. We compared forest stand structure and understory woody plant and bird community composition and species richness across unburned, low‐, moderate‐, and high‐severity burn patches in a 27‐year‐old mixed‐severity wildfire that had received minimal post‐fire management. We identified distinct …

Birds And Vegetation Structure Of Isolated Juniper And Oak Communities In The Trans-Pecos Chihuahuan Desert., Kayla Garza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Birds of the Trans-Pecos region are historically understudied, with most literature covering birds of desert grasslands and scrub in New Mexico and Northern Mexico. A multitude of vegetation communities within the Chihuahuan Desert have also been neglected due to this gap in the research, for reasons including lack of access to public or preserve land in West Texas, and rough terrain. Indio Mountains Research Station (IMRS), is located 42-km southwest of Van Horn, Texas and encompasses many different vegetation communities, including juniper-oak habitats of arroyo and canyon systems. The purpose of this study was to document the bird species utilizing …

Bulletin No. 42: The Mamacoke Conservation Area, Glenn Dreyer, Robert Askins, Scott Peterson

Bulletins

No abstract provided.

05. Bird Communities Within A Prairie/Wetland Complex: Restoration Of Former Wastewater Treatment Ponds In Southeastern Minnesota, Neal Mundahl, Bruno Borsari

North American Prairie Conference Proceedings

Our 12-mo study examined the bird communities associated with three habitat types at differing stages of restoration within a prairie/wetland complex in southeastern Minnesota. The 25-ha site previously consisted of three municipal wastewater treatment ponds that were taken off-line in 2002. One pond was retained as a shallow wetland; the others were reconfigured and restored by planting with prairie vegetation (one pond in 2003 and the other pond in 2013) to provide habitat for both wetland and grassland birds. Timed walking surveys of birds in each habitat were made monthly from June 2014 through May 2015. We observed 48 bird …

Temporal Fluctuation Scaling In Populations And Communities, Michael Kalyuzhny, Yishai Schreiber, Rachel Chocron, Curtis H. Flather, Ronen Kadmon, David A. Kessler, Nadav M. Shnerb

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Taylor’s law, one of the most widely accepted generalizations in ecology, states that the variance of a population abundance time series scales as a power law of its mean. Here we reexamine this law and the empirical evidence presented in support of it. Specifically, we show that the exponent generally depends on the length of the time series, and its value reflects the combined effect of many underlying mechanisms. Moreover, sampling errors alone, when presented on a double logarithmic scale, are sufficient to produce an apparent power law. This raises questions regarding the usefulness of Taylor’s law for understanding ecological …

Threshold Responses Of Forest Birds To Landscape Changes Around Exurban Development, Todd R. Lookingbill, Marcela Suarez-Rubio, Scott Wilson, Peter Leimgruber

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Low-density residential development (i.e., exurban development) is often embedded within a matrix of protected areas and natural amenities, raising concern about its ecological consequences. Forest-dependent species are particularly susceptible to human settlement even at low housing densities typical of exurban areas. However, few studies have examined the response of forest birds to this increasingly common form of land conversion. The aim of this study was to assess whether, how, and at what scale forest birds respond to changes in habitat due to exurban growth. We evaluated changes in habitat composition (amount) and configuration (arrangement) for forest and forest-edge species around …

Influences Of Trees On Abundance Of Natural Enemies Of Insect Pests: A Review, Mary Ellen Dix, R. J. Johnson, Mark O. Harrell, Ronald M. Case, Robert J. Wright, Laurie Hodges, James R. Brandle, Michelle M. Schoeneberger, N. J. Sunderman, R. L. Fitzmaurice, L. J. Young, Kenneth G. Hubbard

Laurie Hodges

In this article we review the use of natural enemies in crop pest management and describe research needed to better meet information needs for practical applications. Endemic natural enemies (predators and parasites) offer a potential but understudied approach to controlling insect pests in agricultural systems. With the current high interest in environmental stewardship, such an approach has special appeal as a method to reduce the need for pesticides while maintaining agricultural profitability. Habitat for sustaining populations of natural enemies occurs primarily at field edges where crops and edge vegetation meet. Conservation and enhancement of natural enemies might include manipulation of …

Carrying Capacity For Species Richness As A Context For Conservation: A Case Study Of North American Breeding Birds, Andrew J. Hansen, Linda Bowers Phillips, Curtis H. Flather, Jim Robinson-Cox

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Aim To demonstrate that the concept of carrying capacity for species richness (S_K) is highly relevant to the conservation of biodiversity, and to estimate the spatial pattern of S_K for native landbirds as a basis for conservation planning.

Location North America.

