Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons^™

A Watershed Analysis Of Threemile Pond: Implications For Water Quality And Land Use Management, Colby Environmental Assessment Team, Colby College, Problems In Environmental Science Course (Biology 493), Colby College

Colby College Watershed Study: Threemile Pond (2003)

The 2003 Colby Environmental Assessment Team chose to study the Threemile Pond watershed. The Threemile Pond watershed is located in Vassalboro, China., Windsor, and Augusta, Maine. Threemile Pond is a popular site for recreation and is home to a wide range of flora and fauna. Like all other lakes in Maine, it is a young lake. However, intensive human activity in the watershed contributes a substantial amount of nutrients and the lake has algal blooms annually in the summer months. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of land use and development on the water quality of …

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

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

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

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

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From this observation …

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

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

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

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

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

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

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

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

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

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

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

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

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

State of the Animals 2003

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

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

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

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

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

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

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

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

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

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

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

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Wolves And Humans, Steven H. Fritts, Robert O. Stephenson, Robert D. Hayes, Luigi Boitani

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

TRY TO IMAGINE a small group of wolves sitting at a table engaged in vigorous debate. These wolves are from various parts of the globe and are perhaps a bit more scholarly than most. In fact, they are especially knowledgeable about the biology of that notorious two-legged species, Homo sapiens. They have been brought together to document their relationship with humans over the last several millennia. Pause for a few moments and consider what they might say ...

Perhaps the wolves' discussion would chronicle the evils of the human species, including details of atrocities committed against lupine ancestors down …

Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, And Conservation: Photo Section I, Douglas W. Smith, Rolf Peterson, L. David Mech, Barron Crawford

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

Wolves in Yellowstone National Park's restored population often must compete with grizzly bears at the carcasses of their kills. Especially after their first feeding at a kill, wolves tend to relinquish their kills to bears. Photograph by Doug Smith.

Elk are one of the most common prey of wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains of North America, primarily because in most areas they tend to outnumber other prey. This large bull standing his ground escaped this pack. Photograph by Doug Smith.

Survival Of The Western Pond Turtle (Emys Marmorata) In An Urban California Environment, Phillip Q. Spinks, Gregory B. Pauly, John J. Crayon, H. Bradley Shaffer

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The western pond turtle Emys (formerly Clemmys marmorata) is declining throughout its range, primarily due to loss of habitat via urbanization and conversion to agriculture. Urban waterways present several important challenges to freshwater turtle populations, but they also present an opportunity to maintain declining species in a ubiquitous habitat that has high public visibility. The arboretum waterway on the University of California, Davis campus is an example of an extensively altered urban habitat that supports a relatively large E. marmorata population. Over the last 6 years, we monitored the turtle population inhabiting the arboretum waterway to determine the …

The Tadpole Of Phrynobatrachus Mababiensis Fitzsimons, 1932 (Anura, Ranidae, Petropedetinae), Rafael O. De Sá, Alan Channing

Biology Faculty Publications

The puddle frog genus Phrynobatrachus Günther, 1862 comprises about 64 currently recognized species (Frost, 1985). Of these, only the tadpoles of P. natalensis (Smith, 1849) (Power, 1927; Channing, 2001), P. guineensis Guibé & Lamotte, 1961(Rödel,1998) and P. alticola Guibé & Lamotte, 1961 (Rödel & Ernst, 2002) have been described. Phrynobatrachus mababiensis FitzSimons, 1932 (Dwarf Puddle frog, Wager, 1986; Mababe River frog, Frank & Ramus, 1996) is a small frog that usually calls from low in thick vegetation on flooded terrains close to the water. Very little has been published about the biology of this species. Passmore & Carruthers (1979) reported …

Extracellular Enzyme Activity And Uptake Of Carbon And Nitrogen Along An Estuarine Salinity And Nutrient Gradient, Margaret R. Mulholland, Cindy Lee, Patricia M. Gilbert

OES Faculty Publications

Amino acid oxidation (AAO) and peptide hydrolysis (PH) are processes affecting the recycling of organic material and nutrients. We compared extracellular AAO and PH rates to C and N uptake rates along estuarine gradients of salinity, nutrients and productivity in the Pocomoke River, a subestuary of the Chesapeake Bay. This estuary is seasonally depleted in inorganic N, and rich in dissolved organic material (DOM) throughout the year. AAO, PH, and N uptake rates measured in 1999 and 2000 were not limited to particular size fractions measured, or to auto- or heterotrophic groups of organisms. At a station near the turbidity …

Winter 2003, Nsu Oceanographic Center

Currents

No abstract provided.

