Population Biology Commons^™

Population Characteristics, Development Of A Predictive Population Viability Model, And Catch Dynamics For Pallid Sturgeon In The Lower Missouri River, Kirk D. Steffensen

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

Population characteristics and long-term population trends of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus in the lower Missouri River are relatively unknown. As recovery efforts continue, understanding and quantifying these characteristics and trends are critical for species recovery and future management decisions. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the pallid sturgeon population characteristics, predict changes to the pallid sturgeon population based on different management and life history scenarios, and examine trot line catch dynamics in the lower Missouri River. Catch rates for pallid sturgeon collected with gill nets did not significantly change while catch rates using trot lines significantly declined …

Buchholz Black Dash (Euphyes Conspicua Buchholzi): Species Conservation Assessment, Melissa J. Panella

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Publications

The primary goal in development of at-risk species conservation assessments is to compile biological and ecological information that may assist conservation practitioners in making decisions regarding the conservation of species of interest. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project recognizes the Buchholz Black Dash (Euphyes conspicua buchholzi) as a Tier I at-risk species of high conservation priority. The Buchholz Black Dash (BBD) is a subspecies of the Black Dash (Euphyes conspicua). Survival of BBD is likely to be highly influenced by available habitat in Nebraska. Some general management recommendations are made here regarding the BBD; however, conservation practitioners will need to use …

Mccown’S Longspur (Rhynchophanes Mccownii): Species Conservation Assessment, Melissa J. Panella

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Publications

The primary goal in development of at-risk species conservation assessments is to compile biological and ecological information that may assist conservation practitioners in making decisions regarding the conservation of species of interest. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project recognizes the McCown’s Longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii) as a Tier I at-risk species. Some general management recommendations are made here regarding the McCown’s Longspur (MCLO); however, conservation practitioners will need to use professional judgment to make specific management decisions based on objectives, location, and a multitude of variables. This resource was designed to share available knowledge of MCLO that will aid in the decision-making …

Swimways: Protecting Paddlefish Through Movement-Centered Management, Brenda M. Pracheil, Mark A. Pegg, Larkin A. Powell, Gerald Mestl

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Attempts to mitigate lack of formal interjurisdictional paddlefish management have been made in the United States through the Mississippi River Interstate Cooperative Resource Association (MICRA). We used 1988–2009 data from the MICRA paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) stock assessment database—a database containing mark–recapture and biometric information on more than 30,000 individually marked wild paddlefish and more than 2 million hatchery-origin paddlefish—to estimate survival and movement across large and potentially biologically relevant spatial scales. Paddlefish frequently moved between political jurisdictions with differing conservation strategies and harvest regulations and showed differences in survival parameter estimates throughout their range. We argue that the degree of …

Plains Harvest Mouse (Reithrodontomys Montanus Griseus): Species Conservation Assessment, Melissa J. Panella

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Publications

The primary goal in development of at-risk species conservation assessments is to compile biological and ecological information that may assist conservation practitioners in making decisions regarding species of interest. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project recognizes the plains harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys montanus griseus) as a Tier I at-risk species of high conservation need. Some general management recommendations are made here regarding the plains harvest mouse; however, conservation practitioners will need to use professional judgment to make specific management decisions based on objectives, location, and a multitude of variables. This resource was designed to share available knowledge of the plains harvest mouse …

Topeka Shiner (Notropis Topeka): Species Conservation Assessment, Melissa J. Panella

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Publications

The primary goal in development of at-risk species conservation assessments is to compile biological and ecological information that may assist conservation practitioners in making decisions regarding the conservation of species of interest. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project recognizes the Topeka shiner (Notropis topeka) as a Tier I at-risk species of high priority for conservation. Some general management recommendations are made here regarding Topeka shiners; however, conservation practitioners will need to use professional judgment to make specific management decisions based on objectives, location, and a multitude of variables. This resource was designed to share available knowledge of the Topeka shiner that …

Evaluation Of The Effects Of September Hunting Seasons On Canada Geese In Nebraska, Scott R. Groepper, Mark P. Vrtiska, Larkin A. Powell, Scott E. Hygnstrom