Methods We evaluated the leading hypotheses on biophysical factors affecting species richness for Breeding Bird Survey routes from areas with little influence of human activities.We then derived a best model based on information theory, and used this model to extrapolate SK across North America based on the biophysical predictor variables. The predictor variables included the …

Non-Blackbird Avian Occurrence And Abundance In North Dakota Sunflower Fields, Dionn A. Schaaf, George M. Linz, Curt Doetkott, Mark W. Lutman, William J. Bleier

The Prairie Naturalist

Sunflower fields are well-documented as foraging habitat for fallmigrating blackbirds (Family Icteridae). There is, however, a paucity of information on the use of sunflower fields by non-blackbirds. We assessed non-blackbird use of 12 ripening sunflower fields in the Prairie Pothole Region of central North Dakota. From mid-August to mid-October 2000, we counted 4,129 individual birds, consisting of 22 families and 61 species, in the sample fields and within 5 m of the field edges. We saw the largest number of birds from 18 September to 27 September. The Family Emberizidae (sparrows) accounted for 26% of the species and 20% of …

Laboratory Evaluation Of Avian Odors For Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) Attraction, S. A. Allan, Ulrich R. Bernier, D. L. Kline

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Attraction of Culex quinquefasciatus Say, Culex tarsalis Coquillett, Culex nigripalpus Theobald, and Aedes aegypti (L.) to avian and other host odors was investigated in a dual-port olfactometer. Although attraction to a human arm was high for Ae. aegypti (>80%) and low for all Culex spp. (<25%), all species responded similarly to a chicken (55.3-73.6%). Responses of Ae. aegypti, Cx. quinquefasciatus, and Cx. nigripalpus to feathers were low (<20%) but greater than to controls. There was no difference in attraction of Cx. tarsalis to feathers or controls. Responses to CO₂ (5 ml/min) were low for all species (<15%) except Cx. tarsalis, which were moderate (24.5%). When feathers were combined with CO2, the resulting attraction was additive or lower than responses …

Movements Of House Sparrows Captured At An Experimental Grain Station In Fargo, North Dakota, Lisa M. Montplaisir, George M. Linz, Debra Tomanek, Linda B. Penry, David L. Bergman, H. Jeffrey Homan

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

From 2 August through 1 October 1993 we banded and leg flagged 362 house sparrows (126 adults, 236 juveniles) captured in a decoy trap at an experimental grain station on the campus of North Dakota State University, Fargo (NDSU). We documented sightings of leg-flagged birds between 3 August 1993 and 14 December 1994. Over this period, 56 (66%) of the total 76 observations of leg-flagged birds were on the NDSU campus; 21 (28%) of the 76 observations occurred between March and December 1994, a minimum of 5 months after the leg flags were attached and following the 1993-1994 winter. Of …

Bulletin No. 37: Living Resources And Habitats Of The Lower Connecticut River, Glenn D. Dreyer, Marcianna Caplis

Bulletins

No abstract provided.

Endocrinology Of The Avian Reproductive System, Mary Ann Ottinger, Murray R. Bakst

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the avian reproductive system. Attention is given to the neuroendocrine regulation of hypothalamic and pituitary gland hormones as well as the target tissues regulated by these hormones. Emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the system and the effects of alterations resulting from environmental and other influences on the function of the reproductive system. The ovulatory cycle, oviduct, and shell gland are discussed relative to egg formation and the hormonal regulation of this process. Testicular function and the cellular bases for spermatogenesis and steroid production are also discussed.

Nature Conservation In The Western Australian Wheatbelt, Max Abensperg-Traun

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Growing concern about the survival of flora and fauna in the Western Australian wheatbelt prompted CSIRO scientists to start a long-term study to moniter trends in populations. Max Abensperg-Traun and his colleagues reportt on their findings so far.

Influences Of Trees On Abundance Of Natural Enemies Of Insect Pests: A Review, Mary Ellen Dix, R. J. Johnson, Mark O. Harrell, Ronald M. Case, Robert J. Wright, Laurie Hodges, James R. Brandle, Michelle M. Schoeneberger, N. J. Sunderman, R. L. Fitzmaurice, Linda J. Young, Kenneth G. Hubbard

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In this article we review the use of natural enemies in crop pest management and describe research needed to better meet information needs for practical applications. Endemic natural enemies (predators and parasites) offer a potential but understudied approach to controlling insect pests in agricultural systems. With the current high interest in environmental stewardship, such an approach has special appeal as a method to reduce the need for pesticides while maintaining agricultural profitability. Habitat for sustaining populations of natural enemies occurs primarily at field edges where crops and edge vegetation meet. Conservation and enhancement of natural enemies might include manipulation of …

Revegetation Guide To The Central Wheatbelt, E C. Lefroy, R J. Hobbs, L J. Atkins, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Western Australia, Csiro, Division Of Wildlife And Ecology

Bulletins 4000 -

The rapid development of the central wheatbelt for agriculture over the past century has produced a productive farming landscape, but one which is increasingly subject to degradation. Erosion, salinization, declining soil structure, waterlogging and acidification are all symptoms of this degradation and causes of lost agricultural production. In addition, most of the native vegetation and many of the native animals have disappeared, and the natural heritage of the area resides in small scattered patches that together make up only seven per cent of the wheatbelt region.

Many farmers now recognize that replanting trees and shrubs is an effective means of …

Ua66/6 Brigadoon Nature Preserve Survey Phase I, Wayne Mason, Jeff Jenkins, Kenneth Nicely, Herbert Shadowen

WKU Archives Records

A preliminary report of an ongoing survey on the mammals, birds, vascular plants, and fungi that have been recorded at the Brigadoon Nature Preserve from November, 1983 - September, 1984.

The Starling, John L. Long

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Despite their pretty colour and their song, starlings cannot be considered beneficial, especially in the fruit and grain-growing areas of W.A. where they are declared vermin.

MILLIONS of starlings inhabit the settled parts of eastern and south-eastern Australia, but so far they have not reached Western Australia.