Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Restoration Of The Red Wolf, Michael K. Phillips, V. Gary Henry, Brian T. Kelly

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

"WOLFERS" IN NORTHEASTERN North Carolina were busy on February 5, 1768. Records from the Tyrrell County courthouse read:

Giles Long and Thomas Wilkinson awarded one pound for a certified wolf scalp; Jeremiah Norman awarded two pounds for certified wolf and wild-cat scalps; Davenport Smithwick awarded one pound for a certified wolf-scalp.

Such was the nature of the war on the wolf: people killed them for money. The belief of the time held that the war was necessary because it was humankind's manifest destiny to tame the wilderness. And for the wilderness to be tame, the wolf had to be exterminated. …

Wolf-Prey Relations, L. David Mech, Rolf O. Peterson

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

AS 1 (L. o. MECH) watched from a small ski plane while fifteen wolves surrounded a moose on snowy Isle Royale, I had no idea this encounter would typify observations I would make during 40 more years of studying wolf-prey interactions.

My usual routine while observing wolves hunting was to have my pilot keep circling broadly over the scene so I could watch the wolves' attacks without disturbing any of the animals. Only this time there was no attack. The moose held the wolves at bay for about 5 minutes (fig. p), and then the pack left.

From this observation …

Ecological Games In Space And Time: The Distribution And Abundance Of Antarctic Krill And Penguins, Suzanne Alonzo, Paul Switzer, Marc Mangel

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The distribution and abundance of organisms are affected by behaviors, such as habitat selection, foraging, and reproduction. These behaviors are driven by interactions within and between species, environmental conditions, and the biology of the species in-volved. Although extensive theoretical work has explored predator–prey dynamics, these models have not considered the impact of behavioral plasticity and life-history trade-offs on predicted patterns. We apply a modeling method that allows the consideration of a spatial, dynamic ecological game between predators and prey using a life-history perspec-tive. As an illustrative example, we model the habitat selection of Antarctic krill and penguins during the time …

Utah Forest Health Report : A Baseline Assessment 1999 - 2001, Colleen Keyes, Paul Rogers, Leon Lamadeleine, Vick Applegate, Dave Atkins

The Bark Beetles, Fuels, and Fire Bibliography

This report addresses forest health in two ways: by discussion of forest-related issues and by data summaries in several appendices. FHM is a long-term monitoring program and therefore, the data presented in this report must be viewed in that light. This report presents a first-time, or baseline summary. Subsequent reports will address changes over time as plots and other detection surveys are conducted and re-measured.

Ecological Games In Space And Time: The Distribution And Abundance Of Antarctic Krill And Penguins, Suzanne H. Alonzo, Paul V. Switzer, Marc Mangel

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The distribution and abundance of organisms are affected by behaviors, such as habitat selection, foraging, and reproduction. These behaviors are driven by interactions within and between species, environmental conditions, and the biology of the species in-volved. Although extensive theoretical work has explored predator–prey dynamics, these models have not considered the impact of behavioral plasticity and life-history trade-offs on predicted patterns. We apply a modeling method that allows the consideration of a spatial, dynamic ecological game between predators and prey using a life-history perspec-tive. As an illustrative example, we model the habitat selection of Antarctic krill and penguins during the time …

An Ecosystem-Based Approach To Management: Using Individual Behaviour To Predict The Indirect Effects Of Antarctic Krill Fisheries On Penguin Foraging, Suzanne Alonzo, Paul Switzer, Marc Mangel

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Summary 1. Changes in species' abundance and distributions caused by human disturbances can have indirect effects on other species in a community. Although ecosystem approaches to management are becoming increasingly prevalent, they require a fuller understand- ing of how individual behaviour determines interactions within and between species. 2. Ecological interactions involving krill are of major importance to many species within the Antarctic. Despite extensive knowledge of the ecosystem that they occupy, there is still incomplete understanding of the links between species and the effect of environmental conditions on these interactions. In this study, we extended a behavioural model used previously …

Effects Of Experience And Body Size On Refuge Choice In The Crayfish Orconectes Immunis, Patrick Forsythe, Deborah Wyatt, Paul Switzer

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

We investigated whether refuge size or experience with a refuge affected the refuge use of male Orconectes immunis crayfish. Individuals were given choices among seven refuges for 10 consecutive days. Refuges were formed from equal length but different diameter PVC pipe and placed in an array in a random sequence. Three treatments were used. In the Novel Refuge treatment, individuals were placed in a new test arena with a new arrangement of cleaned refuges every day. In the Nonremoval treatment, individuals were left in the same arena with the same set of refuges each day. In the Removal treatment, individuals …

