Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons^™

Bull Kelp (Nereocystic Lutkeana) Restoration And Management In Northern California, Olivia Johnson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Northern California’s coastal marine ecosystems support one of the most productive and biodiverse habitats on the planet. Bull kelp forests (Nereocystic lutkeana) form habitats for an abundance of marine mammals, sea bird, fish, and invertebrates. In recent years, compounding ecological and climatic factors have disrupted the balance of the bull kelp forests and led to an unprecedented loss of bull kelp biomass and canopy cover. These areas that are typically teeming with marine life have shifted into a stable state of sea urchin barrens due to over grazing of bull kelp by purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus pupuratus). These sea urchin …

Evaluating Moose Alces Alces Population Response To Infestation Level Of Winter Ticks Dermacentor Albipictus, Daniel D. Ellingwood, Peter J. Pekins, Henry Jones, Anthony R. Musante

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Many wildlife populations are experiencing a variety of environmental pressures due to the direct and indirect consequences of a changing climate. In the northeast, USA, moose Alces alces are declining in large part because of the increasing parasitism by winter tick Dermacentor albipictus, facilitated by high host density and optimal environmental conditions. To test this hypothesis, and better understand the influence of this interaction on the stability of the regional population, we constructed a population viability model using data collected through comprehensive survival and productivity studies in 2002–2005 and 2014–2018 in northern New Hampshire. Years of heavy tick infestation (epizootics) …

Spillover Of Sars-Cov-2 Into Novel Wild Hosts In North America: A Conceptual Model For Perpetuation Of The Pathogen, Alan B. Franklin, Sarah N. Bevins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

There is evidence that the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is of animal origin. As with a number of zoonotic pathogens, there is a risk of spillover into novel hosts. Here, we propose a hypothesized conceptual model that illustrates the mechanism whereby the SARS-CoV-2 could spillover from infected humans to naive wildlife hosts in North America. This proposed model is premised on transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from human feces through municipal wastewater treatment plants into the natural aquatic environment where potential wildlife hosts become infected. We use the existing literature on human coronaviruses, including SARS CoV, …

Development Of Methods To Track Oyster Movement Under Field Conditions In North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina, Alyssa M. Leclaire

Honors Theses

Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs provide important habitat structure and ecosystem services in saltmarsh tidal creek estuaries. Reef persistence depends on growth of resident individuals and regular recruitment to maintain suitable shell substrate. Boat wakes potentially physically displace oyster clumps. The objective of this research was to develop methods to track oyster clump position and biomass on two natural fringing oyster reefs in North Inlet estuary, South Carolina. Boat traffic (number of boats making wakes per day), oyster clump displacement (cm/d) over time, oyster biomass (g dry tissue), and condition index (biomass/g dry shell weight) were quantified from …

Public Perspectives And Media Reporting Of Wolf Reintroduction In Colorado, Rebecca Niemiec, Richard E.W. Berl, Mireille Gonzalez, Tara Teel, Cassiopeia Camara, Matthew Collins, Jonathan Salerno, Kevin Crooks, Courtney Schultz, Stewart Breck, Dana Hoag

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In the state of Colorado, a citizen ballot initiative to reintroduce gray wolves (Canis lupus) is eliciting polarization and conflict among multiple stakeholder and interest groups. Given this complex social landscape, we examined the social context surrounding wolf reintroduction in Colorado as of 2019. We used an online survey of 734 Coloradans representative in terms of age and gender, and we sampled from different regions across the state, to examine public beliefs and attitudes related to wolf reintroduction and various wolf management options. We also conducted a content analysis of media coverage on potential wolf reintroduction in 10 major daily …

Integrating National Ecological Observatory Network (Neon) Airborne Remote Sensing And In-Situ Data For Optimal Tree Species Classification, Victoria M. Scholl, Megan E. Cattau, Maxwell B. Joseph, Jennifer K. Balch

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Accurately mapping tree species composition and diversity is a critical step towards spatially explicit and species-specific ecological understanding. The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a valuable source of open ecological data across the United States. Freely available NEON data include in-situ measurements of individual trees, including stem locations, species, and crown diameter, along with the NEON Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) airborne remote sensing imagery, including hyperspectral, multispectral, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data products. An important aspect of predicting species using remote sensing data is creating high-quality training sets for optimal classification purposes. Ultimately, manually creating training data …

