Life Sciences Commons^™

Reproductive Success Of The Rare Endemic Orchis Galilaea (Orchidaceae) In Lebanon, Nisrine Machaka Houri, Mohammad Souheil Al-Zein, Duncan Brian Westbury, Salma Nashabe Talhouk

Turkish Journal of Botany

The biology and ecology of Orchis galilaea Schltr., a species endemic to Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan, is poorly studied, a fact that hinders present and future management and conservation efforts concerning this species. In this paper, we report findings of a field investigation that assessed the impact of altitude, population density, and plant size on the reproductive success of O. galilaea. The results revealed that plant size and population density were significantly correlated with reproductive success while altitude was not. This study is part of ongoing research on the ecological responses of O. galilaea and provides a baseline for understanding …

The Management Of Feral Pig Socio-Ecological Systems In Far North Queensland, Australia, Gabriela Shuster

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The development of management programs for socio-ecological systems that include multiple stakeholders is a complex process and requires careful evaluation and planning. This is particularly a challenge in the presence of intractable conflict. The feral pig (Sus scrofa) in Australia is part of one such socio-ecological system. There is a large and heterogeneous group of stakeholders interested in pig management. Pigs have diverse effects on wildlife and plant ecology, economic, health, and social sectors. This study used the feral pig management system as a vehicle to examine intractable conflict in socio-ecological systems. The purpose of the study was …

Management In A Neotropical Show Cave: Planning For Invertebrates Conservation, Thais Giovannini Pellegrini, Rodrigo Lopes Ferreira

International Journal of Speleology

Lapa Nova is a dolomitic cave about 4.5 km long located in northwestern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The cave experiences intense tourism, concentrated over a single period of the year, during the Feast of Our Lady of Lapa. In order to evaluate the impacts felt by the invertebrate community from this tourism, a new methodology was proposed. Four types of areas (intense visitation area, outlying visitation areas, moderate visitation areas and no-visitation areas) were sampled for invertebrates. There was one sampling prior and another on the last day of the 128^th feast, to evaluate the effects of visitation on …

Impacts Of Urbanisation On The Native Avifauna Of Perth, Western Australia, Robert A. Davis, Cheryl Gole, J Dale Roberts

Research outputs 2013

Urban development either eliminates, or severely fragments, native vegetation, and therefore alters the distribution and abundance of species that depend on it for habitat. We assessed the impact of urban development on bird communities at 121 sites in and around Perth, Western Australia. Based on data from community surveys, at least 83 % of 65 landbirds were found to be dependent, in some way, on the presence of native vegetation. For three groups of species defined by specific patterns of habitat use (bushland birds), there were sufficient data to show that species occurrences declined as the landscape changed from variegated …

Seeing Through Others' Eyes : Towards A Hybrid Ecology Of Marine Turtle And Dugong In Australia, Zoe Car

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis explores the conflict between conservationists and Indigenous communities over the hunting of marine turtles and dugong in Australia, with a view to finding a way to overcome the barriers that prevent the resolution of this issue. I approached this exploration as an ecologist, using the framework of Berkes (2004) who proposed three shifts for the field of ecology. This meant taking a systems approach and investigating the intertwining threads of the issue as possible, with a specific focus on integrating the human aspects of the problem in a participatory manner. By doing so my work entered into a …

Impacts Of Urbanisation On The Native Avifauna Of Perth, Western Australia, Robert Davis, C Gole, Jd Roberts

Research outputs 2012

Urban development either eliminates, or severely fragments, native vegetation, and therefore alters the distribution and abundance of species that depend on it for habitat. We assessed the impact of urban development on bird communities at 121 sites in and around Perth, Western Australia. Based on data from community surveys, at least 83 % of 65 landbirds were found to be dependent, in some way, on the presence of native vegetation. For three groups of species defined by specific patterns of habitat use (bushland birds), there were sufficient data to show that species occurrences declined as the landscape changed from variegated …

The Flora Of Greater San Quintín, Baja California, Mexico (2005–2010), Sula E. Vanderplank

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

The plants of San Quintín (Baja California, Mexico) were documented through intensive fieldwork and collection of herbarium specimens to create a checklist of species. The region is located near the southernmost extent of the California Floristic Province, and the flora is influenced by the adjacent desert to the south. A total of 435 plant taxa were documented, of which 82% are native plants. Almost one in three native plant taxa in Greater San Quintín is a sensitive species, here documented as rare and/or locally endemic, and many taxa have yet to be evaluated fully for rarity and threats. Four major …

The Biogeography Of Marbled Godwit (Limosa Fedoa) Populations In North America, Bridget E. Olson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. Toward fulfillment of that mission, a priority of the USFWS is conservation and management of migratory birds. Effective conservation actions to ensure the continued existence of a species on the landscape cannot be designed without first understanding basic life history characteristics of a species. It is common in the case of migratory birds, that we lack understanding of some of their elemental biological traits.

