Desert Ecology Commons^™

Бадхызские Архивы. Том 2, Р. И. Горелова, В. Я. Фет

Books Published by MU Libraries in MDS

Gorelova, RI, Fet V, editors. The Badkhyz Archives, Vol. 2. Huntington, WV: Marshall University Libraries; 2025. 387 p.

This book represents the second volume of the series started in 2021. It compiles memoirs and research information about the unique Badkhyz Natural Reserve, now in Turkmenistan, formerly at the southernmost point of the USSR. Established in 1941, the Reserve—nicknamed a Serengeti of Central Asia— housed many unique and endangered species, with an iconic wild ass, or kulan, preserved only there. The second volume includes unique and otherwise unavailable information about the workers of the Reserve in 1940s-1980s. We continuento publish …

Feral Donkey, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

Donkeys (Equus asinus) were first imported in substantial numbers to Australia in 1866 by Sir Thomas Elder. They were used as pack and draught animals in outlying areas of Western Australia (WA) until the 1930s. They were eventually replaced by the motor vehicle, and unwanted donkeys were released to the wild, where they became feral. The first record of feral donkeys is from the Kimberley in the early 1930s, but it is possible they became feral much earlier.

Precipitation And Greenness In Pastoral Lands Of East Turkana, Kenya, Paul Akpejeluh

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Pastoralism has long supported livelihoods and provided essential ecosystem services in landscapes of East Africa. Vegetation productivity is central to the functioning of pastoral systems but may be affected by changes in climate and landuse. Vegetation monitoring is important for understanding the effects of global change in pastoral lands; however, it can be time and resource intensive. Remote sensing provides opportunities for efficient multi-scale monitoring of vegetation and climatic drivers. In this thesis, I explore the utility of satellite and UAV remote sensing for monitoring vegetation and precipitation trends and relationships in the East of Lake Turkana Region of northern …

The First Translocation Of Bighorn Sheep In California: A Critical Review Of The Activities Of William Franklin Frakes, Vernon C. Bleich, Glenn W. Sudmeier, Michael W. Wolter, Richard A. Weaver

Human–Wildlife Interactions

In the absence of verification, historical aspects of wildlife management or conservation sometimes have become established in the literature and persisted therein for decades; in other situations, serendipitous discoveries have corrected information that earlier had been treated as factual. In some cases, efforts to vet historical accounts have been ongoing for many years; such is the case involving William Franklin Frakes, an American rancher, naturalist, adventurer, and author, who captured and translocated bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in California, USA, near the turn of the twentieth century. In this review, we provide information that substantiates the majority of Frakes’s …

Pasture Condition Guides For The Southern Rangelands, Including The Gascoyne, Murchison And Goldfields-Nullarbor, Peter-Jon A. Waddell, Philip We Thomas, Wayne J. Fletcher, Kath Ryan, Joshua E. Foster, John K. Stretch, Jim S. Addison

Bulletins 4000 -

These guides address a recognised gap in readily applicable and easily accessible information on southern rangelands pasture condition and management.

These guides provide descriptions and images for southern rangelands pastures with similar management requirements for the grazing of native pastures by livestock. Therefore, the focus is on palatability of vegetation to livestock, and the effects of livestock management and external factors on the condition of the vegetation and soils.

The first section provides an overview and map, introduces concepts and terms important to understanding arid shrubland management in general, these guides in particular, and includes an economic analysis of the …

Foraging Habitat Selection Of Shrubland Bird Community In Tropical Dry Forest, Anant Deshwal, Steven L. Stephenson, Pooja Panwar, Brett A. Degregorio, Ragupathy Kannan, John D. Willson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Habitat loss due to increasing anthropogenic disturbance is the major driver for bird population declines across the globe. Within the Eastern Ghats of India, shrubland bird communities are threatened by shrinking of suitable habitats due to increased anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. The development of an effective habitat management strategy is hampered by the absence of data for this bird community. To address this knowledge gap, we examined foraging sites for 14 shrubland bird species, including three declining species, in three study areas representing the shrubland type of forest community in the Eastern Ghats. We recorded microhabitat features within an …

