Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Prevalence And Economic Value Of Feral Swine Damage To Native Habitat In Three Florida State Parks, Richard M. Engeman, Henry T. Smith, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Bernice Constantin, John Woolard, Mark Nelson, Daniel Griffin

Associate Professor Mark Nelson

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) adversely affect the environment in many of the places where they have been introduced. Such is the case in Florida, but quantification and economic evaluation of the damage can provide objective bases for developing strategies to protect habitats. Swine damage to native wet pine-flatwoods at three state parks in Florida was monitored from winter 2002 to winter 2003. Economic valuations of damage were based on the US dollar amounts that wetland regulators have allowed permit applicants to spend in attempts to replace lost resources. The parks had different swine management histories and the damage …

Validation Of Pcr-Based Assays And Laboratory Accreditation For Environmental Detection Of Aquatic Invasive Species, Invasive Species Advisory Committee

National Invasive Species Council

This white paper provides:

a) Background information on the use, accuracy and reliability of PCR-based assays such as environmentally sampled DNA (eDNA) for early detection of aquatic invasive species (AIS) and;

b) Recommendations for establishing a system for validating assays and accrediting laboratories that report on the presence or absence of AIS.

This white paper was developed by the members of ISAC and discusses the need for developing validation requirements for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and other DNA-based molecular assays that are increasingly being used to detect AIS. It does not provide a simplified checklist for evaluation of their ability …

Invasive Species And E-Commerce, Invasive Species Advisory Committee

National Invasive Species Council

ISSUE

Internet commerce (hereafter e-commerce) is a growing and vital part of the United States economy. Total e-commerce sales in the United States for 2011 totaled $194 billion, an increase of 16% over 2010. From 2002 to 2011, the proportion of reported e-commerce sales in the U. S. grew from about 1.4% to 5.5% of total retail sales (United States Census Bureau News 2012). Globally, e-commerce is expected to increase at a rate of 13.5% annually, amounting to $1.4 trillion in yearly sales by 2015 (Enright 2011). A portion of this activity includes the sale and trade of living organisms. …

Spatial Patterns Of Herbaceous And Woody Recruitment In A Recently Restored Mixed Tidal Regime Freshwater Wetland, James B. Deemy

Theses and Dissertations

Ecological restoration of a converted wetland was characterized within a recently drained impoundment along the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. Colonizing vegetation was assessed over three growing seasons in both tidal and non-tidal environments. Study objectives were to (1) examine geospatial relations of recruitment patterns among colonizing species over three growing seasons, (2) quantify species composition and potential differences between extant species cover and soil seed banks across restored and natural wetland habitats and (3) assess geospatial patterns to develop a GIS model of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum L.) recruitment. The two most common native colonizing species during …

Exploring The Seed Bank Dynamics Of Red Brome: Longevity, Density, And Relationship To Fire, Benjamin S. Jurand

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research explores several untested aspects of the seed bank characteristics of red brome (Bromus rubens), an invasive annual grass in southwestern United States arid lands. Red brome is a formidable competitor to native plant species, both annual and perennial alike, and produces many seeds that germinate easily. The stalks of red brome contribute continuous-cover fuel loads that facilitate wildfires destructive to mature native Mojave Desert plant communities. This makes it a priority species for land managers, particularly when dealing with recovery after fire.

This project addressed questions related to the longevity of red brome seeds in soil seed banks …

Spawning, Veliger Growth And Desiccation Of Dreissena Bugensis, Lynn Schwaebe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Quagga (Dreissena bugensis) mussel veliger growth was compared under two dietary conditions: 1) only seston present in Lake Mead water; and 2) Lake Mead seston plus algae (Isochrysis galbana). Shell length, width, and area were compared as a function of time for the two treatments. It was expected that mussels would exhibit faster growth when supplemented with I. galbana than with Lake Mead water alone. However, no significant difference was observed between the control and I. galbana treatments. This result was unexpected and may have been caused by water quality, the nutritional content of Lake Mead seston, and/or over feeding. …

Invasionsoft: A Web-Enabled Tool For Invasive Species Colonization Predictions, Matthew W. Johnston, Samuel J. Purkis

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Predicting and averting the spread of invasive species is a core focus of resource managers in all ecosystems. Patterns of invasion are difficult to forecast, compounded by a lack of user-friendly species distribution model (SDM) tools to help managers focus control efforts. This paper presents a web-based cellular automata hybrid modeling tool developed to study the invasion pattern of lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) in the western Atlantic and is a natural extension our previous lionfish study. Our goal is to make publically available this hybrid SDM tool and demonstrate both a test case (P. volitans/miles) and a …

Survey Of Aquatic Invasive Species In Selected Umpqua National Forest Lakes And Ponds, Mark D. Sytsma, Rich Miller

