Life Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Dormant Season Burning And Flooding On Invasive Cattail, Typha X Glauca, On Rainy Lake And Lake Kabetogama In Northern Minnesota, Erika Meints

All NMU Master's Theses

Typha x glauca is one of the most invasive plants in North America. The plant exhibits hybrid vigor and displaces native flora by rapidly forming dense monotypic stands that can break free from the substrate and form floating mat types when established. I tested the effects of prescribed burning, on Typha x glauca in wetlands to adjacent large lakes in Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota. My team surveyed four wetlands that were burned in late winter of 2020-21, and six that were unburned controls. Pre-burn data was also collected for all ten wetlands. Pre-flooding data from other wetlands within …

What Are The Impacts Of Deer Browsing And Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium Vinenium) On Native Sapling Growth In A Residential Wetland In Southeastern Georgia?, Josie Richards

Honors College Theses

Wetlands promote biodiversity, act as climate stabilizers, and regulate water flow, yet are vulnerable to invaders. An invasive species can affect the biodiversity, abiotic conditions, and increase vulnerability of an ecosystem over time and deer browsing can actively affect new growth by removing the apical buds of young woody vegetation. Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), a wetland specific invader, has been shown to compete against native species for limited resources and actively crowd them out. Growth of native saplings can be further complicated by the presence of white tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), which browse woody vegetation and limit recruitment of trees. …

Rapidly Changing Range Limits In A Warming World: Critical Data Limitations And Knowledge Gaps For Advancing Understanding Of Mangrove Range Dynamics In The Southeastern Usa, Rémi Bardou, Michael J. Osland, Steven Scyphers, Christine Shepard, Karen E. Aerni, Jahson B. Alemu I, Robert Crimian, Richard H. Day, Nicholas M. Enwright, Laura C. Feher, Sarah L. Gibbs, Kiera O'Donnell, Savannah H. Swinea, Kalaina Thorne, Sarit Truskey, Anna R. Armitage, Ronald Baker, Josh L. Breithaupt, Kyle C. Cavanaugh, Erik S. Yando, A. Randall Hughes, Et Al.

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Climate change is altering species’ range limits and transforming ecosystems. For example, warming temperatures are leading to the range expansion of tropical, cold-sensitive species at the expense of their cold-tolerant counterparts. In some temperate and subtropical coastal wetlands, warming winters are enabling mangrove forest encroachment into salt marsh, which is a major regime shift that has significant ecological and societal ramifications. Here, we synthesized existing data and expert knowledge to assess the distribution of mangroves near rapidly changing range limits in the southeastern USA. We used expert elicitation to identify data limitations and highlight knowledge gaps for advancing understanding of …

Pond-Breeding Amphibian Responses To Wetland Creation And Reforestation On A Legacy Surface Mine In The Monongahela National Forest, Lauren Breanna Sherman

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Surface mine reclamation has been an evolving practice since the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was passed in 1977, holding mining companies accountable for returning ecological function to areas directly impacted by mining activities. One recent method of reclamation, the Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA), aims to enhance reforestation and ecosystem function through the creation of wetlands, as opposed to traditional methods that often revert land to grasslands. However, wildlife response to FRA has rarely been investigated. The goal of this project was to analyze the effects of the four treatment types, FRA in two chronosequences, natural regeneration, and unmined …

Importance And Winter Ornithological Value Of Lake El-Golea (Ghardaïa, Algerian Sahara, Biad Radhia, Bounab Choayb, Guergueb El Yamine, Biad Mohamed Fetheddine, Houhamdi Moussa

Journal of Bioresource Management

This study is carried out on two winter period (2018-2019 and 2019-2020) in Lake El-Golea (Ghardaïa, northern Sahara of Algeria). Its objective is to determine the ornithological value of this lake and to in ferits importance in maintaining aquatic avifauna during the winter season. This inventory shows a diversity equivalent to forty-one species belonging to thirteen families and nine orders of which eighteen are protected by various Algerian and international laws. The most represented family is that of the Anatidae with twelve species while the family with the highest number is that of the Phenicopteridae represented only by one species, …