3d Library From Body Size From Unconventional Specimens: A 3d Geometric Morphometrics Approach To Fishes From Ancestral Pueblo Contexts, Jonathan Dombrosky, Thomas F. Turner, Alexandra Harris, Emily Lena Jones

Anthropology Faculty & Staff Publications

Animal body size estimation from zooarchaeological specimens often relies on specific, one-dimensional (i.e., conventional) measures from skeletal elements. Here, we introduce an animal body size estimation technique for archaeological fishes that relies on 3D reference scans and the calculation of centroid size, a standard 3D geometric morphometric proxy measure for organism size. Centroid size-based estimations on whole caudal vertebrae are strongly correlated with a widely accepted measure (i.e., centrum width), but the scalability and flexibility of the centroid size-based approach allows for use on a wide variety of fragmented remains. We use zooarchaeological fish remains (subfamily Ictiobinae) from late pre-Hispanic …

Dehydration And Mortality Of Feral Horses And Burros: A Systematic Review Of Reported Deaths, John Derek Scasta, Eric Thacker, Jacob D. Hennig, Karl Hoopes

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Water is a requirement for all organisms, including equids. Dehydration-caused mortality of feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) is often cited as a cause of concern and as justification for management of feral horses, yet a paucity of information exists on the matter. We conducted a systematic review from September 1, 2020 through January 15, 2021 of available news reports of feral horse and burro (E. asinus) dehydration mortalities and public interventions to save horses using a public search engine with a priori defined search term combinations and additional snowball sampling. We found 15 uniquely reported mortality …

Wyoming’S Wild Horse Ranch: History And Description Of A Socio-Ecological Experiment, Alex Sas-Jaworsky, John Derek Scasta

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The growing population of free-roaming horses (Equus ferus caballus) on western public rangelands has necessitated that federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service, develop novel approaches to curb growth including reproduction management. However, bureaucracy has hindered effective research and application of horse management on public lands and examples on private lands may present new solutions. Here we present the history and current population management strategy for the Wild Horse Ranch (WHR) located in southeastern Wyoming, USA, as an example of an ongoing private entity managing horses. Prior to 1985, this ~6,000-ha …

Nonnative Ungulate Impacts On Greater Sage-Grouse Late Brood-Rearing Habitat In The Great Basin, Usa, Mikiah R. Mcginn, Steven L. Petersen, Melissa S. Chelak, Randy T. Larsen, Loreen Allphin, Brock R. Mcmillan, Dennis L. Eggett, Terry A. Messmer

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Domestic livestock grazing is the dominant land use on much of the current range inhabited by greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) in the western United States. Nonnative feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) also inhabit important sage-grouse seasonal habitats. Overabundant feral horse populations and improper grazing by domestic cattle (Bos taurus) can impact the health of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) and desert shrub rangeland communities and native wildlife. These impacts to sage-grouse can be exacerbated when they affect late brood-rearing habitat, which provide the forbs and arthropods required to fledge broods. Managers require better information …

Feral Horses, Feral Asses, And Professional Politicians: Broodings From A Beleaguered Biologist, Vernon C. Bleich

Human–Wildlife Interactions

As a member of National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, I gained insight into several aspects of feral equid management that previously had been somewhat cryptic. Foremost in my experience, though, was the dedication and professionalism of the board members with whom I served. During my tenure, the professional approach to management and the frustration faced by employees within the Horse and Burro Program became increasingly apparent. Further came the realization that the effectiveness of the board and program can be improved substantially, if (1) the board is provided the opportunity to rebut or counter incorrect or misleading information …

Бадхызские Архивы. Том 1, Р. И. Горелова, В. Фет

Books Published by MU Libraries in MDS

Gorelova, RI, Fet V, editors. The Badkhyz Archives, Vol. 1. Huntington, WV: Marshall University Libraries; 2021. 444 p.