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Populations of temperate-nesting Canada geese (Branta canadensis) have increased in Nebraska, USA, resulting in an increased number of nuisance and damage complaints. September hunting seasons were initiated in southeastern Nebraska in 2004 to reduce populations of Canada geese. We analyzed band recoveries from Canada geese banded in southeastern Nebraska during their hatch-year (HY) or after-hatch-year (AHY) to determine whether September hunting seasons affected survival, harvest, and recovery rates. Survival analyses revealed that HY geese had higher survival than AHY geese (SAHY = 0.696, 95% CI = 0.679–0.713; SHY = 0.896, 95% CI = 0.786–0.953) and September seasons did …

Modeling And Mathematical Analysis Of Plant Models In Ecology, Eric A. Eager

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Population dynamics tries to explain in a simple mechanistic way the variations of the size and structure of biological populations. In this dissertation we use mathematical modeling and analysis to study the various aspects of the dynamics of plant populations and their seed banks.

In Chapter 2 we investigate the impact of structural model uncertainty by considering different nonlinear recruitment functions in an integral projection model for Cirsium canescens. We show that, while having identical equilibrium populations, these two models can elicit drastically different transient dynamics. We then derive a formula for the sensitivity of the equilibrium population to …

Reproduction And Population Characteristics Of White-Tailed Jackrabbits In South Dakota, Charles Dieter, Dustin Schaible

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

We evaluated the reproductive biology of314 white-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus townsendii) in 44 counties throughout South Dakota from June 2004 to September 2005. We classified jackrabbits as juveniles or adults based on the closure of the proximal epiphysis of the humerus using X-ray analysis. We determined annual reproductive activity through fluctuations in measured weights of reproductive organs for both sexes. The 2005 breeding season started in late February and proceeded until mid-July, approximately 142 days, allowing for females to potentially produce 3.3 litters. We found four distinct breeding periods by the overlap of estimated conception and parturition dates. Mean …

Partial Depredations On Northern Bobwhite Nests, Susan Ellis-Felege, Anne Miller, Jonathan S. Burnam, Shane D. Wellendorf, D. Clay Sisson, William E. Palmer, John P. Carroll

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Partial clutch loss following a predation event is rarely studied in ground-nesting birds despite predation often being the leading cause of nest failure. Partial nest depredation occurs when predators attack but leave some eggs intact. Using continuous video monitoring, we documented a total of 372 initial predation events at nests of Northern Bobwhites (Colinus virginianus). From these, we observed a sample of partial nest pre-dation events (n=47). Partial predation events resulted in three outcomes: (1) The nest failed due to parental abandonment; (2) adult stayed with the nest, but clutch failed to hatch, usually due to further predation events; or …

Evaluation Of Elevated Bait Trays For Attracting Blackbirds (Icteridae) In Central North Dakota, George M. Linz, Jamison B. Winter, William J. Bleier

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) became an economically important crop in North Dakota in the 1970s, providing a major source of food for post-breeding blackbirds (Icteridae). Reducing local blackbird populations with rice grains treated with an avicide is one proposed alternative for reducing sunflower damage. In fall 2007 and 2008, we evaluated the idea of attracting blackbirds to rice-baited trays attached to wire cages supplied with live blackbirds. During our observations (1011 h), we saw 3888 birds, consisting of 25 species and 12 families, on the bait trays. Blackbirds made up 90.4% of the bird observations, whereas sparrows (Emberizidae) made …

Bacterial Community Structure Of Contrasting Soils Underlying Bornean Rain Forests: Inferences From Microarray And Next-Generation Sequencing Methods, Sabrina E. Russo, Ryan Legge, Karrie A. Weber, Eoin L. Brodie, Katherine C. Goldfarb, Andrew K. Benson, Sylvester Tan

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Soil microbial diversity is vast, and we lack even basic understanding of how this diversity is distributed ecologically. Using pyrosequencing and microarray methods, we quantified the structure of bacterial communities in two contrasting soils underlying Bornean rain forest (clay and sandy loam) that differ markedly in soil properties, aboveground tree flora, and leaf litter decomposition rates. We found significant soil-related taxonomic and phylogenetic differences between communities that, due to their proximity, are independent of climate. Bacterial communities showed distinct compositional and taxon-abundance distributions that were significantly correlated with the structure of the overlying tree community. Richness of bacteria was greater …