Center for Lakes and Reservoirs Publications and Presentations

Eleven lakes and ponds within the Umpqua National Forest were surveyed for invasive aquatic macrophytes, snails, bivalves, and crayfish during the summer of 2011. Yellow floating heart (Nymphoides peltata), an invasive floating leaf macrophyte species, was detected in Willow Sump within the Little River drainage. European ear snails (Radix auricularia), an invasive species present in several Umpqua National Forest waterbodies, were detected in Beaver Pond within the Steamboat Creek drainage. One native crayfish species, the signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), was observed in Crayfish Lake within the Brice Creek drainage. Diverse assemblages of native plant species were observed in the lakes …

Sustainable Landscapes: Evaluating Strategies For Controlling Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus Umbellata) On Reclaimed Surface Mineland At The Wilds Conservation Center In Southeastern Ohio, Shana M. Byrd, Nicole D. Cavender, Corine M. Peugh, Jenise Bauman

College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications

Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) was planted during the reclamation process to reduce erosion and improve nitrogen content of the soil. However, since its establishment, E. umbellata has spread prolifically and control measures are difficult. The primary objective of this case study was to evaluate the effectiveness of various control methods on eradication of E. umbellata in varying degrees of infestation. A two-phase case study was conducted at The Wilds conservation center in Cumberland, OH. Phase 1 began in 2007-2008 to evaluate three treatments in areas with moderate cover (15-30%) of E. umbellata: mechanical removal, foliar herbicide, and dormant stem …

Distribution Of Biological Control Agents (Galerucella Spp., Hylobius Transversovittatus, Nanophyes Marmoratus) And Their Impact On Lythrum Salicaria (Purple Loosestrife) In Indiana, Joshua S. Britton

Master of Environmental Science (MES) Theses

Lythrum salicaria is an invasive wetland hydrophyte native to Eurasia. Since 1814, it has been spreading throughout North America and has been in Indiana since 1900. A wide variety of negative ecosystem impacts have been documented but some authors have questioned these findings. Galerucella spp. have been utilized as biological control agents for Lythrum salicaria in Indiana since 1994, but this is the first publication to examine insect control in the state. Studies from other states have generally been shorter time frames than the eight to ten years of this study. This study examined the impacts of Galerucella spp. at …

Land Use, Landscapes, And Biological Invasions, Karie L. Decker, Craig R. Allen, Leonardo Acosta, Michelle L. Hellman, Christopher F. Jorgensen, Ryan J. Stutzman, Kody M. Unstad, Amy Williams, Matthew Yans

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

The negative effect of invasive species on native species, communities, and ecosystems is widely recognized, and the economic effects in the United States are estimated to be billions of dollars annually. Studies often examine traits of nonnative species or examine what makes a particular habitat invasible. To better understand the factors governing invasions, we used the flora of Nebraska to characterize and compare native and nonnative plant occurrences throughout the state. In addition, we assessed four critical landscape predictors of nonnative plant richness: human population size and three land cover attributes that included percentage of grassland, percentage of agriculture, and …

The Invasive Grass-Fire Cycle In The U.S. Great Basin, Jennifer K. Balch, Marnie K. Carroll, Bethany A. Bradley

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Establishment Of Introduced Reptiles Increases With The Presence And Richness Of Native Congeners, Rodrigo Barbosa Ferreira, Karen H. Beard, Stephen L. Peterson, Sharon A. Poessel, Colin M. Callahan

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Darwin proposed two contradictory hypotheses to explain the influence of congeners on the outcomes of invasion: the naturalization hypothesis, which predicts a negative relationship between the presence of congeners and invasion success, and the pre-adaptation hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between the presence of congeners and invasion success. Studies testing these hypotheses have shown mixed support. We tested these hypotheses using the establishment success of non-native reptiles and congener presence/absence and richness across the globe. Our results demonstrated support for the pre-adaptation hypothesis. We found that globally, both on islands and continents, establishment success was higher in the presence …

Communication Effectiveness And The Emerald Ash Borer Mitigation Campaign, Jonathon Heide

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Environmental risk communication is scrutinized by several research fields including, as Herndl and Brown (1996) show, technical communications. This technical communications thesis rhetorically analyses how large and small government agencies in the State of Minnesota communicate a specific environmental risk: emerald ash borer (EAB). EAB is an insect native to Asia and arrived in Detroit on a cargo ship sometime in the 1990s (Cappaert 2005, 153; Poland 2011, 46). By 2012, it spread to the 15 states and two Canadian provinces (USDA--APHIS 2012). EAB's life cycle will causes tree decline in Minnesota, the state with the most ash (MNDNR 2012). …