This volume compiles memoirs and research information about the unique Badkhyz Natural Reserve, now in Turkmenistan, formerly at the southernmost point of the USSR. Established in 1941, the Reserve—nicknamed a Serengeti of Central Asia— housed many unique and endangered species, with an iconic wild ass, or kulan, preserved only there. The book is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Reserve and the 90th birthday of Yuri Gorelov (1931—2018), an extraordinary naturalist who worked in Badkhyz in 1956—1978. His own documentary stories, …

The Effects Of Climate And Demographic History In Shaping Genomic Variation Across Populations Of The Desert Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma Platyrhinos), Keaka Farleigh, Sarah A. Vladimirova, Christopher Blair, Jason T. Bracken, Nazila Koochekian, Drew R. Schield, Daren C. Card, Nicholas Finger, Jonathan Henault, Adam D. Leaché, Todd A. Castoe, Tereza Jezkova

Publications and Research

Species often experience spatial environmental heterogeneity across their range, and populations may exhibit signatures of adaptation to local environmental characteristics. Other population genetic processes, such as migration and genetic drift, can impede the effects of local adaptation. Genetic drift in particular can have a pronounced effect on population genetic structure during large-scale geographic expansions, where a series of founder effects leads to decreases in genetic variation in the direction of the expansion. Here, we explore the genetic diversity of a desert lizard that occupies a wide range of environmental conditions and that has experienced post-glacial expansion northwards along two colonization …

Effects Of Environmental Change On Ancestral Pueblo Fishing In The Middle Rio Grande, Jonathan William Dombrosky

Anthropology ETDs

It has long been assumed that fishes were unimportant in the diet of past Pueblo people in the U.S. Southwest. Yet, small numbers of fish remains are consistently recovered from Late pre-Hispanic/Early Historic archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The end of drought conditions may have impacted food choice and fishing decisions during this time. I use behavioral ecology to understand how fishing could have been an optimal food-getting strategy for Ancestral Pueblo farmers. Stable isotope analysis offers a way to account for environmental change. I provide a refined ¹³C Suess correction model to support …

Some (Im)Material Girls, Living In (Im)Material Worlds, With Seeds, Stars, And Shit, Matthew Weiderspon

Theses and Dissertations

This writing situates material and gestural vocabularies cultivated in my artwork in relation to my lived experience; primarily my rural upbringing in Colorado. Scattered floor dispersals, calling sounds, and bodily movements desire reconsiderations of hope in precarity through a disorientation of place, association, scale, and language.

Anthropogenic And Climatic Factors Interact To Influence Reproductive Timing And Effort, Susannah S. French, Geoffrey Smith

Browse all Datasets

Reproduction, although absolutely essential to a species’ persistence, is in itself challenging. As anthropogenic change increasingly affects every landscape on Earth, it is critical to understand how specific pressures impact the reproductive efforts of individuals, which directly contribute to the success or failure of populations. However, organisms rarely encounter a single burden at a time, and the interactions of environmental challenges can have compounding effects. Disentangling environmental and physiological pressures is difficult because they are often context-dependent and not generalizable, but long-term monitoring across variable landscapes and weather patterns can improve our understanding of these complex interactions. We tested the …

Data From: Recovery From Discrete Wound Severities In Side-Blotched Lizards (Uta Stansburiana): Implications For Energy Budget, Locomotor Performance, And Oxidative Stress, Susannah S. French, Spencer B. Hudson

Browse all Datasets

Wounding events (predation attempts, competitive combat) result in injuries and/or infections that induce integrated immune responses for the recovery process. Despite the survival benefits of immunity in this context, the costs incurred may require investment to be diverted from traits contributing to immediate and/or future survival, such as locomotor performance and oxidative status. Yet, whether trait constraints manifest likely depends on wound severity and the implications for energy budget. For this study, food intake, body mass, sprint speed, and oxidative indices (reactive oxygen metabolites, antioxidant capacity) were monitored in male side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) healing from cutaneous wounds of discrete …

Common Raven Nesting And Spatial Distancing On Power Lines In Southeast Idaho, Usa, Quinn R. Shurtliff, Jericho C. Whiting