Introduction, L. David Mech, Luigi Boitani

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

THE WOLF IS TRULY a special animal. As the most widely distributed of all land mammals, the wolf, formally the gray wolf (Canis lupus), is also one of the most adaptable. It inhabits all the vegetation types of the Northern Hemisphere and preys on all the large mammals living there. It also feeds on all the other animals in its environment, scavenges, and can even eat fruits and berries. Wolves frequent forests and prairies, tundra, barren ground, mountains, deserts, and swamps. Some wolves even visit large cities, and, of course, the wolf's domesticated version, the dog, thrives in …

Wolf Social Ecology, L. David Mech, Luigi Boitani

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

THE FIRST REAL BEGINNING to our understanding of wolf social ecology came from wolf 2204 on 23 May 1972. State depredation control trapper Lawrence Waino, of Duluth, Minnesota, had caught this female wolf 112 km ( 67 mi) south of where L. D. Mech had radio-collared her in the Superior National Forest 2 years earlier. A young lone wolf, nomadic over 100 km² (40 mi²) during the 9 months Mech had been able to keep track of her, she had then disappeared until Waino caught her. From her nipples it was apparent that she had just been …

References, L. David Mech, Luigi Boitani

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

Abrams, P. A. 2000. The evolution of predator-prey interactions. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 31:79-105.

Abuladze, K. I. 1964. Osnovy Tsestodologii. Vol. IV. Teniatylentochnye gel' minty zhivotnykh i cheloveka i vyzyvaevaniia. Nauka, Moscow. 530 pp.

Achuff, P. L., and R. Petocz. 1988. Preliminary resource inventory of the Arjin Mountains Nature Reserve, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. World Wide Fund for Nature, Gland, Switzerland. 78 pp.

Ackerman, B. B., F. A. Leban, M. D. Samuel, and E. 0. Garton. 1990. User's manual for program Home Range. 2d ed. Technical Report no. 15. Forestry, Wildlife, and Range Experiment Station, University ofldaho, Moscow.

Acorn, …

Wolf Population Dynamics, Todd K. Fuller, L. David Mech, Jean Fitts Cochrane

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

A LARGE, DARK WOLF poked his nose out of the pines in Yellowstone National Park as he thrust a broad foot deep into the snow and plowed ahead. Soon a second animal appeared, then another, and a fourth. A few minutes later, a pack of thirteen lanky wolves had filed out of the pines and onto the open hillside.

Wolf packs are the main social units of a wolf population. As numbers of wolves in packs change, so too, then, does the wolf population (Rausch 1967). Trying to understand the factors and mechanisms that affect these changes is what the …

Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, And Conservation: Photo Section Ii, Douglas W. Smith, L. David Mech, Isaac Babcock, Melissa Mccaw

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

Adult wolves are very attentive to the pups. Both parents feed and care for them. Any older siblings similarly participate in pup care and feeding. Kin selection is probably the best explanation for the latter behavior. Top: Photograph by Isaac Babcock. Bottom: Photograph by L. David Mech.

Wolf Interactions With Non-Prey, Warren B. Ballard, Ludwig N. Carbyn, Douglas W. Smith

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

WOLVES SHARE THEIR ENVIRONMENT with many animals besides those that they prey on, and the nature of the interactions between wolves and these other creatures varies considerably. Some of these sympatric animals are fellow canids such as foxes, coyotes, and jackals. Others are large carnivores such as bears and cougars. In addition, ravens, eagles, wolverines, and a host of other birds and mammals interact with wolves, if only by feeding on the remains of their kills.

Conclusion, L. David Mech, Luigi Boitani

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

WOLVES CAN LIVE almost anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and almost everywhere they do, they are an issue. In the vast emptiness of the northern tundra or the Arabian desert, on the outskirts of a European town or in the safety of an American national park, in meager agricultural lands in India or mountains in rich Norway or Switzerland, wolves always attract people's attention. Wolves form a key part of many ecosystems, and they are considered charismatic creatures by most human cultures. Thus they polarize public opinion and make headlines year after year.

If we look back 6o years to …

Incidence Of Mink, Mustela Vison, And River Otter, Lutra Canadensis, In A Highly Urbanized Area, L. David Mech

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

Mink (Mustela vison) frequently inhabited or traversed a residential. business. and industrial part of the Twin Cities. Minnesota, with little water or natural vegetation. At least one River Otter (Lutra canadensis) also resided on a small pond on a golf course in the area for several winter months.

Leptodactylus Mystacinus, M. M. Heyer, W. R. Heyer, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

Adult Leptodactylus mystacinus are of moderate size, the head is as wide as long, and the hind limbs are moderately short (see Table; Heyer and Thompson 2000 provided definitions of adult size and leg length categories for Leptodactylus). Male vocal sacs are not visible externally or at best are weakly expanded laterally and slightly darker than female throats. Male snouts are more spatulate than those of females. Male forearms are not hypertrophied. Males lack asperities on the thumbs and chest. One or two pairs of dorsolateral folds (indicated by dark/light outlining in indifferently preserved specimens) are present: one …