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Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Forest Sciences

Move It Or Lose It: Interspecific Variation In Risk Response Of Pond-Breeding Anurans, Philip Matich, Christopher M. Schalk Jan 2019

Move It Or Lose It: Interspecific Variation In Risk Response Of Pond-Breeding Anurans, Philip Matich, Christopher M. Schalk

Faculty Publications

Changes in behavior are often the proximate response of animals to human disturbance, with variability in tolerance levels leading some species to exhibit striking shifts in life history, fitness, and/or survival. Thus, elucidating the effects of disturbance on animal behavior, and how this varies among taxonomically similar species with inherently different behaviors and life histories is of value for management and conservation. We evaluated the risk response of three anuran species—southern leopard frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus), Blanchard’s cricket frog (Acris blanchardi), and green tree frog (Hyla cinerea)—to determine how differences in microhabitat use (arboreal vs …


Distribution Of Contaminants In The Environment And Wildlife Habitat Use: A Case Study With Lead And Waterfowl On The Upper Texas Coast, Brian Kearns, Stephen Mcdowell, Jena A. Moon, Elizabeth Rigby, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos Jan 2019

Distribution Of Contaminants In The Environment And Wildlife Habitat Use: A Case Study With Lead And Waterfowl On The Upper Texas Coast, Brian Kearns, Stephen Mcdowell, Jena A. Moon, Elizabeth Rigby, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos

Faculty Publications

The magnitude and distribution of lead contamination remain unknown in wetland systems. Anthropogenic deposition of lead may be contributing to negative population-level effects in waterfowl and other organisms that depend on dynamic wetland habitats, particularly if they are unable to detect and differentiate levels of environmental contamination by lead. Detection of lead and behavioral response to elevated lead levels by waterfowl is poorly understood, but necessary to characterize the risk of lead-contaminated habitats. We measured the relationship between lead contamination of wetland soils and habitat use by mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) on the Upper Texas Coast, USA. Mottled …


Habitat Use And Avoidance By Foraging Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers In East Texas, John N. Macey, Brent Burt, Daniel Saenz, Richard N. Conner Jan 2016

Habitat Use And Avoidance By Foraging Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers In East Texas, John N. Macey, Brent Burt, Daniel Saenz, Richard N. Conner

Faculty Publications

Picoides borealis (Red-cockaded Woodpecker) is an endangered bird endemic to the Pinus (pine) ecosystems of the southeastern US. Mature pine savannahs with a minimal midstory and lush herbaceous groundcover represent high-quality habitat. This study examines the foraging-habitat patterns of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers in East Texas. We present a logistic regression model that best differentiates between foraged and non-foraged habitat. Increases in hardwood-midstory basal area have the greatest negative impact on the probability of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers selecting a habitat patch for foraging. Five additional variables negatively impact foraging probability: shrub height, diameter at breast height (DBH) of pine midstory, canopy closure, density …


Seasonal Variation In Offspring Sex Ratio In The Snowy Plover, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos, William P. Johnson Jan 2013

Seasonal Variation In Offspring Sex Ratio In The Snowy Plover, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos, William P. Johnson

Faculty Publications

The Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus) is unique in being a determinate layer of an odd modal clutch size and in having a variable mating system in which female brood desertion occurs regularly. These traits make determining Snowy Plover offspring sex ratios important not only for long-term population stability, as the species is of conservation concern, but also for application to sex allocation theory. In this study, we determined Snowy Plover offspring sex ratios, examined differential costs of producing male and female offspring, and evaluated sex ratio variation in relation to maternal condition, habitat condition, and time during the …


Broad-Scale Relations Between Conservation Reserve Program And Grassland Birds: Do Cover Type, Configuration And Contract Age Matter?, Sam Riffell, Daniel Scognamillo, L. Wes Burger Jr., Shawn Bucholtz Jan 2010

Broad-Scale Relations Between Conservation Reserve Program And Grassland Birds: Do Cover Type, Configuration And Contract Age Matter?, Sam Riffell, Daniel Scognamillo, L. Wes Burger Jr., Shawn Bucholtz