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Common raven (Corvus corax; raven) abundance and distribution have increased in western North America in recent decades, facilitated by anthropogenic subsidies and other environmental changes. Electrical power transmission line structures provide nesting substrates for ravens. When these structures transect landscapes where natural nest substrates are limited, they may facilitate raven predation on eggs and juveniles of sensitive avian and reptile species. Little information is available regarding raven nest density trends on adjacent power lines or how raven territorial behavior influences spatial partitioning of nests, and hence, nest density. This knowledge would be valuable for managers of sensitive prey …

A Decision Tool To Identify Population Management Strategies For Common Ravens And Other Avian Predators, Andrea F. Currylow, Brenda J. Hanley, Kerry L. Holcomb, Timothy Shields, Stephen Boland, William I. Boarman, Mercy Vaughn

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Some avian species have developed the capacity to leverage resource subsidies associated with human manipulated landscapes to increase population densities in habitats with naturally low carrying capacities. Elevated corvid densities and new territory establishment have led to an unsustainable increase in depredation pressure on sympatric native wildlife prey populations as well as in crop damage. Yet, subsidized predator removal programs aimed at reducing densities are likely most effective longer-term when conducted in tandem with subsidy control, habitat management, and robust assessment monitoring programs. We developed decision support software that leverages stage structured Lefkovitch population matrices to compare and identify treatment …

The Birds Of The Nebraska Sandhills, Paul A. Johnsgard, Josef Kren

Zea E-Books Collection

This book provides basic information on all the species of birds that have been reliably reported from the Nebraska Sandhills region as of 2020. They include 46 permanent residents, 125 summer breeders, 125 migrants, and 102 rare or accidental species, totaling 398 species. Information on status, migration, and habitats is provided for all but the very rare and accidental species. There are also descriptions of 46 refuges, preserves, and other public-access natural areas in the region and seven suggested birding routes. The text contains more than 90,000 words and over 250 literature references along with more than 20 drawings, 9 …

Energy Content Of Seeds Of Common Sunflowers (Helianthus Annuus) In The Diet Of Scaled Quail (Callipepla Squamata) In Southeastern New Mexico, John L. Hunt, Matthew E. Grilliot, Troy L. Best, Dixie Lozano-Lopez, Emily R. Neilson, Isaac C. Castillo

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

We analyzed the energy content of seeds of common sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) obtained from the crops of scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) collected from plains-mesa sand-scrub habitat in Eddy and Lea counties, New Mexico. Seeds were removed from crops and dried for 48 hours at 60°C to remove moisture and to standardize masses. Seeds were then analyzed for gross caloric value (i.e., energy content) in an oxygen bomb calorimeter. Energy content of seeds of common sunflowers from New Mexico was greater than that of many seeds previously reported from the diet of scaled quail and other granivorous …

Sampling The Local Fare: Fishes At The Sam Israel House Pit (45gr76), Soap Lake, Washington, Adam Fruge

All Master's Theses

The Sam Israel site is a precontact archaeological complex with numerous fish bones at the north end of Soap Lake, Washington. Excavated in 1976, the fish remains recovered from there were never fully analyzed prior to this research. Since this inland Columbia Plateau site had thousands of fish bones, it contained untapped potential for our understanding of ancient local fish procurement. As such, I conducted a detailed analysis of 2,862 fish bone specimens from the Sam Israel House Pit locus to: study a larger sample of fish bones in greater detail than was done before; compare the distribution of fishes …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Evaluating Current And Future Range Limits Of An Endangered, Keystone Rodent (Dipodomys Ingens), Ivy V. Widick

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Climate is often considered the single most important factor limiting species’ ranges. Other factors, such as biotic interactions, are often assumed to be included via abiotic proxies. However, differential responses to climate change may decouple these relationships or lead to adaptation to novel environments. Accounting for competition and local adaptation should more accurately describe environmental factors influencing current distributions and increase the predictive accuracy of future distributions. Modeling the endangered giant kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ingens) is an excellent application of these model improvements, as the species range consists of geographically and genetically isolated populations experiencing disparate climatic change. …

Life In The Dirt: Factors Influencing The Behavior And Distribution Of Spea Intermontana In Eastern Washington State, Corey Brumbaugh