The Marbled Godwit, …

Empathy-Based Conservation: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Conservation Policy And Decision-Making, Kaitlyn Delashmutt

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

In the late 20^th century, neuroscientists in Italy discovered a neuron in the brain capable of mentally mimicking the emotions derived from the actions of others (Rizzolatti and Craighero, 2004). It is the process that makes your elbow ache when someone else knocks their elbow on the counter or the uncontrollable smile that creeps up when someone smiles at you. No questions asked, people intuitively sense what others are feeling. The old school of thought was that humans deduced through logic and reason the actions of others and interpreted the emotions through a rational process (Carew et al, 2008). …

Four Types Of Activities That Affect Animals: Implications For Animal Welfare Science And Animal Ethics Philosophy, D. Fraser, A. M. Macrae

Ethnozoology and Animal Welfare Collection

People affect animals through four broad types of activity: (1) people keep companion, farm, laboratory and captive wild animals, often while using them for some purpose; (2) people cause deliberate harm to animals through activities such as slaughter, pest control, hunting, and toxicology testing; (3) people cause direct but unintended harm to animals through crop production, transportation, night-time lighting, and many other human activities; and (4) people harm animals indirectly by disturbing ecological systems and the processes of nature, for example by destroying habitat, introducing foreign species, and causing pollution and climate change. Each type of activity affects vast numbers …

Breeding Ecology Of The Pileated Woodpecker, Brandon Lennon Noel

Student Theses and Dissertations

The purported rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in 2004 was a monumental moment in conservation biology. Although controversy surrounds this and other sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers within bottomland hardwood forests, the rediscovery of a species thought to have gone extinct revitalized optimism focused on its conservation. What knowledge we possess about ivory-billed woodpeckers comes from research done by James Tanner in the 1930s and his data are pseudo-replicated from just a few pairs. Tanner suggested that sweetgum-oak forest cover types were better quality habitats for ivory-billed woodpeckers and other woodpecker species …

The Communicator, October 2011, Terry Messmer

All Current Publications

This publication is an issue of "The Communicator" highlighting details of sage-grouse local working groups.

New Records Of Carrion Beetles In Nebraska Reveal Increased Presence Of The American Burying Beetle, Nicrophorus Americanus Olivier (Coleoptera: Silphidae), Jessica Jurzenski, Daniel G. Snethen, Mathew L. Brust, W. Wyatt Hoback

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Surveys for the American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus Olivier (Silphidae), between 2001 and 2010 in Nebraska resulted in 11 new county records for this endangered species and 465 new county records for 14 other silphid species. A total of 5,212 American burying beetles were captured in more than 1,500 different locations. Using mark-recapture data, we estimated the population size of the American burying beetle (ABB) for six counties in the Sandhills. Blaine County (2003) had the largest population, with an estimated 56 ABBs per km² (1,338 ± 272 ABBs). The remaining estimates were between 2 and 36 ABBs per …

Utah’S Adaptive Resources Management Greater Sage-Grouse Local Working Groups Accomplishment Report, Utah State University Extension

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.

Phylogeography Of A Vanishing North American Songbird: The Painted Bunting (Passerina Ciris), Connie Ann Herr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Studies of genetic variation within and between species can provide insights into their evolutionary history as well as important information for conserving biodiversity. An understanding of population processes can assist in the conservation of biodiversity by contrasting current versus historical patterns, and the processes that have generated these patterns. Genetic differentiation often coincides with significant geological or climatic changes that have shaped the sizes and locations of the species geographic range and altered the connectivity between populations over time. Phylogenetic and population genetic analyses can also provide a statistical framework for the investigation of how human processes such as habitat …