Faculty Publications

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a voluntary cropland set-aside program where environmentally-sensitive cropland is retired to a conservation practice. Grassland birds should benefit because most CRP is grass habitat and because amount of land in CRP is highest in agriculture-dominated areas of the United States where grassland habitat has been most impacted. We used the Breeding Bird Survey and Common Land Unit (CLU) data (spatially-explicit data of farm field boundaries and land cover) to identify relations between types and configurations of CRP and grassland bird abundance in 3 Midwestern states. All 13 species we studied were related to at …


It's Time To Check The Nets: Research And Conservation Of Rafinesque Big-Eared Bats In East Texas, Christopher E. Comer Oct 2009

It's Time To Check The Nets: Research And Conservation Of Rafinesque Big-Eared Bats In East Texas, Christopher E. Comer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Black Bears On The Way Back, Christopher E. Comer Oct 2008

Black Bears On The Way Back, Christopher E. Comer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Allometry, Sexual Size Dimorphism, And Niche Partitioning In The Mediterranean Gecko (Hemidactylus Turcicus), James B. Johnson, Lance D. Mcbrayer, Daniel Saenz Jan 2005

Allometry, Sexual Size Dimorphism, And Niche Partitioning In The Mediterranean Gecko (Hemidactylus Turcicus), James B. Johnson, Lance D. Mcbrayer, Daniel Saenz

Faculty Publications

Hemidactylus tucrius is a small gekkonid lizard native to the Middle East and Asia that is known to exhibit sexual dimorphism in head size. Several potential explanations exist for the evolution and maintenance of sexual dimorphism in lizards. We tested 2 of these competing hypotheses concerning diet partitioning and differential growth. We found no differences in Average meal size (volume) or in any single dimension of prey size for similarly sized males and females. allometric patterns of increases in head size also were measured in males and females. We found that males exhibited a mixture of isometric and positively allometric …


Accelerated Hatching Of Southern Leopard Frog (Rana Sphenocephala) Eggs In Response To The Presence Of A Crayfish (Procambarus Nigrocinctus) Predator, Daniel Saenz, James B. Johnson, Cory K. Adams, Gage H. Dayton Jan 2003

Accelerated Hatching Of Southern Leopard Frog (Rana Sphenocephala) Eggs In Response To The Presence Of A Crayfish (Procambarus Nigrocinctus) Predator, Daniel Saenz, James B. Johnson, Cory K. Adams, Gage H. Dayton

Faculty Publications

Phenotypic plasticity, such as morphological and behavioral changes in response to predators, is common in larval anurans. Less is known about inducible defenses in the embryonic stages of development. We investigated the predation risk imposed by crayfish (Procambarus nigrocinctus) on southern leopard frog (Rana sphenocephala) eggs aud whether crayfish presence induces a change in the timing of hatching of R. sphenocephala eggs. We found that crayfish significantly reduce the hatching success of R. sphenocephala eggs by eating them and that eggs hatch significantly faster in the presence of crayfish than when crayfish are not present. We …


The Influence Of Predator Threat On The Timing Of A Life-History Switch Point: Predator-Induced Hatching In The Southern Leopard Frog (Rana Sphenocephala), James B. Johnson, Daniel Saenz, Cory K. Adams, Richard N. Conner Jan 2003

The Influence Of Predator Threat On The Timing Of A Life-History Switch Point: Predator-Induced Hatching In The Southern Leopard Frog (Rana Sphenocephala), James B. Johnson, Daniel Saenz, Cory K. Adams, Richard N. Conner

Faculty Publications

We tested the hypotheses that potential egg predators, crayfish Procambarus nigrocinctus and dytiscid Cybister sp. larvae, would accelerate the timing of hatching and that a larval predator, dragonfly naiad Anax junius, would delay hatching in the southern leopard frog (Rana sphenocephala). We also tested the hypothesis that differences in response would be proportional to predator lethality. Our results indicate that our hypotheses were partially supported. The presence of an efficient egg predator (crayfish) induces hatching faster than a less efficient predator (dytiscid larvae). However, the presence of a larval predator (naiads) did not delay hatching. Eggs that …