Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons^™

H7n1 Low Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Viruses In Poultry In The United States During 2018, Dong-Hun Lee, Mary Lea Killian, Thomas J. Deliberto, Xiu-Feng Wan, Li Lei, David E. Swayne, Mia Kim Torchetti

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Here, we report three detections of H7N1 low pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (LPAIV) from poultry in Missouri (n¼2) and Texas (n¼1) during February and March 2018. Complete genome sequencing and comparative phylogenetic analysis suggest that the H7 LPAIV precursor viruses were circulating in wild birds in North America during the fall and winter of 2017 and spilled over into domestic poultry in Texas and Missouri independently during the spring of 2018.

RESUMEN. Nota de investigacio´n—Virus de la influenza aviar de baja patogenicidad H7N1 en avicultura, Estados Unidos, 2018. En este art´ıculo se reportan tres detecciones del virus de influenza aviar …

Surgical Sterilization Impacts On Behavior Of Coyote Pairs, Tyler Leary, Jeffrey T. Schultz, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Coyotes (Canis latrans) involved in depredation of livestock, an act frequently resulting in human-wildlife conflict, often do so out of necessity for provisioning pups. Surgical sterilization methods such as vasectomy that preserve gonadal hormones have been successful in reducing depredation by free-ranging coyotes while allowing individuals to maintain territoriality and mate fidelity. However, use of these methods remain costly and ineffective for wide-scale use. Given the alternative proposal of using chemical sterilization techniques, we investigated whether the use of hormone-altering sterilization methods impacted behavior of captive coyote pairs (i.e., male-female pair bonds). Our objective was to evaluate behavior …

Dietary Flexibility Of Wood Storks In Response To Human-Induced Rapid Environmental Change, Betsy A. Evans, Jessica A. Klassen, Dale E. Gawlik

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) has altered landscape processes and negatively impacted many species globally. Some of the most dramatic changes have been in wetlands where flows have been disrupted, and new wetlands have been created to retain runoff. In response to disrupted natural wetland conditions, Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) populations in South Florida have significantly declined over the past several decades. Despite the well-documented sensitivity of Wood Storks to natural wetland conditions, Wood Storks are often observed foraging in roadside created wetlands; however, the availability of prey in created wetlands is currently unknown. We sampled natural and created wetlands …

Space Use In Free-Ranging Canids: Are Gonadal Hormones Required For Territory Maintenance?, Eric M. Gese, Patricia A. Terletzky

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Fertility control among carnivores has been used to reduce depredations on livestock and wild neonates, population control, modify behavior, inhibit genetic introgression, and reduce human–wildlife conflicts. Although there is considerable knowledge on techniques to sterilize carnivores, there is little information concerning how the absence of gonadal hormones influences behavior, space use, and survival of wild canids. We examined territorial fidelity, home-range size and overlap, and survival of 179 surgically sterilized free-ranging canids (124 coyotes (Canis latrans Say, 1823), 55 coyote – red wolf (Canis rufus Audubon and Bachman, 1851) hybrids) with gonadal hormones present (tubal-ligated females (n = 70), vasectomized …

Social Identity And Acceptability Of Wild Pig (Sus Scrofa) Control Actions: A Case Study Of Texas Hunters, Lauren Jaebker, Tara L. Teel, Alan D. Bright, Hailey E. Mclean, John M. Tomeček, Maureen G. Frank, Rachael L. Connally, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Keith M. Carlisle

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) pose significant challenges to wildlife managers. This research explored Texas hunters’ acceptability of wild pig control actions, and whether acceptability varied according to hunters’ affiliation with four different categories of natural resource organizations as an indicator of social identity. Results of a survey (n = 37,317) revealed that most hunters were accepting of all control actions except toxicants and non-lethal deterrents. Mean acceptability scores for each action differed significantly across the four affiliation categories, but effect sizes were minimal. Hunters affiliated with agricultural organizations were the most accepting of control actions, while hunters with …