Wild Horses And Burros In The United States, Allen T. Rutberg

State of the Animals 2003

Treatment of wild horses and burros has improved remarkably over the last fifty years. In the mid-twentieth century, free-ranging horses and burros suffered horribly at the hands of “mustangers” who captured them at will and whim, sometimes using the most brutal of techniques, including aerial pursuit and shooting or crippling key herd members. The horses were packed into livestock trucks hurt, bleeding, and exhausted, and shipped to slaughter without stopping for rest or watering (Ryden 1999). Unprotected by law, only the good will of a few ranchers protected these abused animals. Public awareness of the plight of the wild horses …

The Science And Sociology Of Hunting: Shifting Practices And Perceptions In The United States And Great Britain, John W. Grandy, Elizabeth Stallman, David W. Macdonald

State of the Animals 2003

Between the late nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries, both the rationale for and perception of hunting shifted in the United States, coinciding with demographic changes in the U.S. population (Duda 1993). Similar changes in attitude, though largely undocumented, probably occurred in the United Kingdom. (For example, foxhunting did not emerge as a substantial sport until the second half of the eighteenth century; before that, foxes were widely perceived as pests and killed whenever the opportunity arose [Marvin 2000]). Our purpose in this chapter is to compare these two countries in order to reveal some of the science and the sociology …

Nest Building In Captive Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla, Kristen E. Lukas, Tara S. Stoinski, Kyle Burks, Rebecca Snyder, Sarah Bexell, Terry L. Maple

Sentience Collection

Although various aspects of gorilla nest building have been described in wild populations, nest-building behavior of captive gorillas has not been subject to much scientific review. We observed nest building in 17 gorillas during three periods: summer baseline, winter baseline, and winter treatment, in which the amount of available nesting material was doubled. We conducted observations exclusively in the indoor holding area in the hour following evening departure of animal care staff. During baseline, gorillas engaged in nest-building on 3.1% of scans and were on a constructed nest on 27.9% of scans. Overall, gorillas spent significantly more time on elevated …

Spatial Heterogeneity Of Soil Nutrients, Nitrogen Dynamics, And Vegetation In A 3rd Order Stream Floodplain In Southwestern West Virginia, David Allen Dick

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Soil processes often exhibit spatial heterogeneity within ecosystems and this heterogeneity may influence community structure. This study was conducted to determine spatial patterns and variability of soil nutrients and plant communities within different vegetation types in a stream floodplain in southwestern West Virginia. One 5-m × 5-m site was established in each of three vegetation/drainage types: pasture (PA), old field (OF), and wetland scar (SC). Pasture and SC sites were located ~25 m apart on flat bottomland; the OF site was located on a moderate slope 6.3 m above bottomland, ~200 m from PA and SC. A 10-m × 1-m …

A Comparative Analysis Of Social Play In Birds, Judy Diamond, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Although social play is broadly distributed among mammals, it is infrequently encountered in other vertebrate taxa. It is, however, displayed in a fully realized and complex form in several groups of birds. Unambiguous accounts of social play have been recorded from thirteen species of parrots, seven species of corvids, and several hornbills and Eurasian babblers. We conducted an analysis of the avian play literature, testing for differences between avian taxa, as well as for correlations between play complexity, brain size, and age of first reproduction. Corvids were far more likely to show social object play than parrots. Corvids, parrots, and …

Social Complexity And Transitive Inference In Corvids, Alan B. Bond, Alan Kamil, Russell P. Balda

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

The social complexity hypothesis asserts that animals living in large social groups should display enhanced cognitive abilities along predictable dimensions. To test this concept, we compared highly social pinyon jays, Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, with relatively nonsocial western scrub-jays, Aphelocoma californica, on two complex cognitive tasks relevant to the ability to track and assess social relationships. Pinyon jays learned to track multiple dyadic relationships more rapidly and more accurately than scrub-jays and appeared to display a more robust and accurate mechanism of transitive inference. These results provide a clear demonstration of the association between social complexity and cognition in animals.