Avian Abundance And Diversity In Crep And Fescue Fields In The Summer And Winter Related To Vegetation Structure In The Upper Green River Watershed, Ky, Thomas A. Hulsey

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Grassland bird populations have been undergoing dramatic declines in the last fifty years due to loss and degradation of habitat. The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) was initiated in the upper Green River Watershed of south-central Kentucky to improve water quality and provide wildlife habitat. Many studies have previously examined how similar programs in other states have contributed to grassland bird populations; in this study we are examining how the Kentucky CREP program is influencing bird populations, particularly grassland birds, and contributing to the conservation of these species. Bird and vegetation surveys were conducted during the summer of 2008 and …

Human-Wildlife Conflict On Small, Subsistence Farms In Kenya, Christopher B. Colonna

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As human populations expand, wildlife suddenly competes with humans for resources and confrontation arises as a result. Rural Africa is typical of this problem. We surveyed local owners of small farms within the five villages surrounding Mount Kasigau in Southeast Kenya to quantify losses due to wildlife depredation on both subsistence and cash crops as well as to discover the patterns and variables influencing farmer-wildlife confrontations in the region. We found no statistically significant correlations among the value of damage per acre, the distance from the bush, or the distance to the nearest water source. We did find statistical significance …

Plants Of The Colonet Region, Baja California, Mexico, And A Vegetation Map Of Colonet Mesa, Alan B. Harper, Sula Vanderplank, Mark Dodero, Sergio Mata, Jorge Ochoa

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

The Colonet region is located at the southern end of the California Floristic Province, in an area known to have the highest plant diversity in Baja California. A preliminary list of vouchered specimens is developed for the area, and a vegetation map for Colonet Mesa is presented. The Colonet region has at least 435 vascular plant taxa, of which 383 are native to Baja California, and 52 are endemic or nearly endemic. This list includes five local endemic taxa known only from the Colonet region, 18 taxa on the California Native Plant Society List 1B of taxa that are "rare, …

Maintenance Of Genetic Diversity In Cordia Africana Lam., A Declining Forest Tree Species In Ethiopia, Abayneh Derero, Oliver Gailing, Reiner Finkeldey

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

We assessed genetic variation in a total of 22 populations of the tree species Cordia africana Lam. in Ethiopia and analyzed the country-wide impact of population history, forest disturbance and alteration of land use on extant intraspecific diversity. Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLPs) and chloroplast microsatellite markers were investigated. The analyses of the AFLP data revealed high diversity in all investigated populations: the percentage of polymorphic loci (PPL) ranged from 62.2% to 92.2% and Nei's gene diversity from 0.220 to 0.320 within the populations. The mean PPL and the mean diversity within populations were 85.7% and 0.287, respectively. The analysis …

Modeling Habitat Associations For The Common Loon (Gavia Immer) At Multiple Scales In Northeastern North America, Anne Kuhn, Jane Copeland, John Cooley, Harry Vogel, Kate Taylor, Diane Nacci, Peter V. August

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Common Loon (Gavia immer) is considered an emblematic and ecologically important example of aquatic-dependent wildlife in North America. The northern breeding range of Common Loon has contracted over the last century as a result of habitat degradation from human disturbance and lakeshore development. We focused on the state of New Hampshire, USA, where a long-term monitoring program conducted by the Loon Preservation Committee has been collecting biological data on Common Loon since 1976. The Common Loon population in New Hampshire is distributed throughout the state across a wide range of lake-specific habitats, water quality conditions, and levels of …

Microclimate Preferences Of The Grey-Headed Flying Fox (Pteropus Poliocephalus) In The Sydney Region, Stephanie T. Snoyman, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

The population size of the grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) has decreased dramatically as a result of a variety of threatening processes. This species spends a great proportion of time in roosting large social aggregations in urban areas, causing conflict between wildlife and humans. Little is known about why these bats choose to roost in some locations in preference to others. Roost selection by cave-dwelling bats can be greatly influenced by microclimatic variables; however, far less is known about microclimate selection in tree-roosting species despite the direct management implications. This study aimed to determine the microclimate characteristics of P. poliocephalus …

Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea Blandingii) In Saratoga County, New York : Survey Methods, Spatial Ecology And Conservation, Andrea Chaloux

