Life Sciences Commons^™

Distribution, Abundance, And Migration Timing Of Greater And Lesser Sandhill Cranes Wintering In The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Region Of California, Gary L. Ivey, Bruce D. Dugger, Caroline P. Herziger, Michael L. Casazza, Joseph P. Fleskes

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region of California (hereafter, Delta region) is an important wintering region for the Central Valley Population of greater sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis tabida) and lesser sandhill cranes (G. c. canadensis), but basic information about the ecology of these birds is lacking to design a biologically sound conservation strategy. During the winters of 2007-08 and 2008-09, we conducted roost counts, roadside surveys, aerial surveys, and tracked radio-marked birds to define the geographic area used by sandhill cranes in the Delta region, document migration chronology, and estimate subspecies-specific abundance. Radio-marked sandhill cranes arrived in our study area …

An Ecological Study Of The Anurans In Tea Plantations In A Biodiversity Hotspot, Lilly M. Eluvathingal

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing human population size is increasing the demand for resources like timber, oil, tea, coffee, and other crops. Plantation crops mimic some aspects of native habitats, and there are studies that report the presence of some native anuran biodiversity in plantations. I focused on tea plantations in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot and studied the diversity and health of anurans in different habitats found within a tea cultivation area, near Munnar region in the Western Ghats, India. The landscape includes tea bushes, native evergreen shola forest patches, and eucalyptus forest stands. I reviewed 40 studies comparing amphibian species richness …

Investigating The Spatial Distribution And Effects Of Nearshore Topography On Acropora Cervicornis Abundance In Southeast Florida, Nicole D'Antonio, David S. Gilliam, Brian K. Walker

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Dense Acropora cervicornis aggregations, or patches, have been documented within nearshore habitats in Southeast Florida (SE FL) despite close proximity to numerous anthropogenic stressors and subjection to frequent natural disturbance events. Limited information has been published concerning the distribution and abundance of A. cervicornis outside of these known dense patches. The first goal of this study was to conduct a spatially extensive and inclusive survey (9.78 km²) to determine whether A. cervicornis distribution in the nearshore habitat of SE FL was spatially uniform or clustered. The second goal was to investigate potential relationships between broad-scale seafloor topography and …

An Update Of The Department Of Fisheries, Western Australia, Invertebrate And Reef Health Research And Monitoring At Cocos (Keeling) Islands, S.N Evans, N Konzewitsch, Lynda Bellchambers Dr

Fisheries research reports

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are an Australian External Territory located in the Indian Ocean (12° 12" S, 96° 54" E). The group is comprised of two separate coral atolls, consisting of 27 islands. The southern atoll consists of 26 islands, surrounding a shallow lagoon, two of which are inhabited with a total population of approximately 600 people. Since 2002, a Service Delivery Arrangement (SDA) has been in place between the Department of Fisheries, Western Australia (DoF) and the Commonwealth Government of Australia to manage the fish resources of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (CKI).

Sipper Plankton And Marine Snow Abundance And Distribution Data For The Northeastern Gulf Of Mexico: June 2012 – August 2014, Kendra L. Daly

C-IMAGE data

This dataset contains seasonal and interannual marine snow, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and larval fish abundance and distributions collected from the northeastern Gulf of Mexico using the Shadowed Image Particle Profiling Evaluation Recorder (SIPPER). The purpose of the dataset is to assess the seasonal and interannual zooplankton abundance and distribution after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Effects Of Environmental Factors On The Abundance Of Blacklegged Ticks, Jasmine L. Miller, Roger A. Lebrun, Howard S. Ginsberg

Senior Honors Projects

The nymphal stage of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is the major vector of Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in North America. Tick abundance has generally been estimated using either flag/drag samples or samples from hosts. However, the biases of these sampling methods have not been adequately studied. We compared samples using both methods from sites in Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Tick abundance was compared with variables related to weather (temperature, relative humidity, and tick adverse moisture events), vegetation (canopy cover, tree density, shrub density, ground vegetation, and leaf litter cover), and host abundance (mice, small mammals, medium …

Further Support For Thermal Ecosystem Engineering By Wandering Albatross On Marion Island, Steven L Chown, Justine D. Shaw, Tanya M Haupt, Brent J Sinclair

Biology Publications

On sub-Antarctic Marion Island, wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) nests support high abundances of tineid moth, Pringleophaga marioni, caterpillars. Previous work proposed that the birds serve as thermal ecosystem engineers by elevating nest temperatures relative to ambient, thereby promoting growth and survival of the caterpillars. However, only 17 days of temperature data were presented previously, despite year-long nest occupation by birds. Previous sampling was also restricted to old and recently failed nests, though nests from which chicks have recently fledged are key to understanding how the engineering effect is realized. Here we build on previous work by providing nest temperature data …

