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Availability Of Organochlorides And Accumulation In Populations Of Tadarida Brasiliensis (Free-Tailed Bat) And Eptesicus Fuscus (Big Brown Bat), Michelle Lee Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Organochlorides were historically effective in controlling a wide range of pests. However, organochlorides have proved to present many problems to the health and welfare of other organisms. Due to these problems, especially declines in wildlife populations, organochlorides were restricted in the 1970's and a majority of them were banned in the mid to late 1980's. The effects of organochlorides on bats such as Tadarida brasiliensis and Eptesicus fuscus have been intensively studied. The effects can range from problems with reproduction to mortality. My analysis of populations of T. brasiliensis and E. fuscus showed that organochlorides are still present in the …

Using The Index Of Biotic Integrity Of Fish Communities To Evaluate Habitat Quality In Middle Chattahoochee River Tributaries, Theodor W. Roever

Theses and Dissertations

An ichthyological survey was conducted within the lower Piedmont and upper Coastal Plain physiographic regions of the middle Chattahoochee River drainage basin between August 1998 and September 2000. Sampling was conducted by Columbus State University (CSU) under contract to Columbus Water Works for the purpose of obtaining biological measurements of watershed health. Objectives of the survey were the establishment of a data baseline of IBI scores for this ecoregion and to ascertain if there was a correlation between the IBI score and human influence. The thesis to be tested is: 'Fish community IBI scores of different watersheds within the Middle …

Use Of Sensory Cues By Fish Crows Corvus Ossifragus Preying On Artificial Bird Nests, Leonard Santisteban, Kathryn E. Sieving, Michael L. Avery

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

How predators locate avian nests is poorly understood and has been subjected to little experimental inquiry. We examined which sensory stimuli were important in the nest-finding behavior of fish crowsCorvus ossifragus, a common nest predator in the southeastern United States. Using an array of potted trees in a large enclosure, we presented artificial nests to captive crows and quantified responses to visual, auditory, and olfactory nest cues, and nest position. Partial ranks of nest-treatment preferences were analyzed using log-linear models. Nest visibility significantly increased the likelihood of predation by fish crows and increasing nest height was a marginally significant influence …

Beaver Herbivory And Its Effect On Cottonwood Trees: Influence Of Flooding Along Matched Regulated And Unregulated Rivers, Stewart W. Breck, Kenneth R. Wilson, Douglas C. Andersen

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We compared beaver (Castor canadensis) foraging patterns on Fremont cottonwood (Populus deltoides subsp. wislizenii ) saplings and the probability of saplings being cut on a 10 km reach of the flow-regulated Green River and a 8.6 km reach of the free-flowing Yampa River in northwestern Colorado. We measured the abundance and density of cottonwood on each reach and followed the fates of individually marked saplings in three patches of cottonwood on the Yampa River and two patches on the Green River. Two natural floods on the Yampa River and one controlled flood on the Green River between …

Wildlife Damage Management Research Needs: Perceptions Of Scientists, Wildlife Managers, And Stakeholders Of The Usda/Wildlife Services Program, Richard L. Bruggers, Richard Owens, Thomas Hoffman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

This paper presents the results of a nationwide research needs assessment of the important wildlife-human conflict issues and associated research needs of the USDA:APHIS-Wildlife Services (WS) program and its stakeholders. Thirty-six WS State Directors, 23 WS/National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) scientists and 6 members of the National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee (NWSAC) to the US Secretary of Agriculture responded to a request for participation. This paper compares these current research needs with previous regional and national research needs assessments for wildlife damage management in the United States. Important national problems identified included issues related to aviation, timber, agriculture, aquaculture, and …

Sustained Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Detector Dogs For Locating Brown Tree Snakes In Cargo Outbound From Guam, Richard M. Engeman, Daniel S. Vice, Darryl York, Kenneth S. Gruver

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The accidental introduction of the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) to Guam has resulted in the extirpation of most of the island's native terrestrial vertebrates, has created a health hazard to infants and children, and has resulted in economic losses. The high brown tree snake population densities on Guam, the species' adaptations for successful dispersal, and Guam's position as a focal point for commercial and military cargo shipments have created a high level of concern that brown tree snakes could spread from Guam to colonize other vulnerable locations. Cargo inspections using teams of handlers and their detector dogs …

An Ecological Basis For Managing Giant Sequoia Ecosystems, Douglas D. Piirto, Robert R. Rogers

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

A strategy for management of giant sequoia groves is formulated using a conceptual framework for ecosystem management recently developed by Region Five of the USDA Forest Service. The framework includes physical, biological, and social dimensions. Environmental indicators and reference variability for key ecosystem elements are discussed in this paper. The selected ecosystem elements include: 1) attitudes, beliefs, and values; 2) economics and subsistence; 3) stream channel morphology; 4) sediment; 5) water; 6) fire; 7) organic debris; and 8) vegetation mosaic. Recommendations are made for the attributes of environmental indicators that characterize these elements. These elements and associated indicators will define …

Autoregressive Moving Average Models Of Crown Profiles For Two California Hardwood Species, Samantha J. Gill, Gregory S. Biging