Searching By Rules: Pigeons’ (Columba Livia) Landmark-Based Search According To Constant Bearing Or Constant Distance, Marcia C. Spetch, Tiana B. Rust, Alan Kamil, Juli E. Jones

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Pigeons (Columba livia) searched for a goal location defined by a constant relative spatial relationship to 2 landmarks. For one group, landmark-to-goal bearings remained constant while distance varied. For another group, landmark-to-goal distances remained constant while direction varied. Birds were trained with 4 interlandmark distances and then tested with 5 novel interlandmark distances. Overall error magnitude was similar across groups and was larger than previously reported for Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana). During training, error magnitude increased with interlandmark distance for constant-bearing but not constant-distance birds. Both groups searched less accurately along the axis parallel to landmarks …

Growth And The Expression Of Alternative Life Cycles In The Salamander Ambystoma Talpoideum (Caudata: Ambystomatidae), Travis J. Ryan, Raymond D. Semlitsch

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Complex life cycles (CLCs) contain larval and adult phases that are morphologically and ecologically distinct. Simple life cycles (SLCs) have evolved from CLCs repeatedly in a wide variety of lineages but the processes that may underlie the transition have rarely been identified or investigated experimentally. We examined the influence of larval growth rate on the facultative expression of alternative life cycles (metamorphosis or maturation as gill-bearing adults [= paedomorphosis]) in the salamander Ambystoma talpoideum. We manipulated growth rates by altering the amount of food individuals received throughout larval development. The expression of alternative life cycles in A. talpoideum is influenced …

The "Kinds" Of Genesis 1: What Is The Meaning Of Min?, A. Rahel Schafer

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

No abstract provided.

Fishes Of The Red River In Arkansas, Thomas M. Buchanan, Drew Wilson, L. G. Claybrook, William G. Layher

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Fishes were collected from Red River mainstem habitats in Arkansas with seines, rotenone, hoop nets, gill nets, and trotlines from 1995 through 2001. Seventy-two species were identified distributed among 17 families, and 15 species were new records for the Red River in Arkansas. Eighty-three species are now historically known from the Arkansas segment of the Red River. Approximately 67% of the fishes known from the entire Red River have been found in the Arkansas segment, which is only 11% of the entire river length. Baseline data on the fish fauna of the Red River is critical for the analysis of …

Subterranean Biodiversity Of Arkansas, Part 1: Bioinventory And Bioassessment Of Caves In The Sylamore Ranger District, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas, G. O. Graening, Michael E. Slay, Karen K. Tinkle

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Inventory and assessment of subterranean ecosystems of the Sylamore Ranger District (within Baxter, Marion, Searcy, and Stone counties) Ozark National Forest, was performed 2000 to 2002. The Sylamore District, completely underlaid in karst topography (occurring in Mississippian to Ordovician carbonates), contains approximately 10% of the known caves in Arkansas. Thirty-five sites were inventoried, six of which were sampled for environmental quality. These were combined and analyzed with previous studies, creating a database of 1,238 total species occurrences, 230 species, and 61 total sites. Most common were cave crickets, pipistrelle bats, woodrats, mosquitoes, and spiders. Fourteen species obligate to coves or …

Acoustic Mapping Of Aquatic Vegetation In Lakes: An Example From Northwest Arkansas, Angela M. Polly, Stephen K. Boss

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of Matrilineal Relationships Via Mitochondrial Dna In The Southeastern Yellowjacket (Vespula Squamosa), Anthony Deets

Masters Theses

The question of whether and how apparently "altruistic" behaviors can evolve in social animals has received an enormous amount of attention from evolutionary biologists and has been termed "the central theoretical problem of sociobiology". Thus, recent interest is eusocial species with coexisting multiple queens stems from the realization that the genetic relatedness of individuals in such colonies presents additional theoretical challenges beyond those addressed by the Hamiltonian model of kin selection and lengthens the potential list of reproductive conflicts of interest.

The Southeastern Yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) exhibits two social forms sympatrically in the southern parts of its range. These two …

Nest-Site Selection In The Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene Carolina Carolina, In A Population In Central Illinois, Beth Flitz

Masters Theses

Nest site selection in turtles might allow females to increase the survival of their offspring but little is known about the variables that influence that choice. I examined the microhabitat variables at nest sites of the eastern box turtle, Terrapene carolina carolina, at a Boy Scout camp in Shelby County, Illinois, to determine if females chose nest sites that differed from random sites within the camp. Nest sites differed from random sites in vegetation height and composition, percentage ground and canopy cover, and light intensity. All females placed their nests in open habitat within the camp or a pasture bordering …

The Recovery Of Birds Through Farmland Revegetation In The Shire Of Goomalling, Western Australia, Rebecca Heath

Theses : Honours

The birds of grazed paddocks, early revegetation (less than three years in age), three to seven year old revegetation, older revegetation (greater than seven years in age) and remnant vegetation were surveyed over the course of one year to determine whether revegetation recovers avian biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Habitat features that were useful to the birds, and those that were missing from revegetation, were identified in order to broaden the knowledge base of faunal use of farmland revegetation, and aid in the devising of successful revegetation strategies. Notable differences in the abundance and composition of birds were found between the …

Good Intentions May Doom Aspen Groves, James R. Fazio

Aspen Bibliography

If there were a Guiness Book of World Records for trees, quaking aspen would be in it - not once but probably several times.