Influenza A Virus Surveillance, Infection And Antibody Persistence In Snow Geese (Anser Caerulescens), Susan A. Shriner, J. Jeffrey Root, Jeremy W. Ellis, Kevin T. Bentler, Kaci K. Vandalen, Thomas Gidlewski, Sarah N. Bevins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Some snow geese (Anser caerulescens) migrate between Eurasia and North America and exhibit high seroprevalence for influenza A viruses (IAVs). Hence, these birds might be expected to play a role in intercontinental dispersal of IAVs. Our objective in this manuscript was to characterize basic incidence and infection characteristics for snow geese to assess whether these birds are likely to significantly contribute to circulation of IAVs. Thus, we 1) estimated snow goose infection prevalence by summarizing > 5,000 snow goose surveillance records, 2) experimentally infected snow geese with a low pathogenic IAV (H4N6) to assess susceptibility and infection dynamics and …

Social Structure Defines Spatial Transmission Of African Swine Fever In Wild Boar, Kim M. Pepin, Andrew J. Golnar, Tomasz Podgórski

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The spatial spread of infectious disease is determined by spatial and social processes such as animal space use and family group structure. Yet, the impacts of social processes on spatial spread remain poorly understood and estimates of spatial transmission kernels (STKs) often exclude social structure. Understanding the impacts of social structure on STKs is important for obtaining robust inferences for policy decisions and optimizing response plans. We fit spatially explicit transmission models with different assumptions about contact structure to African swine fever virus surveillance data from eastern Poland from 2014 to 2015 and evaluated how social structure affected inference of …

Occurrence Of Mesocarnivores In Montane Sky Islands: How Spatial And Temporal Overlap Informs Rabies Management In A Regional Hotspot, Amanda M. Veals, John Koprowski, David L. Bergman, Kurt C. Vercauteren, David B. Wester

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Interspecific interactions among mesocarnivores can influence community dynamics and resource partitioning. Insights into these interactions can enhance understanding of local ecological processes that have impacts on pathogen transmission, such as the rabies lyssavirus. Host species ecology can provide an important baseline for disease management strategies especially in biologically diverse ecosystems and heterogeneous landscapes. We used a mesocarnivore guild native to the southwestern United States, a regional rabies hotspot, that are prone to rabies outbreaks as our study system. Gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), bobcats (Lynx rufus), and coyotes (Canis latrans) share large portions of their geographic ranges …

Sars-Cov-2 Exposure In Wild White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus), Jeffrey C. Chandler, Sarah N. Bevins, Jeremy W. Ellis, Timothy J. Linder, Rachel M. Tell, Melinda Jenkins-Moore, J. Jeffrey Root, Julianna B. Lenoch, Suelee Robbe-Austerman, Thomas J. Deliberto, Tom Gidlewski, Mia Kim Torchetti, Susan A. Shriner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Widespread human SARS-CoV-2 infections combined with human–wildlife interactions create the potential for reverse zoonosis from humans to wildlife. We targeted white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) for serosurveillance based on evidence these deer have angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptors with high affinity for SARS-CoV-2, are permissive to infection, exhibit sustained viral shedding, can transmit to conspecifics, exhibit social behavior, and can be abundant near urban centers. We evaluated 624 prepandemic and postpandemic serum samples from wild deer from four US states for SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Antibodies were detected in 152 samples (40%) from 2021 using a surrogate virus neutralization test. A subset of samples …

Detection Of Two Dissimilar Chronic Wasting Disease Isolates In Two Captive Rocky Mountain Elk (Cervus Canadensis) Herds: Two Distinctive Chronic Wasting Disease Isolates Identified In Captive Elk, Tracy A. Nichols, Eric M. Nicholson, Yihui Liu, Wanyin Tao, Terry R. Spraker, Michael Lavelle, Justin W. Fischer, Qingzhong Kong, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) continues to spread in both wild and captive cervid herds in North America and has now been identified in wild reindeer and moose in Norway, Finland and Sweden. There is limited knowledge about the variety and characteristics of isolates or strains of CWD that exist in the landscape and their implications on wild and captive cervid herds. In this study, we evaluated brain samples from two captive elk herds that had differing prevalence, history and timelines of CWD incidence. Site 1 had a 16-year history of CWD with a consistently low prevalence between 5% and 10%. …