Year Long Water Quality Analysis Of White Horn Brook, Kevin Dyer

Senior Honors Projects

KEVIN DYER (Marine Biology)

Year-long Analysis of the Water Quality of White Horn Brook

Sponsor: Thomas Boving (Geological Sciences)

Water is the foundation for all life on earth and is the most vital resource on this planet. Despite this, oceans and waterways all over the world are being polluted and exploited in ways detrimental to their fundamental hydrologic functions. For instance, excess nitrate levels can lead to eutrophication which gives rise to harmful algae blooms. Low pH can cause the breakdown of CaCO3 exoskeletons of organisms, such mollusks. High temperature variations are major stressors to living things and can cause …

Effects Of Light, Nutrients, And Salts On Microbial Biofilm Productivity And Detrital Processing In Aquatic Mesocosms, Bethanie Brooke Howard-Parker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic activities associated with urbanization, agriculture, and resource extraction continue to increase to support increasing needs of the growing population. These activities increase the amounts of pollutants entering freshwater streams and put aquatic ecosystems at structural and functional risk. Aquatic microbes play an important role in detrital processing in streams as a key linkage in moving carbon from detrital stocks into aquatic food webs. My research investigates the effects of light, nutrients, and salts on detrital microbes and decomposition in freshwaters using a mesocosm approach. In chapter one, I modified a current priming effect (PE) hypothesis model to include light …

Soil Microbial Diversity And Litter Decomposition Increase With Time Since Land Use Disturbance In Tropical Montane Forests Of Malaysian Borneo, Renee Sniegocki

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Logging and forest conversion are occurring at alarming rates in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. These disturbances alter soil chemistry, microbial diversity, and disrupt carbon cycling through shifts in litter decomposition. Direct links between microbial diversity and soil properties such as pH are well established; however, the indirect impacts of logging and forest conversion on microbial diversity and litter decomposition are poorly understood. We used surface (5 cm) soil to assess soil physicochemical properties, next-generation DNA sequencing to assess soil microbial diversity, and standardized litterbags to assess litter decomposition stabilization at five sites along a land use disturbance gradient …

Can Desert Mosses Hide From Climate Change? The Ecophysiological Importance Of Habitat Buffering & Water Relations To A Keystone Biocrust Moss In The Mojave Desert, Theresa Ann Clark

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Empirical and observational studies suggest a keystone biocrust moss, Syntrichia caninervis, may be sensitive to future climate change in the American Southwest due to its uniquely sensitive water relations that appear particularly challenged during summer hydration-desiccation cycles. However, the potential mitigating roles of habitat buffering, acclimatization, and winter recovery on the vulnerability of this species remain largely unexplored. I investigated potential abiotic and biotic resiliency factors driving summer stress resistance and recovery in S. caninervis along present-day aridity gradients in the Mojave Desert to strengthen the climate change vulnerability assessment for this species common to biocrusts of North America, northern …

Investigating The Effects Of Sea-Level Rise And Increasing Salinity On Procambarus Lunzi Of Sapelo Island, Georgia, Samuel Long

Biology Theses

Barrier islands have great ecological and economical importance and face a threat from increasing sea-level due to climate change. Erosion of existing freshwater lens and ocean inundation could greatly change freshwater availability on the island. This could have significant impacts on freshwater crayfish like Procambarus lunzi, which are complexly intertwined into the trophic food web of the island. This study’s goal was to investigate the salinity tolerance of this crayfish on Sapelo Island, Georgia, in an attempt to predict the possible effects and response to sea-level rise by this crayfish. Crayfish were wild-caught from the island in March, June, and …

136— Predation On Microbivalves By Juvenile Naticid Gastropods On San Salvador Island, The Bahamas, Eliza Merges

GREAT Day Posters

Predator-prey interactions, where snails eat clams, evolutionarily has been a key interaction within marine molluscan communities. There is evidence of molluscan extinctions in the fossil record that are marked by changes in predation ratios. In this study, we will investigate predation of microbivalves by juvenile naticid gastropods in a shallow marine setting on San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. We propose to test predation density within different environments (facies) of a lagoonal setting. Significantly different ratios between these facies in one time period can indicate that predator-prey interactions can change over time from one environment to another. It is more …