Winter 2003, Nsu Oceanographic Center

Currents

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Nature Of Nebraska: Ecology And Biodiversity Paul A. Johnsgard, L. Lareesa Wolfenbarger

Biology Faculty Publications

As a newcomer to Nebraska and someone learning the natural history of this place, I thoroughly enjoyed The Nature of Nebraska. More consequentially, the book will serve as a valuable resource for longtime naturalists, teachers, and others who want to learn about Nebraska's natural history.

Opening with a discussion of geology and ecology, Johnsgard offers a broad overview of Nebraska's ecological diversity, intertwining material on the natural forces that have historically dominated the Plains with a discussion of the anthropogenic forces currently altering the region's unique ecological nature. Approximately half of the book is devoted to more specific descriptions …

Expression Of Susceptibility To Fusarium Head Blight And Grain Mold In A1 And A2 Cytoplasms Of Sorghum Bicolor, James P. Stack, Jeffrey F. Pedersen

West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte

Panicle diseases are among the major constraints to sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) production in the northern Great Plains; host plant resistance is the primary management option. However, essentially all commercial sorghum hybrids contain A₁ cytoplasm, which raises the concern about increased disease risk as a result of cytoplasmic genetic uniformity. To determine the influence of cytoplasmic background on the expression of susceptibility to panicle diseases, F₁ hybrids with four nuclear genotypes in each of two cytoplasms (A₁ and A₂) were planted in three environmentally diverse geographic locations in Nebraska. Fusarium head blight ranged in …

Infant Mortality After Takeovers In Wild Ethiopian Hamadryas Baboons, Larissa Swedell, Teklu Tesfaye

Publications and Research

In this paper, we report the first observational evidence of infanticide in wild hamadryas baboons. The study group inhabits the lowlands of the northern Rift Valley in Ethiopia and has been under observation for over 1200 hours, on and off, since October 1996. Here we report observations from August and September 2002 of the consequences of two takeovers of known females with black infants. After the first takeover, the respective infant disappeared and was presumed dead within eleven days of the takeover. After the second takeover, the infant incurred repeated severe aggression from its mother’s new leader male and eventually …

The Effect Of Aposematic Coloration On The Food Preference Of Aphelocoma Coerulescens, The Florida Scrub Jay, Mary Elizabeth Hill

Theses and Dissertations

Aposematic coloration, commonly observed in noxious organisms, serves as a warning to predators to avoid attacking specific prey. This coloration is conspicuous in nature, with one of the most common examples being a red and black pattern. The plant Abrus precatorius exhibits this warning signal in its seeds, which resemble lady beetles and contain the concentrated toxin abrin. Aphelocoma coerulescens, an endemic and federally threatened bird in the state of Florida, shares a similar distribution with Abrus precatorius, making interaction between the two species possible. Using an edible model of the Abrus seed, this potential interaction was tested in Martin …

Human Health Effects Of A Changing Global Nitrogen Cycle, Alan R. Townsend, Robert W. Howarth, Fakhri A. Bazzaz, Mary S. Booth, Cory C. Cleveland, Sharon K. Collinge, Andrew P. Dobson, Paul R. Epstein, Elisabeth A. Holland, Dennis R. Keeney, Michael A. Mallin, Christine A. Rogers, Peter Wayne, Amir H. Wolfe

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Changes to the global nitrogen cycle affect human health well beyond the associated benefits of increased food production. Many intensively fertilized crops become animal feed, helping to create disparities in world food distribution and leading to unbalanced diets, even in wealthy nations. Excessive air- and water-borne nitrogen are linked to respiratory ailments, cardiac disease, and several cancers. Ecological feedbacks to excess nitrogen can inhibit crop growth, increase allergenic pollen production, and potentially affect the dynamics of several vector-borne diseases, including West Nile virus, malaria, and cholera. These and other examples suggest that our increasing production and use of fixed nitrogen …

An Operational Remote Sensing Algorithm Of Land Surface Evaporation, Kenlo Nishida, Ramakrishna R. Nemani, Steven W. Running, Joseph M. Glassy

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Partitioning of solar energy at the Earth surface has significant implications in climate dynamics, hydrology, and ecology. Consequently, spatial mapping of energy partitioning from satellite remote sensing data has been an active research area for over two decades. We developed an algorithm for estimating evaporation fraction (EF), expressed as a ratio of actual evapotranspiration (ET) to the available energy (sum of ET and sensible heat flux), from satellite data. The algorithm is a simple two-source model of ET. We characterize a landscape as a mixture of bare soil and vegetation and thus we estimate EF as a mixture of EF …