The Ecological Succession Of Mosquitoes Inhabiting Waste Tires In A Subtropical Swamp And Upland Forest In Central West Florida, Emily Thuong Nguyen Dinh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Literature has not yet seen a contribution involving the description of successional patterns of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) inhabiting discarded automobile tires in sylvan areas nor an investigation into the macro- and micro-environmental factors that may influence the seasonal shifts in species composition and abundance in that respective habitat. Waste tires in undeveloped forests are a hazard to human and animal health because they can support a population of vector mosquitoes. Locating productive waste tire mosquito habitats is problematic in wooded areas but is crucial for diminishing pathogen transfer in areas where humans have regular access to forests because of possible …

Local Avian Density Influences Risk Of Mortality From Window Strikes, Ann M. Sabo, Natasha D.G. Hagemeyer, Ally S. Lahey, Eric L. Walters

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Up to a billion birds die per year in North America as a result of striking windows. Both transparent and reflective glass panes are a cause for concern, misleading birds by either acting as invisible, impenetrable barriers to desired resources, or reflecting those resources over a large surface area. A high number of window strikes occur during migration, but little is known about the factors of susceptibility, or whether particular avian taxa are more vulnerable than others. We report on a study of window strikes and mist-netting data at the Virginia Zoological Park (Norfolk, Virginia, USA), conducted in the autumn …

Design For Mosquito Abundance, Diversity, And Phenology Sampling Within The National Ecological Observatory Network, David Hoekman, Y. P. Springer, C. M. Barker, R. Barrera, M. S. Blackmore, W. E. Bradshaw, D. H. Foley, H. S. Ginsberg, M. H. Hayden, C. M. Holzapfel, Steven A. Juliano, L. D. Kramer, S. L. Ladeau, T. P. Livdahl, C. G. Moore, R. S. Nasci, W. K. Reisen, H. M. Savage

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) intends to monitor mosquito populations across its broad geographical range of sites because of their prevalence in food webs, sensitivity to abiotic factors, and relevance for human health. We describe the design of mosquito population sampling in the context of NEON's long-term continental scale monitoring program, emphasizing the sampling design schedule, priorities, and collection methods. Freely available NEON data and associated field and laboratory samples, will increase our understanding of how mosquito abundance, demography, diversity, and phenology are responding to land use and climate change.

Evaluation Of Harvest Indices For Monitoring Cougar Survival And Abundance, Michael L. Wolfe, Eric M. Gese, Pat Terletzky, David C. Stoner, Lise M. Aubry

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Harvest indices are used by state wildlife management agencies to monitor population trends and set harvest quotas for furbearer species. Although harvest indices may be readily collected from hunters, the reliability of harvest indices for monitoring demography and abundance of the harvested species is rarely examined, particularly amongst large carnivores. The overall objective of this study was to assess whether cougar (Puma concolor) harvest statistics collected by wildlife managers were correlated with changes in cougar demography, mainly survival rates and abundance. We estimated key demographic parameters for 2 cougar populations in Utah over 17 years during which we monitored 235 …

Spatial Capture–Recapture: A Promising Method For Analyzing Data Collected Using Artificial Cover Objects, Chris Sutherland, David Mun'oz, David Miller, Evan Grant

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) is a relatively recent development in ecological statistics that provides a spatial context for estimating abundance and space use patterns, and improves inference about absolute population density. SCR has been applied to individual encounter data collected noninvasively using methods such as camera traps, hair snares, and scat surveys. Despite the widespread use of capture based surveys to monitor amphibians and reptiles, there are few applications of SCR in the herpetological literature. We demonstrate the utility of the application of SCR for studies of reptiles and amphibians by analyzing capture–recapture data from Red-Backed Salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, collected using …

Survival, Abundance, And Relative Predation Of Wild Rainbow Trout In The Deerfield Reservoir System, South Dakota, Jeremy L. Kientz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss are routinely stocked in Black Hills streams and reservoirs to enhance angling opportunities for the public, however in most cases, hatchery-reared Rainbow Trout do not successfully recruit to establish natural populations. One exception is the Deerfield Reservoir system, where it is estimated that up to 25% of the Rainbow Trout population consists of naturally produced, wild Rainbow Trout. While recruitment of wild Rainbow Trout to the Deerfield Reservoir fishery does occur, annual stockings of 12,000 hatchery Rainbow Trout have continued. In recent years, adipose fin clips were used to identify hatchery Rainbow Trout stocked into Deerfield …

External Morphological Variations And Temporal Distribution Of The Dinoflagellate Ceratium Hirundinella In Two Dam Reservoirs In The Tigris River Basin (Turkey), Memet Varol

Turkish Journal of Botany

Seasonal distribution, abundance, and external morphological changes of Ceratium hirundinella in the Kralkızı and Dicle dam reservoirs on the Tigris River were investigated during 1 year (February 2008 to January 2009). This species was present in both dam reservoirs during all 4 seasons. The highest mean density of C. Hirundinella in Kralkızı Dam Reservoir was recorded in December, while in Dicle Dam Reservoir it was highest in June. C. Hirundinella cells had a fourth horn in both dam reservoirs during the study period, and morphologically they showed the highest relative standard deviation in the fourth horn. In addition, a new …

Spatial Capture–Recapture: A Promising Method For Analyzing Data Collected Using Artificial Cover Objects, Chris Sutherland, David Mun'oz, David Miller, Evan Grant

Chris Sutherland