Whooping Crane Stay Length In Relation To Stopover Site Characteristics, Andrew J. Caven, Aaron T. Pearse, David A. Brandt, Mary J. Harner, Greg D. Wright, David M. Baasch, Emma M. Brinley Buckley, Kristine L. Metzger, Matthew R. Rabbe,, Anne E. Lacy

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

Whooping crane (Grus americana) migratory stopovers can vary in length from hours to more than a month. Stopover sites provide food resources and safety essential for the completion of migration. Factors such as weather, climate, demographics of migrating groups, and physiological condition of migrants influence migratory movements of cranes (Gruidae) to varying degrees. However, little research has examined the relationship between habitat characteristics and stopover stay length in cranes. Site quality may relate to stay length with longer stays that allow individuals to improve body condition, or with shorter stays because of increased foraging efficiency. We examined this …

Environmental Effects On Constructed Wetland Microbial Diversity And Function In The Context Of Wastewater Management, Sandrine Grandmont-Lemire

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Microbial communities play a crucial role in ecosystems, yet we know little about how microbial diversity influences ecosystem functioning. An important gap in our understanding is how environmental change affects microbial Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function relationships (BEF). These complex interactions between microbial biodiversity and ecosystem function can influence major biogeochemical processes, such as the nitrogen cycle in wetland ecosystems, which play an important role in managing wastewater. To address the effect of biodiversity on function, my study investigates the BEF relationships between microbial diversity and the function in terms of ammonia removal from wastewater at the Arcata Wastewater Treatment Facility (AWTF) both …

Remote Detection Of Disturbance From Motorized Vehicle Use In Appalachian Wetlands, Walter Smith

Virginia Journal of Science

Wetland disturbance from motorized vehicle use is a growing concern across the Appalachian coalfields of southwestern Virginia and portions of adjacent states, particularly as both extractive industries and outdoor recreation development expand in regional communities. However, few attempts have been made in this region or elsewhere to adapt approaches that can assist researchers and land managers in remotely identifying and monitoring wetland habitats disturbed by motorized vehicle use. A comparative analysis of wetlands impacted and unimpacted by off-road vehicle activity at a public recreation area in Tazewell County, Virginia was conducted to determine if and how a common, satellite-derived index …

Investigating The Impact Of Land Use On Avian Diversity And Abundance In Areas Surrounding Mabamba Swamp, Uganda, Sydney Marie Jones

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the impact of wetland-adjacent land use on avian species richness and abundance areas surrounding Mabamba Swamp, Uganda. Four types of land use were investigated: Eucalyptus plantations, wetland-edge agricultural fields, residential areas, and mature secondary forests. A total of 40-morning point counts were conducted for ten days in late November and late December of 2021. One-way ANOVA tests and Tukey’s HSD tests revealed significant differences in mean avian richness and abundance between all sites except residential areas and Nkima Forest. Additionally, Nkima Forest was found to contain the most number of specialist …

Impact Analysis On The Invasive Oriental Weather Loach (Misgurnus Anguillicaudatus) In The Grant Creek And Prairie Creek Watersheds At Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Adam Vanhaitsma

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Presentation Location: Weber Center, Room 101

Abstract

In 2014, the invasive Oriental weather loach was found in the Prairie Creek wetland at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. While little is known about the Oriental weather loach and its impact on freshwater ecosystems it has become a widespread invasive species. Being the first to investigate the impact of the Oriental weather loach on the Grant Creek and Prairie Creek watersheds at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, we set traps for specimens from early June till late July in both watersheds. Each loach that was caught was euthanized and dissected in order to understand …