Physical And Biological Factors Controlling The Fate Of Nitrate In A Louisiana Coastal Deltaic Floodplain, Alexandra Christensen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi River Delta is threatened by a growing pressure to support large human populations in the United States both with food production, navigation systems, and urban development in the Mississippi River Basin. Nitrate-nitrogen load in the Mississippi River, up to 100 Tg N yr^-1 from agricultural and urban runoff, leads to phytoplankton blooms and hypoxia across the Louisiana continental shelf, creating dead zones of low dissolved oxygen threatening a significant commercial fishery. Along the coast and river corridors, floodplain ecosystems have the capacity to retain and remove nitrate. This dissertation explores the role of productive, actively growing coastal …

An Ecopath With Ecosim Analysis On Offshore Petroleum Platform Influences On Gulf Of Mexico Red Snapper, Valentin Gomez

LSU Master's Theses

Offshore oil and gas platforms have had a significant presence in the Gulf of Mexico since the 1950s. An important secondary function of these structures is that they provide artificial habitat to fisheries, most notably Red snapper. Policy changes intended to reduce the risk associated with aging infrastructure have reduced the number of standing platforms from 4044 to 1867 from 2001 to 2018. The effect this loss of habitat has on Red snapper was tested by creating three scenarios of platform changes and modeling the perturbation from 2005 to 2050. The simulation was accomplished using the ecological model Ecopath with …

Talking Trash In The Big Apple: Mitigating Bird Strikes Near The North Shore Marine Transfer Station, Stephan J. Beffre, Brian E. Washburn

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Anthropogenic activities that concentrate wildlife near airports increases the risk of wildlife–aircraft collisions. Placing waste management facilities, natural areas, golf courses, and other landscape features near airports have the potential to attract wildlife hazardous to aviation. We conducted a 3-year study (March 2013–February 2016) to determine if the implementation of a Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Program (WHMP) would influence the bird use of a waste transfer station located near LaGuardia Airport, New York City, New York, USA. We conducted wildlife surveys during 3 phases: (1) no mitigation program and no waste transfer station, (2) active mitigation and no waste transfer station, …

Collective Effect Of Landfills And Landscape Composition On Bird–Aircraft Collisions, Morgan Pfeiffer, Bradley F. Blackwell, Travis L. Devault

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Ninety-three percent of all reported bird strikes occur below 1,067 m, which based on the typical approach and departure angles of aircraft is within 8–13 km of an airport. Concomitantly, the Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization recommend that any feature that would attract hazardous wildlife to the approach and departure airspace be restricted. Thus, preventing the establishment of wildlife attractants, such as municipal solid waste landfills (MSWLFs) within 8 km or 13 km extents (U.S. and international recommendations, respectively) of airports, has been recommended to mitigate the risk of bird–aircraft collisions (strikes). However, robust evidence linking …

Testing A Key Assumption Of Using Drones As Frightening Devices: Do Birds Perceive Drones As Risky?, Conor C. Egan, Bradley Blackwell, Esteban Fernández-Juricic, Page E. Klug

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wildlife managers have recently suggested the use of unmanned aircraft systems or drones as nonlethal hazing tools to deter birds from areas of human-wildlife conflict. However, it remains unclear if birds perceive common drone platforms as threatening. Based on field studies assessing behavioral and physiological responses, it is generally assumed that birds perceive less risk from drones than from predators. However, studies controlling for multiple confounding effects have not been conducted. Our goal was to establish the degree to which the perception of risk by birds would vary between common drone platforms relative to a predator model when flown at …

Friendship At The Feeding Station, Anisha Pokharel

Zea E-Books Collection

A young steppe eagle and his mother fly to Nepal from Mongolia, where Griffy, a Himalayan griffon, chases the hungry Steppe from the feeding station, but Garuda, a white-rumped vulture, intervenes and becomes Steppe's friend. Steppe's mother is angered at first, but learns the lesson that each species has its role to play.