A Robust New Metric Of Phenotypic Distance To Estimate And Compare Multiple Trait Differences Among Populations, Rebecca Safran, Samuel Flaxman, Michael Kopp, Darren E. Irwin, Derek Briggs, Matthew R. Evans, W. Chris Funk, David A. Gray, Eileen A. Hebets, Nathalie Seddon, Elizabeth Scordato, Laurel B. Symes, Joseph A. Tobias, David P.L. Toews, J. Albert C. Uy

Eileen Hebets Publications

Whereas a rich literature exists for estimating population genetic divergence, metrics of phenotypic trait divergence are lacking, particularly for comparing multiple traits among three or more populations. Here, we review and analyze via simulation Hedges’ g, a widely used parametric estimate of effect size. Our analyses indicate that g is sensitive to a combination of unequal trait variances and unequal sample sizes among populations and to changes in the scale of measurement. We then go on to derive and explain a new, non-parametric distance measure, “Δp”, which is calculated based upon a joint cumulative distribution function (CDF) from all …

Herpetofaunal Diversity At Yankee Hill State Lake And Wildlife Management Area, Lancaster County, Nebraska, Shelby Klima

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A survey for amphibians and reptiles was conducted in March through October 2011 at Yankee Hill Wildlife Management Area in Lancaster County, Nebraska. The survey was conducted using several different techniques including: visual and auditory encounters, artificial and natural cover objects, aquatic trappings and road surveys. A total of 145 individuals representing 12 species were identified including seven reptiles and five amphibians. A total of 48% of the species that may potentially occur on the site were encountered, all of which are common, widely distributed generalist species. Neither Graham’s Crayfish Snake nor the Massasauga, both target species for this survey, …

Review Of Rare: Portraits Of America's Endangered Species. By Joel Sartore., Jim Mason

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

Short of being in the presence of a creature, a really good photograph of one can also make a lasting impression. That is something RARE does compellingly, with exquisite portrait photos of 68 North American species that are dwindling dangerously in numbers or have recently recovered from the brink of extinction. Included are such Great Plains natives as the lesser prairie chicken, the interior least tern, and the black-footed ferret. All creatures were photographed with either a pure white or black background, but unconventional poses surprise the reader with each turn of the page, while creative framing and layout engage …

Historical Biogeography Of Nebraska Pronghorns (Antilocapra Americana), Justin D. Hoffman, Hugh H. Genoways, Rachel R. Jones

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

Archeological and paleontological records indicate that the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) have a history of at least 20,000 years of occurrence within the current boundaries of Nebraska. Pronghorns occurred throughout the state for much of its history. With the evidence at hand we concluded that the eastern boundary of the geographic distribution of the pronghorn south of the Niobrara River in Nebraska at the beginning of the 19th century was along the western perimeter of the eastern deciduous forest and tallgrass prairie. This excluded most of the easternmost tier of counties in the state. This geographic arrangement persisted throughout …

Avian Influenza In Migratory Birds In The United States, 2007–2009, And Effects Of September Hunting Seasons On Survival, Harvest, And Recovery Rates Of Canada Geese Banded In Southeast Nebraska, Scott R. Groepper

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

Highly-pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV H5N1) poses risks to wild birds, poultry, and humans. Personnel with the United States Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspection Service-Wildlife Services, state, and tribal wildlife agencies collected 168,940 samples from migratory birds from 2007 to 2009 to test for presence of HPAIV H5N1. No HPAIV was found, but other subtypes were discovered, including H5 and H7. I estimated prevalence of avian influenza virus by flyway and found prevalence was lowest each year in the Atlantic Flyway (6.7%–8.3%), highest in the Pacific Flyway in 2007 (13.3%) and 2008 (13.4%), and highest in the Mississippi Flyway …

The Distribution And Life Cycle Of Alliaria Petiolate In Lincoln, Nebraska, Caleb Pharris

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Alliaria petiolata (Garlic Mustard) is a biennial alien invasive plant species of the Brassicacea family. It is responsible for displacing native plant species throughout North America and its management has proven to be extremely difficult. Recently several populations of Alliaria petiolata have been discovered in southwestern Lincoln, Nebraska. The spread of Alliaria petiolata is a concern for natural resource managers and the general public. Due to the difficulty of its control, Alliaria petiolata is capable of creating monocultures which diminish the aesthetic value of an ecosystem. While most commonly found in the understory of hardwood forests, it is capable of …