Environmental Dna For Conservation, Antoinette J. Piaggio

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Biodiversity must be documented before it can be conserved. However, it may be difficult to document species with few individuals (Thompson, 2013; Goldberg et al., 2016), thus it requires a multitude of tools to detect species that occur in low numbers or are elusive (see the various chapters in this volume). One tool that has become useful for conservation efforts utilizes environmental DNA, which is DNA shed into the environment by organisms (eDNA; Taberlet et al., 2018). Typically this involves taking environmental samples such as soil, water, air, or using biological surrogates for sampling biodiversity (e.g. leeches, sponges, carrion flies, …

Allometric Regression Of Snake Body Length From Head Image Measurements, Shane R. Siers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

As in many fields of wildlife research and management, camera devices and photogrammetry have become an integral part of the toolkit for exploring otherwise‐unseen aspects of the biology, behavior, and control of the invasive brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) on Guam. Because brown treesnakes are cryptic and nocturnal, and nearly all aspects of their ecology are influenced by snake size, methods are needed to estimate snake size from images captured by infrared wildlife cameras. Unfortunately, it is difficult to capture images of an entire snake’s length at a controlled distance from a simple camera setup. Here, I describe the …

Increased Abundance Of The Common Raven Within The Ranges Of Greater And Gunnison Sage-Grouse: Influence Of Anthropogenic Subsidies And Fire, Jonathan B. Dinkins, Lindsey R. Perry, Jeffrey L. Beck, Jimmy D. Taylor

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The common raven (Corvus corax; raven) is native to North America and has increased in abundance, especially throughout western North America, during the last century. Human subsidies have facilitated raven dispersal into less suitable habitats and enabled these populations to maintain higher annual survival and reproduction. Concomitantly, overabundant raven populations are impacting other native at-risk species such as the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and potentially the Gunnison sage-grouse (C. minimus). Using Breeding Bird Survey data from 1995–2014, we evaluated raven count data to quantitatively describe changes in abundance and expansion into sagebrush ( …

A Novel Technique To Improve Capture Success Of Common Ravens, Lindsey R. Perry, Terrah M. Owens, Zachary T. Slick, Jimmy Taylor, Jonathan B. Dinkins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Traditional trapping techniques for common ravens (Corvus corax; raven) require significant effort, often produce low capture rates, and cannot be used in some situations. We designed a 3-m noose pole to secure ravens from nocturnal roost locations while using a strobe spotlight to temporarily disorient them. We collected measures of trapping efficiency and contrasted them with padded leghold traps also used in the study. We effectively implemented our noose pole method in July and August of 2018, 2019, and 2020 in the Baker and Cow Lakes sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) Priority Areas of Conservation in eastern Oregon, USA, which yielded trapping …

Effects Of Beaver Dam Analogs On Stream Ecosystem Function Of Crab Creek, Washington State, Nicholas D. Broderius

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This study documents the effects of beaver dam analogs (BDAs) on nutrient transport, fish community composition, macroinvertebrate drift, and benthic macroinvertebrate communities of Crab Creek, WA, USA. In 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) placed 25 BDAs in Crab Creek on a section of private land near Harrington, WA. Beaver dam analogs are structures placed in streams to mimic the ecosystem effects of beaver activity and are increasingly used as a stream restoration technique. The primary goals of placing these BDAs in the stream was to impound sediment and create a new …

Connectivity: Insights From The U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network, David M. Iwaniec, Michael Gooseff, Katharine N. Suding, David Samuel Johnson, Daniel C. Reed, Debra P. C. Peters, Byron Adams, John E. Barrett, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Max C. N. Castorani, Elizabeth M. Cook, Melissa J. Davidson, Peter M. Groffman, Niall P. Hanan, Laura F. Huenneke, Pieter T. J. Johnson, Diane M. Mcknight, Robert J. Miller, Gregory S. Okin, Daniel L. Preston, Andrew Rassweiler, Chris Ray, Osvaldo E. Sala, Robert L. Schooley, Timothy Seastedt, Marko J. Spasojevic, Enrique R. Vivoni

Advanced Science Research Center

Ecosystems across the United States are changing in complex and surprising ways. Ongoing demand for critical ecosystem services requires an understanding of the populations and communities in these ecosystems in the future. This paper represents a synthesis effort of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network addressing the core research area of “populations and communities.” The objective of this effort was to show the importance of long-term data collection and experiments for addressing the hardest questions in scientific ecology that have significant implications for environmental policy and management. Each LTER site developed at least one compelling case …