All Master's Theses

I divided my thesis into two major studies focusing on the Great Basin Spadefoot Toad, Spea intermontana, at the Beverley Dunes (Beverley, WA). The first study explored the effects of temperature and water level on the rate of metamorphosis. We gathered data on rates of development, survival, body mass, snout-vent length, and hind leg length of metamorphs under 4 treatments: 20C x High Water, 30C x High Water, 20C x Water Loss, and 30C x Water Loss. These data show that temperature has a stronger effect on the overall rate of metamorphosis of Great Basin Spadefoot Toads. The second …

The North American Quails, Partridges, And Pheasants, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

This book documents the biology of six species of New World quails that are native to North America north of Mexico (mountain, scaled, Gambel’s, California, and Montezuma quails, and the northern bobwhite), three introduced Old World partridges (chukar, Himalayan snowcock, and gray partridge), and the introduced common (ring-necked) pheasant. Collectively, quails, partridges, and pheasants range throughout all of the continental United States and the Canadian provinces. Two of the species, the northern bobwhite and ring-necked pheasant, are the most economically important of all North American upland game birds. All of the species are hunted extensively for sport and are highly …

Body Shape Diversification Of Pecos Pupfish (Cyprinodon Pecosensis) On Varying Habitats As Evaluated By Geometric Morphometrics, Qianna Xu

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

During the 19th and 20th centuries, alterations to the Pecos River in New Mexico and Texas, USA due to anthropogenic activities, including damning and river channelization, vast water extraction for irrigation, as well as pollution of associated habitats, have greatly impacted the fish fauna within the drainage. One of the endemic fish species, the Pecos pupfish (Cyprinodon pecosensis), might be the most affected. Historically abundant and widespread large populations have been disrupted and became a series of small isolated subpopulations that persist at a few highly fragmented habitats restricted to a small area in southern New Mexico. The connectivity among …

Rewiring Metabolism Under Oxygen Deprivation: Naked Mole-Rats Evolved A Means To Cope With Anoxia, Jay F. Storz, Grant B. Mcclelland

Jay F. Storz Publications

When faced with a reduced availability of oxygen in the environment (hypoxia), vertebrates can make a variety of respiratory, cardiovascular, and hematological adjustments to ensure an uninterrupted supply of oxygen to the cells of metabolizing tissues (1, 2). These are adaptive solutions for “aerobic organisms in an aerobic world” (3). Coping with the complete absence of oxygen (anoxia) requires more fundamental alterations of cellular metabolism that are typically nothing more than emergency stopgap measures to buy time until the oxygen supply is (hopefully) reestablished (4). On page 307 of this issue [Science 356 (6335)], Park et al. (5) identify a …

The Effects Of Drought On Diets Of Apex Predators In The South African Lowveld Inferred By Fecal Hair Analysis, Shelby Wade

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

To properly manage offtake quotas and conservation efforts, Balule Nature Reserve (South Africa) instituted a study in 2014 to determine prey species selection by megapredators. In 2015, Balule Nature Reserve received about 190 mm less rainfall between the months of January and June than in 2014 (116 mm less than average). This study compares the diets of lions and hyaenas between 2014 and 2015. Prey species consumed were determined by fecal analysis, and results were compared to prey availability. Sixteen, 1 km2 plots were chosen from the 400 km2 Reserve. Between June and August 2015, we walked three, 1 km …

Diversity-Dependent Cladogenesis Throughout Western Mexico: Evolutionary Biogeography Of Rattlesnakes (Viperidae: Crotalinae: Crotalus And Sistrurus), Christopher Blair, Santiago Sánchez-Ramírez

Publications and Research

Rattlesnakes (Crotalus and Sistrurus) represent a radiation of approximately 42 species distributed throughout the New World from southern Canada to Argentina. Interest in this enigmatic group of snakes continues to accrue due, in part, to their ecomorphological diversity, contributions to global envenomations, and potential medicinal importance. Although the group has garnered substantial attention from systematists and evolutionary biologists for decades, little is still known regarding patterns of lineage diversification. In addition, few studies have statistically quantified broad-scale biogeographic patterns in rattlesnakes to ascertain how dispersal occurred throughout the New World, particularly among the different major biomes of the …