Floodplain Forest Regeneration Dynamics In The Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley, Whitney Anne Kroschel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Floodplain forest species diversity is driven, in part, by variation in disturbance regime. Flood patterns create heterogeneity in microsite quality from small differences in elevation across a floodplain which, in turn, influence flood timing and duration. Differences in species’ regeneration niches in relation to hydrologic patterns can account for long-term coexistence of various species. In the past century floodplain forests have exhibited a wide range of changes in stand development and species composition as a result of altered hydrology in rivers and floodplains. I evaluated the role of regeneration in floodplain forest systems of the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley …

The Effects Of Woody Vegetation Encroachment And Removal Within A Coastal Fen, Joseph Saler

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Early successional wetland habitat is being lost in temperate regions worldwide as a result of changes in disturbance regimes that allow for the establishment and dominance of woody species. In particular, this phenomenon is pronounced in fens, which harbor high numbers of rare herbaceous species that require early successional habitat. I investigated the relationship between woody vegetation encroachment and herbaceous species diversity within a Northern California coastal fen that has been undergoing encroachment by woody vegetation for ca. 80 years by recording species richness and cover data from 338 permanent plots throughout the fen. I also investigated the effect of …

Working With Land Managers To Identify And Manage Potential Stopover Locations For Whooping Cranes, Chester A. Mcconnell

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

Whooping cranes (Grus americana) of the Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population migrate 4,000 km twice each year between their nesting grounds in northern Canada and their wintering grounds on the Texas Gulf Coast. During migration, whooping cranes must land at suitable ponds or wetlands to feed or rest. The Whooping Crane Recovery Plan calls for the protection and management of whooping crane stopover locations within the migration corridor. While major stopover areas have been protected, many other smaller sites remain to be identified. Moreover, the Recovery Plan offers no specific entity to protect and manage the latter. To address these …

Muskrats, James E. Miller

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

The muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) is a common, semi-aquatic rodent native to the United States (Figure 1). It spends its life in aquatic habitats and is well adapted for swimming.

Although muskrats are an important part of native ecosystems, their burrowing and foraging activities can damage agricultural crops, native marshes and water control systems, such as aquaculture and farm ponds and levees. Such damage can significantly impact agricultural crops like rice that rely on consistent water levels for growth.

Muskrats also cause damage by eating agricultural crops, other vegetation, and crayfish, mussels and other aquaculture products. Loss of vegetation …

Master's Project: An Ecological Inventory And Assessment Of The Pond Brook Region In Monkton, Vermont, Lyra D. Brennan

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

The Pond Brook Watershed in Monkton, Vermont, is a 19,000-acre patchwork of northern white cedar swamps, oak-covered ridgetops, and prime agricultural soils. Over 95% of the watershed is privately owned, limiting ecologists’ abilities to conduct a landscape-scale field assessment or determine significant natural resources within the area. I was hired by the Agricultural and Natural Areas Committee of Monkton [ANAC] to conduct an ecological assessment of the Pond Brook Watershed by visiting a diverse sampling of privately-owned parcels and inventorying the 300-acre town owned wetland.

I worked with over 30 individual landowners to understand current and historical land use in …

Biodiversity And You., Garth Woodruff

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Linking Old Librarianship To New: Aligning 5-Steps Of The Innovator's Dna In Creating Thematic Discovery Systems For The Everglades, L. Bryan Cooper, Margarita Perez Martinez

Works of the FIU Libraries

This poster presentation from the May 2015 Florida Library Association Conference, along with the Everglades Explorer discovery portal at http://ee.fiu.edu, demonstrates how traditional bibliographic and curatorial principles can be applied to: 1) selection, cross-walking and aggregation of metadata linking end-users to wide-spread digital resources from multiple silos; 2) harvesting of select PDFs, HTML and media for web archiving and access; 3) selection of CMS domains, sub-domains and folders for targeted searching using an API.