Herbicide-Resistant Risk Assessment: Response Of Common Nebraska Weeds To Dicamba Dose, Roberto J. Crespo

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Dicamba-resistant soybeans are being developed to provide an additional herbicide mechanism of action that can be used in soybean, and to provide a tool to help manage or mitigate the evolution of other herbicide-resistant weed populations. The objectives of this thesis were to assess the risk of common Nebraska weeds developing resistance to dicamba, quantify baseline dose-response to dicamba of high-risk weed species, and survey the variability in dicamba dose-response among populations of those species. Twenty-five weed scientists were asked to estimate the risk likelihood of ten weed species evolving resistance to dicamba following the commercialization of dicamba-resistant soybean. Palmer …

Biology, Systematics, Phylogenetic Analysis And Dna Character-Based Species Diagnosis Of The False Root-Knot Nematode Nacobbus Aberrans (Thorne, 1935) Thorne & Allen 1944 (Nemata: Pratylenchidae), Angel Ramirez-Suarez

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The False Root-Knot nematode Nacobbus aberrans is a plant parasitic nematode that causes yield losses in several crops and plant protection agencies have established regulations to prevent infestations from spreading to new agricultural areas. The taxonomic status of the nematode has been the subject of controversy due to wide degree of variation exhibited by the species. This variability has led to the suggestion that N. aberrans is actually a species complex rather than a single species. In order to test this hypothesis, we compared twelve N. aberrans populations, which include isolates from western Nebraska, two distinct regions of Mexico and …

Population Dynamics Of The Western Prickly Pear, Opuntia Macrorhiza (Cactaceae), Kathleen H. Keeler, Brigitte Tenhumberg

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Although most cacti that have been studied are long lived, following individually marked plants in Boulder County, Colorado, for >7 years, we determined that average life span of Opuntia macrorhiza, the western prickly pear, is 3 years. A few individuals probably live >10 years. Vegetative reproduction, produced by rooting of cladodes, exceeded reproduction by germination and establishment from seeds. Both types of new recruits, from vegetative reproduction and seeds, had higher death rates than established plants. Size and frequency of flowering increased with age, although size both increased and decreased, sometimes dramatically, between years. Flowering correlated more strongly with …

A Mark–Recapture Technique For Monitoring Feral Swine Populations, Matthew M. Reidy, Tyler A. Campbell, David G. Hewitt

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Techniques to monitor populations of feral swine (Sus scrofa) relative to damage control activities are needed on rangelands. Our objectives were to describe and assess a mark–recapture technique using tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) for monitoring feral swine populations. We established bait stations at study sites in southern and central Texas. During 1 d, we replaced normal soured corn bait with bait containing TH and counted the number of feral swine that consumed bait with observers. We conducted feral swine removal using box-style traps and helicopters, at which time we collected teeth for TH analysis. In southern Texas, we estimated …

Review Of Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction From The Age Of Jefferson To The Age Of Ecology. By Mark V. Barrow, Jr., Peter A. Bednekoff

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

The saving of bison occupies a central place in Nature's Ghosts, but Mark Barrow's chronicle extends over a century both before and after. The story starts with Thomas Jefferson and fossils that came to be recognized as mastodons, mammoths, and giant ground sloths. "Jefferson and most of his contemporaries were certain that the natural world was orderly, static, and new." In such a worldview, extinction was unthinkable. Fossil evidence plus the historical extinctions of dodos, moas, and great auks forced reconsideration.