A Temporal Record Of Microplastic Pollution In Mediterranean Seagrass Soils, Martin Dahl, Sanne Bergman, Mats Björk, Elena Diaz-Almela, Maria Granberg, Martin Gullström, Carmen Leiva-Dueñas, Kerstin Magnusson, Candela Marco-Méndez, Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal, Miguel Ángel Mateo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 Elsevier Ltd Plastic pollution is emerging as a potential threat to the marine environment. In the current study, we selected seagrass meadows, known to efficiently trap organic and inorganic particles, to investigate the concentrations and dynamics of microplastics in their soil. We assessed microplastic contamination and accumulation in 210Pb dated soil cores collected in Posidonia oceanica meadows at three locations along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, with two sites located in the Almería region (Agua Amarga and Roquetas) and one at Cabrera Island (Santa Maria). Almería is known for its intense agricultural industry with 30 000 ha of plastic-covered …

Viral-Mediated Microbe Mortality Modulated By Ocean Acidification And Eutrophication: Consequences For The Carbon Fluxes Through The Microbial Food Web, Andrea Malits, Julia A. Boras, Vanessa Balagué, Eva Calvo, Josep M. Gasol, Cèlia Marrasé, Carles Pelejero, Jarone Pinhassi, Maria Montserrat Sala, Dolors Vaqué

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Anthropogenic carbon emissions are causing changes in seawater carbonate chemistry including a decline in the pH of the oceans. While its aftermath for calcifying microbes has been widely studied, the effect of ocean acidification (OA) on marine viruses and their microbial hosts is controversial, and even more in combination with another anthropogenic stressor, i.e., human-induced nutrient loads. In this study, two mesocosm acidification experiments with Mediterranean waters from different seasons revealed distinct effects of OA on viruses and viral-mediated prokaryotic mortality depending on the trophic state and the successional stage of the plankton community. In the winter bloom situation, low …

The Role Of Aerodynamic Resistance In Thermal Remote Sensing-Based Evapotranspiration Models, Ivonne Trebs, Kaniska Mallick, Nishan Bhattarai, Mauro Sulis, Jamie Cleverly, William Woodgate, Richard Silberstein, Nina Hinko-Najera, Jason Beringer, Wayne S. Meyer, Zhongbo Su, Gilles Boulet

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Aerodynamic resistance (hereafter ra) is a preeminent variable in evapotranspiration (ET) modelling. The accurate quantification of ra plays a pivotal role in determining the performance and consistency of thermal remote sensing-based surface energy balance (SEB) models for estimating ET at local to regional scales. Atmospheric stability links ra with land surface temperature (LST) and the representation of their interactions in the SEB models determines the accuracy of ET estimates. The present study investigates the influence of ra and its relation to LST uncertainties on the performance of three structurally different SEB models. It used data from nine Australian OzFlux eddy …

Evidence Of Large Increases In Sedimentation Rates Due To Fish Trawling In Submarine Canyons Of The Gulf Of Palermo (Sw Mediterranean), Sarah Paradis, Claudio Lo Iacono, Pere Masqué, Pere Puig, Albert Palanques, Tommaso Russo, The Island Cruise Tem

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Bottom trawling in submarine canyons can affect their natural sedimentation rates, but studies addressing this issue are still scarce. In the Gulf of Palermo (SW Mediterranean), bottom trawling occurs on the slope around Oreto, Arenella and Eleuterio canyons. Analyses of excess 210Pb concentrations and grain size fractions in sediment cores from their canyon axes revealed that sedimentation rates and silt contents increased in all canyons in the 1980s, due to the expansion of more powerful trawlers ( > 500 HP) to deeper fishing grounds. In Eleuterio and Arenella canyons, sedimentation rates increased by an order of magnitude (0.1-1.4 cm·yr-1), whereas they …

Regional Impacts Of Invasive Species And Climate Change On Black Ash Wetlands, Joseph Shannon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

For more than a decade intensive research on the ecohydrology of black ash wetland ecosystems has been performed to understand these systems before they are drastically altered by the invasive species, emerald ash borer (EAB). In that time there has been little research aimed at the scale and persistence of the alterations. Three distinct but related research articles will be presented to demonstrate a method for moderate resolution mapping of black ash across its entire range, understand the relative impacts of EAB and climate change on probable future wetland conditions, and develop an experimental and modeling approach to quantify and …