Choosing content for this discovery portal is comparable to past scholarly practice of creating and publishing subject bibliographies, except metadata and data are housed in …

Assessing Landscape Constraints On Species Abundance: Does The Neighborhood Limit Species Response To Local Habitat Conservation Programs?, Christopher F. Jorgensen, Larkin A. Powell, Jeffrey J. Lusk, Andrew A. Bishop, Joseph J. Fontaine

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Landscapes in agricultural systems continue to undergo significant change, and the loss of biodiversity is an ever-increasing threat. Although habitat restoration is beneficial, management actions do not always result in the desired outcome. Managers must understand why management actions fail; yet, past studies have focused on assessing habitat attributes at a single spatial scale, and often fail to consider the importance of ecological mechanisms that act across spatial scales. We located survey sites across southern Nebraska, USA and conducted point counts to estimate Ring-necked Pheasant abundance, an economically important species to the region, while simultaneously quantifying landscape effects using a …

Increased Variability Of Microbial Communities In Restored Salt Marshes Nearly 30 Years After Tidal Flow Restoration, Anne E. Bernhard, David Marshall, Lazaros Yiannos

Biology Faculty Publications

We analyzed microbial diversity and community composition from four salt marsh sites that were impounded for 40–50 years and subsequently restored and four unimpounded sites in southeastern Connecticut over one growing season. Community composition and diversity were assessed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) and sequence analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. Our results indicated diverse communities, with sequences representing 14 different bacterial divisions. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Planctomycetes dominated clone libraries from both restored and unimpounded sites. Multivariate analysis of the TRFLP data suggest significant site, sample date, and restoration status effects, but the exact causes of these …

Swamp : Walking The Wetlands Of The Swan Coastal Plain ; And With The Exegesis, A Walk In The Anthropocene: Homesickness And The Walker-Writer, Anandashila Saraswati

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This project is comprised of a creative work and accompanying exegesis. The creative work is a collection of poetry which examines the history and ecology of the wetlands and river systems of the Swan Coastal Plain, and which utilises the practice of walking as a research methodology. For the creative practitioner walking reintroduces the body as a fundamental definer of experience, placing the investigation centrally in the corporeal self, using the physical senses as investigative tools of enquiry. As Rebecca Solnit comments in her history of walking, ‘exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind, …

Wetland Management Guidelines For Nebraska's Wildlife Management Areas, Ted Lagrange, Randy Stutheit

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: White Papers, Conference Presentations, and Manuscripts

Prior to Euro-American settlement, wetlands covered about 6% of the Nebraska landscape. Since settlement, the state’s wetlands have suffered serious decline. For example, approximately 90% of Rainwater Basin playa wetlands and 90% of the eastern saline wetlands have been destroyed or are highly degraded. Remaining wetlands are threatened by conversion to other uses (e.g. agriculture), invasive and aggressive vegetation, siltation, and lack of proper management. Only through sound management can the wetlands on our Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) be preserved for the citizens of Nebraska, as well as the native plants and wildlife dependent on them.

This section is directed …

Diets Of Nesting Swainson's Hawks In Relation To Land Cover In Northwestern North Dakota, Robert K. Murphy

The Prairie Naturalist

Relationships between land use practices and types of prey used by Swainson's hawks (Buteo swainsoni) in the Northern Great Plains is of increasing interest as the quantity and quality of habitat in the region declines. I recorded 1,284 prey items at 18 Swainson' s hawk nesting areas throughout northwestern North Dakota during summer 1986-1987. After correcting for detectability biases and food needs of adults, I estimated (90% CI) 2,087-2,859 total prey individuals and 138.3-206.7 kg of prey biomass (x = 69.8 g/item) were consumed by adult and nestling Swainson's hawks during my study. Major prey (>10% overall …

Climatological Factors Influencing Yellow Perch Production In Semi-Permanent Wetlands, Christopher M. Longhenry, Michael L. Brown, Todd R. St. Sauver

The Prairie Naturalist

Climatological factors such as temperature, wind, and precipitation have been reported to affect fish reproduction and recruitment in large lakes; however, little is known about these relationships in shallow, semi-permanent wetlands. We utilized age-O yellow perch (Perca flavescens) aquacultural harvest data to model climate effects on variability of juvenile yellow perch year class strength in semi-permanent wetlands. Overall, March through May precipitation, April air temperature, and a wetland parameter (i.e., intrinsic characteristics) provided the best-supported model. These results potentially indicate that spring weather patterns have an influence on yellow perch year class strength in semi-permanent wetlands.