This book ranges across centuries and continents, and only a few parts of it are explicitly about the Great …

Health And Fertility Implications Related To Seasonal Changes In Kidney Fat Index Of White-Tailed Jackrabbits In South Dakota, Dustin Schaible, Charles D. Dieter

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

White-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) populations in the Northern Plains have been in a general decline for the past decade or longer. A suggested reason for this population decline was reduced body condition of individual jackrabbits due to habitat changes. In order to evaluate body condition, we determined the kidney fat index of 314 white-tailed jackrabbits harvested in 44 counties throughout South Dakota. We removed and weighed kidneys and all perirenal fat associated with the kidneys from collected jackrabbits. We measured kidney weight to determine times of high metabolic activity as indicated by an increase in mass. Body condition was …

Multilocus And Parametric Analyses Of The Evolutionary History Of The Amazonian Peacock Cichlids, The Genus Cichla (Teleostei: Cichlidae), Stuart Clayton Willis

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Accurate knowledge of species boundaries and species phylogeny are fundamental to testing hypotheses of recent evolutionary processes, but the estimation of these partitions is challenging due both to inherent confusion about what is being estimated as well as the data available to estimate them. Using multilocus data from mtDNA, microsatellites, and nuclear locus sequences of over 1100 individuals, we delimited eight separately evolving species of Cichla rather than the 15 described. Among species we found evidence of rare but widespread introgressive hybridization, while within these species we observed evidence of long-term gene exchange and constrained evolutionary trajectories. In most cases …

Factors Affecting Space Use Overlap By White-Tailed Deer In An Urban Landscape, W. David Walter, Jeff Beringer, Lonnie P. Hansen, Justin W. Fischer, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Variation in the size and overlap of space use by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has broad implications for managing deer–human conflicts and disease spread and transmission in urban landscapes. Understanding which factors affect overlap of home range by various segments (i.e., age, sex) of an urban deer population has implications to direct contact between deer on disease epidemiology. We assessed size of home range and overlap of space use using the volume of intersection index (VI) for deer in an urban landscape by sex, age, season, and time of day. We found mean space use was larger for …

Integrating Info-Gap Decision Theory With Robust Population Management: A Case Study Using The Mountain Plover, Max Post Van Der Burg, Andrew J. Tyre

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Wildlife managers often make decisions under considerable uncertainty. In the most extreme case, a complete lack of data leads to uncertainty that is unquantifiable.Information-gap decision theory deals with assessing management decisions under extreme uncertainty, but it is not widely used in wildlife management. So too, robust population management methods were developed to deal with uncertainties in multiple-model parameters.However, the two methods have not, as yet, been used in tandem to assess population management decisions. We provide a novel combination of the robust population management approach for matrix models with the information-gap decision theory framework for making conservation decisions under extreme …

Confronting Socially Generated Uncertainty In Adaptive Management, Andrew J. Tyre, Sarah Michaels

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

As more and more organizations with responsibility for natural resource management adopt adaptive management as the rubric in which they wish to operate, it becomes increasingly important to consider the sources of uncertainty inherent in their endeavors. Without recognizing that uncertainty originates both in the natural world and in human undertakings, efforts to manage adaptively at the least will prove frustrating and at the worst will prove damaging to the very natural resources that are the management targets. There will be more surprises and those surprises potentially may prove at the very least unwanted and at the worst devastating. We …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of Adaptive Management Approaches: Is There A Formula For Success?, Jamie E. Mcfadden, Tim L. Hiller, Andrew J. Tyre

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Within the field of natural-resources management, the application of adaptive management is appropriate for complex problems high in uncertainty. Adaptive management is becoming an increasingly popular management-decision tool within the scientific community and has developed into two primary schools of thought: the Resilience-Experimentalist School (with high emphasis on stakeholder involvement, resilience, and highly complex models) and the Decision-Theoretic School (which results in relatively simple models through emphasizing stakeholder involvement for identifying management objectives). Because of these differences, adaptive management plans implemented under each of these schools may yield varying levels of success. We evaluated peer-reviewed literature focused on incorporation of …

Conservation Cuantitativa De Los Vertebrados, Michael J. Conroy, John P. Carroll, Juan Carlos Senar, Jeffrey J. Thompson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Este libro es destinado para el uso por biólogos del campo y otras personas, incluso biólogos de campo en el futuro que podrían estar en un curso de la universidad y trabajando en estudios y conservación de animales. Nuestro objetivo es que los biólogos usen este libro como (haciendo apología a nuestro colega Evan Cooch) una ´´introducción suave´´ al campo de la ecología cuantitativa. Esperamos convencer a los lectores que los métodos y aproximaciones del libro no son solo para los matemáticos, estadísticos y programadores de computadoras, sino que de hecho son herramientas esenciales para practicar la conservación en el …