Kelp-Associated Microbes Facilitate Spatial Subsidy In A Detrital-Based Food Web In A Shoreline Ecosystem, Charu Lata Singh, Megan J. Huggett, Paul S. Lavery, Christin Säwström, Glenn A. Hyndes

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Microbes are ubiquitous but our knowledge of their effects on consumers is limited in benthic marine systems. Shorelines often form hotspots of microbial and detritivore activity due to the large amounts of detrital macrophytes that are exported from other coastal ecosystems, such as kelp forests, and accumulate in these systems. Shoreline ecosystems therefore provide a useful model system to examine microbial-detritivore interactions. We experimentally test whether bacteria in the biofilm of kelp provide a bottom-up influence on growth and reproductive output of detritivores in shorelines where detrital kelp accumulates, by manipulating the bacterial abundances on kelp (Ecklonia radiata). The growth …

Genetic And Ecological Consequences Of Recent Habitat Fragmentation In A Narrow Endemic Plant Species Within An Urban Context, Nicola Delnevo, Andrea Piotti, Michele Carbognani, Eddie J. Van Etten, William D. Stock, David L. Field, Margaret Byrne

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Understanding the timescales that shape spatial genetic structure is pivotal to ascertain the impact of habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity and reproductive viability of long-lived plant populations. Combining genetic and ecological information with current and past fragmentation conditions allows the identification of the main drivers important in shaping population structure and declines in reproduction, which is crucial for informing conservation strategies. Using historic aerial photographs, we defined the past fragmentation conditions for the shrub Conospermum undulatum, a species now completely embedded in an urban area. We explored the impact of current and past conditions on its genetic layout …

Dynamics And Fate Of Blue Carbon In A Mangrove–Seagrass Seascape: Influence Of Landscape Configuration And Land-Use Change, Maria E. Asplund, Martin Dahl, Rashid O. Ismail, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Diana Deyanova, João N. Franco, Linus Hammar, Arielle I. Hoamby, Hans W. Linderholm, Liberatus D. Lyimo, Diana Perry, Lina M. Rasmusson, Samantha N. Ridgway, Gloria Salgado Gispert, Stéphanie D’Agata, Leah Glass, Jamal Angelot Mahafina, Volanirina Ramahery, Pere Masque, Mats Björk, Martin Gullström

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Context: Seagrass meadows act as efficient natural carbon sinks by sequestering atmospheric CO and through trapping of allochthonous organic material, thereby preserving organic carbon (C ) in their sediments. Less understood is the influence of landscape configuration and transformation (land-use change) on carbon sequestration dynamics in coastal seascapes across the land–sea interface. Objectives: We explored the influence of landscape configuration and degradation of adjacent mangroves on the dynamics and fate of C in seagrass habitats. Methods: Through predictive modelling, we assessed sedimentary C content, stocks and source composition in multiple seascapes (km-wide buffer zones) dominated by different seagrass communities in …

The Renaissance Of Odum's Outwelling Hypothesis In 'Blue Carbon' Science, Isaac R. Santos, David J. Burdige, Tim C. Jennerjahn, Steven Bouillon, Alex Cabral, Oscar Serrano, Thomas Wernberg, Karen Filbee-Dexter, Julia A. Guimond, Joseph J. Tamborski

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The term ‘Blue Carbon’ was coined about a decade ago to highlight the important carbon sequestration capacity of coastal vegetated ecosystems. The term has paved the way for the development of programs and policies that preserve and restore these threatened coastal ecosystems for climate change mitigation. Blue carbon research has focused on quantifying carbon stocks and burial rates in sediments or accumulating as biomass. This focus on habitat-bound carbon led us to losing sight of the mobile blue carbon fraction. Oceans, the largest active reservoir of carbon, have become somewhat of a blind spot. Multiple recent investigations have revealed high …

Population-Specific Resilience Of Halophila Ovalis Seagrass Habitat To Unseasonal Rainfall, An Extreme Climate Event In Estuaries, Chanelle L. Webster, Kieryn L. Kilminster, Marta Sánchez Alarcón, Katherine Bennett, Simone Strydom, Sian Mcnamara, Paul S. Lavery, Kathryn M. Mcmahon