Influence Of Landscape Features Of Wetlands On Nesting Patterns Of Sandhill Cranes In Central Wisconsin, Su Liying, Anne E. Lacy, Jeb A. Barzen

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

We studied the relationship between landscape features and nesting patterns of greater sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis tabida) in central Wisconsin for 3 years. Our study covered 9,840 ha, including about 50% agricultural fields, 20% forest, and 20% wetlands. We analyzed landscape features and nesting patterns at the wetland complex level. Landscape features included size, shape, and type of cover for each wetland complex. Nesting patterns included nesting density and the spatial pattern of the nest locations in a wetland among years. Nest density varied among wetland complexes and years. Mean nest densities in wetlands surveyed were 0.037, 0.033, …

Study Of Environmental Variables And Connectivity Of Northern Mexico For Cranes: Conservation Implications, Edgar Gustavo López-Saut, Ricardo Rodriguez Estrella, Felipe Chavez-Ramirez

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

Wetlands are one of the most important ecosystems for biodiversity and as a resource for humans. Humans depend on wetlands for water and food, but with expansion of urban cores, water overexploitation, and the increase of croplands, wetlands are at risk. The Chihuahuan desert is an ecoregion important for the economy and development of Mexico. Although there are many temporal wetlands that support many migratory birds, water in some desert landscapes is being overexploited due to development. This leads to the desiccation of wetlands important for migratory birds such as cranes. The cranes as a group are associated with grasslands …

Slides: Rifle, Silt, New Castle Community Development Plan: A Collaborative Planning Approach To Natural Gas Development, Peggy Utesch

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Peggy Utesch, Movin' Forward Consulting

25 slides

Slides: Rapanos And The Courts: Navigating Through The Fog, Jim Murphy

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Jim Murphy, Wetlands and Water Resources Counsel, National Wildlife Federation, VT

25 slides

Sustainable Water Policies In The Rocky Mountain West: An Action Agenda, Sarah Bates

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Sarah Bates, Western Progress

10 pages.

Includes bibliographical references

"Review Draft, May 15, 2008"

Selection Criteria For Important Sites For Wintering Sandhill Cranes In The Mexican Altiplano, Alberto Lafon Terrazas, Eduardo Carrera Gonzalez

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

Conservation of natural resources has increased worldwide, and Mexico shows the same tendency. Unfortunately, selection criteria for conservation areas and objectives do not always follow a methodology that will allow for optimum selection. In Mexico and other countries we have a series of priority sites proposed by experts in various biodiversity areas, based on knowledge of the existing biological resources of the site. This results in two situations: more attention and resources are given to certain areas, but no resources are invested in sites that could be of equal or greater importance than those currently proposed. This leads to knowledge …

Notes On Native Vascular Plants From Mima Mound-Vernal Pool Terrain And The Importance Of Preserving Coastal Terraces In Orange County, California, Richard E. Riefner Jr., Steve Boyd, Roy J. Shlemon

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

We report the following noteworthy collections of native vascular plants from mima mound fields in coastal Orange County, California: Deschampsia danthonioides, Lepidium strictum, and Sagina saginoides (new county records), Lepidium oblongum var. oblongum (previously excluded from the flora), Deinandra paniculata, Holocarpha virgata subsp. elongata, and Navarretia prostrata (new localities in the county), and Hordeum brachyantherum subsp. californicum (uncommon species of local interest). A herbarium study, preparation of voucher specimens, and a generalized distribution, facultative wetland status, and taxonomic notes, where appropriate, are cited for each taxon. An overview of the mima mound micro-relief associated with coastal …