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In 2003, a small, isolated population of the New York State Threatened Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) was documented in Saratoga County, New York, between the main range and eastern range of the species, approximately 120 km from the nearest known population. The location of the population and its occupancy of a protected preserve in an area experiencing heavy development pressure prompted the need for an immediate conservation-focused study. Building upon work of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation staff from 2003-2006, a trapping (2007-2008) and radio-telemetry (2007-2009) study was conducted with the following objectives: 1) inform survey protocol recommendations …

Conservation Genetics And Distribution Of The Yazoo Darter (Etheostoma Raneyi), Kenneth Alan Sterling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Yazoo Darter is a range-restricted endemic fish in north-central Mississippi. Because the limited and fragmented range of this species puts it at risk of extinction, the Yazoo Darter has been classified as vulnerable or sensitive by several agencies and conservation organizations. However, the actual conservation status of this species is uncertain. Information necessary for conservation management is relatively sparse and is scattered among published and unpublished sources, particularly collection records. I have consolidated all known collection records for this species into a standardized database which has not only yielded valuable information presented here, but will provide a resource for …

Carrying Capacity For Species Richness As A Context For Conservation: A Case Study Of North American Breeding Birds, Andrew J. Hansen, Linda Bowers Phillips, Curtis H. Flather, Jim Robinson-Cox

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Aim To demonstrate that the concept of carrying capacity for species richness (S_K) is highly relevant to the conservation of biodiversity, and to estimate the spatial pattern of S_K for native landbirds as a basis for conservation planning.

Location North America.

Methods We evaluated the leading hypotheses on biophysical factors affecting species richness for Breeding Bird Survey routes from areas with little influence of human activities.We then derived a best model based on information theory, and used this model to extrapolate SK across North America based on the biophysical predictor variables. The predictor variables included the …

Number 52 (December 2010), Southern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

(December 2010) - Comparative Conservation Genetics of Two Endangered Darters, Percina rex and Percina jenkinsi By Anna L. George, David Neely, and Richard Mayden

Invasion of Gulf Menhaden in the Alabama River By T. Heath Haley, R. Kyle Bolton, and Carol E. Johnston

Southeastern Fishes Council State Reports

Minutes, Business Meeting, 35th Annual Meeting, Southeastern Fishes Council

2009 Treasurer's Report for the Southeastern Fishes Council

Zoo Registrars: A Bewildering Bureaucracy, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

While their counterparts in the museum world have received some scholarly attention, no scholarly account of zoo registrars has been published to date. Why bother studying zoo registrars? Firstly, in the (contained) wildness of the zoo, the registrar performs the role of law and order. She (typically this position is employed by females) manages the administrative side of the zoo: a junction between data management and small-scale legal administration. Secondly, registrars both depict and represent the significant transformations that have occurred in North American zoos over the last few decades, from insular urban institutions exhibiting exotic animals for entertainment, to …

Slides: Climate Change Adaptation And The Federal Lands, Robert L. Glicksman

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Robert L. Glicksman, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, George Washington University Law School (Washington, D.C.)

12 slides

Slides: Grazing On The Public Lands, William G. Myers Iii

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: William G. Myers III, Partner, Holland & Hart; former Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior (Boise, ID)

8 slides

Toward A Synthesis Of Conservation And Animal Welfare Science, David Fraser

Conservation Biology and Animal Welfare Collection

Conservation biology and animal welfare science are multidisciplinary fields of research that address social concerns about animals. Conservation biology focuses on wild animals, works at the level of populations, ecological systems and genetic types, and deals with threats to biodiversity and ecological integrity. Animal welfare science typically focuses on captive (often domestic) animals, works at the level of individuals and groups, and deals with threats to the animals’ health and quality of life. However, there are many areas of existing or potential overlap: (i) many real-life problems, such as environmental contamination, urban development and transportation, create problems for animals that …

Snowshoe Hare And Forest Structure Relationships In Western Wyoming, Nathan Daniel Berg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) are a critically important prey species for Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis). Determination of snowshoe hare distribution and abundance is needed in western Wyoming for lynx conservation. We used linear regression to examine the correlations between snowshoe hare density, as determined by mark-recapture estimates, and fecal pellet plot counts on both uncleared and annually cleared plots on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, western Wyoming. We found significant correlations between hare density estimates and fecal pellet counts for both uncleared and annually cleared pellet counts; however the relationship was much stronger for annually cleared pellet …