Designed by Breanna Epp with Maeve Lausch

Factors Affecting Bait Site Visitation: Area Of Influence Of Baits, Jacquelyn E. Mcrae, Peter E. Schlichting, Nathan P. Snow, Amy J. Davis, Kurt C. Vercautern, John C. Kilgo, David A. Keiter, James C. Beasley, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

ABSTRACT Baiting is a fundamental strategy for the global management of wild pigs (Sus scrofa); however, little information exists on how anthropogenic bait affects wild pig movements on a landscape. We investigated factors that are important in determining the spatial area of attraction for wild pigs to bait (‘area of influence’ of a bait site) using data from Global Positioning System (GPS) collars and locations of bait sites. We monitored movements of wild pigs in 2 distinct study areas in the United States from February to September 2016 and used locational data using GPS collars to analyze the influence of …

A Rapid Population Assessment Method For Wild Pigs Using Baited Cameras At 3 Study Site, Peter E. Schlichting, James C. Beasley, Raoul K. Boughton, Amy J. Davis, Kim M. Pepin, Michael P. Glow, Ryan S. Miller, Kurt C. Vercautern, Jesse S. Lewis

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Reliable and efficient population estimates are a critical need for effective management of invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa). We evaluated the use of 10‐day camera grids for rapid population assessment (RPA) of wild pigs at 3 study sites that varied in vegetation communities and wild pig densities. Study areas included Buck Island Ranch, Florida; Tejon Ranch, California; and the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA, during 2016–2018. Rapid population assessments grids were composed of baited camera traps spaced approximately 500 or 750 m apart. Two RPA grids were deployed per study site and each grid was deployed twice (4–6 months …

Relationships Between Survival And Habitat Suitability Of Semi- Aquatic Mammals, Isidro Barela, Leslie M. Burger, Jimmy Taylor, Kristine O. Evans, Ryo Ogawa, Lance Mcclintic, Guiming Wang

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Spatial distribution and habitat selection are integral to the study of animal ecology. Habitat selection may optimize the fitness of individuals. Hutchinsonian niche theory posits the fundamental niche of species would support the persistence or growth of populations. Although niche-based species distribution models (SDMs) and habitat suitability models (HSMs) such as maximum entropy (Maxent) have demonstrated fair to excellent predictive power, few studies have linked the prediction of HSMs to demographic rates. We aimed to test the prediction of Hutchinsonian niche theory that habitat suitability (i.e., likelihood of occurrence) would be positively related to survival of American beaver (Castor canadensis), …

Eelgrass Health Survey And Results, Nicholas B. Anderson, Catherine M. Ashcraft, Dante D. Torio, Frederick T. Short

Natural Resources & the Environment

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire designed, tested, and conducted an eelgrass health survey. The primary goal of the survey was to collect health ratings from respondents who had viewed pre-selected images of eelgrass representing a wide range of health conditions. Survey results were used as a calibration and validation to a novel eelgrass health index developed using video-monitoring. Two secondary goals of this this survey were the identification of plant-specific and environmental characteristics important to respondents and the introduction of the new eelgrass health index. This published dataset includes de-identified survey respondent background and demographic data, the survey …

Rockhounding, Seafaring, And Other Material Tales For The End Of The World, Noemie Fortin

The Goose

In the face of accelerated environmental degradation and climate instability, the future of the Earth and of all life on earth is difficult to visualize. Therefore, the different mediums through which we consider environmental issues are just as important as the actions we take to address them. Focusing on three projects combining art, science, and activism, this article suggests a compilation of material tales. They tell stories of plastic rocks and aluminum nuggets where the protagonists are partly finely crafted objects, partly waste materials, and sometimes both at once. Artists Kelly Jazvac, Yesenia Thibeault-Picazo, and the collective Studio Swine collaborate …

Effects Of Inactivated Mycobacterium Bovis Vaccination On Molokai-Origin Wild Pigs Experimentally Infected With Virulent M. Bovis, Pauline Nol, Morgan Wehte, Richard A. Bowen, Suelee Robbe-Austerman, Tyler Thacker, Kristina Lantz, Jack Rhyan, Laurie A. Baeten, Ramón A. Juste, Iker A. Sevilla, Christian Gortazar, Joaquín Vicente

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The wild pig population on Molokai, Hawaii, USA is a possible reservoir for bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, and has been implicated in decades past as the source of disease for the island’s domestic cattle. Heat-inactivated vaccines have been effective for reducing disease prevalence in wild boar in Spain and could prove useful for managing M. bovis in Molokai wild pigs. We designed an experiment to test this vaccine in wild pigs of Molokai genetics. Fifteen 3–4-month-old pigs were orally administered 10⁶–10⁷ colony forming units (cfu) of heat-inactivated M. bovis (Vaccinates; n = 8; 0.2 …