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

1. Extreme climate events are predicted to alter estuarine salinity gradients exposing habitat-forming species to more frequent salinity variations. The intensity and duration of these variations, rather than the mean salinity values ecosystems are exposed to, may be more important in influencing resilience but requires further investigation.
2. Precipitation, including the frequency, intensity and timing of occurrence, is shifting due to climate change. A global analysis on the timing of rainfall in estuarine catchments was conducted. In 80% of the case studies, the maximum daily rainfall occurred in the dry season at least once over the 40-year period and could be classified …

Aquatic Ecosystems Of The Anthropocene: Limnology And Microbial Ecology Of Mine Pit Lakes, Melanie L. Blanchette, Mark A. Lund

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Mine pit lakes (‘pit lakes’) are new aquatic ecosystems of the Anthropocene. Potentially hundreds of meters deep, these lakes are prominent in the landscape and in the public consciousness. However, the ecology of pit lakes is underrepresented in the literature. The broad goal of this research was to determine the environmental drivers of pelagic microbe assemblages in Australian coal pit lakes. The overall experimental design was four lakes sampled three times, top and bottom, in 2019. Instrument chains were installed in lakes and measurements of in situ water quality and water samples for metals, metalloids, nutrients and microbe assemblage were …

Core Commitments For Field Trials Of Gene Drive Organisms, Kanya C. Long, Luke Alphey, George J. Annas, Cinnamon S. Bloss, Karl J. Campbell, Jackson Champer, Chun-Hong Chen, Amit Choudhary, George M. Church, James P. Collins, Kimberly L. Cooper, Jason A. Delborne, Owain R. Edwards, Claudia I. Emerson, Kevin Esvelt, Sam Weiss Evans, Robert M. Friedman, Valentino M. Gantz, Fred Gould, Sarah Hartley, Elizabeth Heitman, Janet Hemingway, Hirotaka Kanuka, Jennifer Kuzma, James V. Lavery, Yoosook Lee, Marce Lorenzen, Jeantine E. Lunshof, John M. Marshall, Philipp W. Messer, Craig Montell, Kenneth A. Oye, Megan J. Palmer, Philippos Aris Papathanos, Prasad N. Paradkar, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Jason L. Rasgon, Gordana Rašić, Larisa Rudenko, J. Royden Saah, Maxwell J. Scott, Jolene T. Sutton, Adam E, Vorsino, Omar S. Akbari

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We must ensure that trials are scientifically, politically, and socially robust, publicly accountable, and widely transparent.

Gene drive organisms (GDOs), whose genomes have been genetically engineered to spread a desired allele through a population, have the potential to transform the way societies address a wide range of daunting public health and environmental challenges. The development, testing, and release of GDOs, however, are complex and often controversial. A key challenge is to clarify the appropriate roles of developers and others actively engaged in work with GDOs in decision-making processes, and, in particular, how to establish partnerships with relevant authorities and other …

Infaunal Bivalve Density And Richness In North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina: Seasonal Patterns And Ecological Factors, Valerie M. Knowles, Juliana Harding

Honors Theses

Estuarine bivalves recruit to benthic habitats after the larvae are in the planktonic stage. The observed infaunal bivalve density relates to larval supply from adult reproduction during warmer months as well as larval and juvenile mortality post-recruitment. The purpose of this research was to examine annual and seasonal patterns of infaunal bivalve density and richness in the context of habitat water temperature and salinity. Cores were collected biweekly from Bly Creek in North Inlet estuary between January 2019 and February 2020. Temperatures ranged from 9-30 ºC and salinity ranged from ~17-36 psu. Bivalves were sieved out of the cores, counted, …

Fish And Macroinvertebrate Response To Restoration And Conservation Efforts, Madison C. Cogar

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Fish and macroinvertebrate response to restoration and conservation efforts varies in regards to the size and structure of the system (e.g. headwater streams in WV versus large rivers such as the Mississippi River). This project reviews fish and macroinvertebrate rebound in treated acid mine drainage (AMD) streams in WV as well as macroinvertebrate drift patterns in the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. AMD is a product of a chemical reaction resulting in an acidic water outflow from mining sites, which may harm aquatic life. As a response, passive AMD treatment systems have been installed. I tested the effectiveness of remediation by …