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Time-series Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) models were employed to model tree crown profiles for two California hardwood species (blue oak and interior live oak). There are three major components of these models: a polynomial trend, an ARMA model, and unaccounted for variation. The polynomial trend was used to achieve a stationary series. For these crown profiles, the use of a quadratic trend resulted in a stationary series for 60% of the profiles. A cubic trend was used for another 23%, and a quartic for 7%. It was found that 80% of the tree crown profiles could be modeled using a …

Fisheries Research Report No. 138 - Historical Diving Profiles For Pearl Oyster Divers In Western Australia, H M A Lulofs, Neil R. Sumner

Fisheries Research Reports

The annual value of the pearl oyster fishery off the north coast of Western Australia is in the vicinity of 153 million dollars. Most pearl oyster fishing occurs in the Broome area. This area is managed on a quota system with a total allowable catch of 512,000 shells in 1996, during which 511,716 shells were taken. This required 12,775 hours of dive time at a catch rate of 40 shell per hour.

Drift diving practices in the Western Australian pearling industry over the last eighteen years are described and related to the number of medical incidents. The study provides a …

Monitoring The Prey-Field Of Marine Predators: Combining Digital Imaging With Datalogging Tags, Sascha Hooker, Ian L. Boyd, Mark Jessop, Oliver Cox, John Blackwell, Peter Boveng, John Bengston

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

There is increasing interest in the diving behavior of marine mammals. However, identifying foraging among recorded dives often requires several assumptions. The simultaneous acquisition of images of the prey encountered, together with records of diving behavior will allow researchers to more fully investigate the nature of subsurface behavior. We tested a novel digital camera linked to a time-depth recorder on Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella). During the austral summer 2000-2001, this system was deployed on six lactating female fur seals at Bird Island, South Georgia, each for a single foraging trip. The camera was triggered at depths greater …

Fisheries Occasional Publication No. 2 - Scientific Workshop On The Margaret River Marron, Brett Molony

Fisheries Occasional Publications

Purpose of the Workshop

To gather together and review the scientific evidence around genetic and sustainability issues necessary for the management of Margaret River Marron (MRM)

The outcomes of the day will be to provide scientific advice, options and priorities to the relevant Programs within the Department of Fisheries to promote the sustainability of marron within MR.

* Introduction to, and comparison of, genetic techniques available to researchers. Presenter - Phil Vercoe

* What do we know about the genetic diversity of marron and other Cherax? Presenter - Chris Austin

* Morphology and Hybrids Presenter - Craig Lawrence

* The …

The Probe, Issue 223 – July/August 2002

The Probe: Newsletter of the National Animal Damage Control Association

• Suburban Invasion! By Wildlife? -- Michelle L. Shuey, Southwest Texas State University
• What are the health risks of consuming meat from deer or elk infected with Chronic Wasting Disease ?
• The 68th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference is set for March 26-30, 2003, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Book Review: Living in the Shadows: How to Help the Stray Cat in Your Life (Without Adding to the Problem) by Ann K. Fisher.--“I was impressed with her chapter on taming feral cats. It would certainly take a dedicated soul to put that much work into taming …

Effect Of Time Of Temperature Observation And Estimation Of Daily Solar Radiation For The Northern Great Plains, Usa, Rezaul Mahmood, Kenneth Hubbard

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Daily incident solar radiation is an important input for numerous crop growth simulation models. However, lack of recorded solar radiation is a significant impediment for most crop–climate studies. The present study aimed to overcome the problem of sparse historical data of solar radiation over the northern Great Plains. The approach was to develop a physically based solar radiation model wherein estimates were possible with minimum input data. In addition, this study investigates impacts of time of observation bias on the model formulation. The proposed model (M-H) requires measured daily range of air temperature (maximum minus minimum) and estimated daily clear-sky …

Monitoring Of Air Quality In Abu-Dhabi City 1998-2001, Fatima Yahya Abdullah Ahmed Al-Aidrous

Theses

Documentation of air pollution and sources in the emirate of Abu Dhabi has never been reviewed in terms of its effect on health. No research by means of a population-based study has been conducted in order to define the important epidemiological characteristics of air pollution in human health. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the levels of air pollutants in the environment of Abu Dhabi Emirate, and the effects of air pollution on human health. Additionally, a comprehensive time-series analysis was performed on the air quality data for a period of four years (1998-2001)

The study was undertaken …

Comparison Of Water Quality, Zooplankton Density, And Cover In Razorback Sucker (Xyrauchen Texanus [Abbott]) Spawning Areas Of Lake Mead And Lake Mohave, Michael E. Golden, Paul B. Holden, Southern Nevada Water Authority

Publications (WR)

Las Vegas Bay and Echo Bay in Lake Mead have small, self-sustaining populations of razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus [Abbot]). Increased productivity and cover have been hypothesized as reasons for successful recruitment of razorback sucker in Lake Mead. Conversely, reproduction has been documented on Lake Mohave, another lower Colorado River reservoir, but no recruitment has been observed. In 2000, BIO-WEST, Inc. was contracted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to design and implement a study to examine nutrient levels, zooplankton density, and cover in areas with and without razorback sucker recruitment success. We sampled Echo Bay, Las Vegas Bay, and …