Role Of Coastal Environmental Conditions During Austral Winter On Plankton Community Dynamics And The Occurrence Of Pseudo-Nitzschia Spp. And Domoic Acid In Inhambane Province, Mozambique, Holly Kelchner

LSU Master's Theses

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasing globally in frequency, persistence, and geographic extent. HABs pose a threat to economic stability, and ecosystem and human health. To date no incidences of marine toxins produced by phytoplankton have been recorded in Mozambique, which may be due to the absence of a monitoring program and general awareness of the potential threat. This study is the first documentation of the occurrence of a neurotoxin, domoic acid (DA), produced by the diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia spp. along the east coast of Africa. The coast of Inhambane Province is a biodiversity hotspot where year-round Rhincodon typus (whale …

Assessment Of Soil Protein And Refractory Soil Organic Matter Across Two Chronosequences Of Newly Developing Marshes In Coastal Louisiana, Usa, Stuart Alexander Mcclellan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The impacts of sea-level rise and hydrologic manipulation are threatening the stability of coastal marshes throughout the world, thereby increasing the potential for re-mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM) in these systems. Such threats have prompted marsh restoration efforts, particularly in coastal Louisiana, yet it is unclear how the slowly decomposing (refractory) and quickly decomposing (labile) fractions of SOM may be differentially affected by different approaches to marsh restoration. Additionally, otherwise labile compounds may accumulate in the soil via a range of protective mechanisms, including rapid burial and association with organic compounds that are thought to enhance soil aggregation, such …

Rabies Management Implications Based On Raccoon Population Density Indexes, Dennis Slate, Brandi D. Saidy, Ashlee Simmons, Kathleen M. Nelson, Amy Davis, Timothy P. Algeo, Stacey A. Elmore, Richard B. Chipman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

An estimate or index of target species density is important in determining oral rabies vaccination (ORV) bait densities to control and eliminate specific rabies variants. From 1997–2011, we indexed raccoon (Procyon lotor) densities 253 times based on cumulative captures on 163 sites from Maine to Alabama, USA, near ORV zones created to prevent raccoon rabies from spreading to new areas. We conducted indexing under a common cage trapping protocol near the time of annual ORV to aid in bait density decisions. Unique raccoons (n = 8,415) accounted for 68.0% of captures (n = 12,367). We recaptured raccoons 2,669 times. We …

Economic Estimates Of Invasive Wild Pig Damage To Crops In 12 Us States, Sophie Mckee, Aaron Anderson, Keith Carlisle, Stephanie A. Shwiff

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We report the results of a survey on invasive wild pig (Sus scrofa L.) damage and control in 12 US states (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas). The crops chosen for this study represent the “second-tier” in terms of economic importance after the six crops that were the subject of Anderson et al. (2016). The survey was distributed by the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) in the summer of 2019 to a sample of producers in each of the states (except California) of the following six crops: hay, pecans (Carya …

Individual And Population Fitness Consequences Associated With Large Carnivore Use Of Residential Development, Heather Johnson, David L. Lewis, Stewart W. Breck

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Large carnivores are negotiating increasingly developed landscapes, but little is known about how such behavioral plasticity influences their demographic rates and population trends. Some investigators have suggested that the ability of carnivores to behaviorally adapt to human development will enable their persistence, and yet, others have suggested that such landscapes are likely to serve as population sinks or ecological traps. To understand how plasticity in black bear (Ursus americanus) use of residential development influences their population dynamics, we conducted a 6-yr study near Durango, Colorado, USA. Using space-use data on individual bears, we examined the influence of use of residential …

Incorporating Wildlife Connectivity Into Forest Plan Revision Under The United States Forest Service's 2012 Planning Rule, Matthew A. Williamson, Tyler G. Creech, Gunnar Carnwath, Beverly Dixon, Virginia Kelly

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

The United States Forest Service promulgated new planning regulations under the National Forest Management Act in 2012 (i.e., the Planning Rule). These new regulations include the first requirements in U.S. public land management history for National Forests to evaluate, protect, and/or restore ecological connectivity as they revise their land management plans. Data and resource limitations make single-species, functional connectivity analyses for the myriad species that occur within the 78 million ha the Forest Service manages implausible. We describe an approach that relies on freely available data and generic species, virtual species whose profile consists of ecological requirements designed to reflect …