Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Keyword
-
- North Dakota (2)
- Anser caerulescens (1)
- Anser rossii (1)
- Atrazine (1)
- Avian disease (1)
-
- Biogeography (1)
- Black Hills (1)
- Botulism (1)
- Carbon dioxide (1)
- Central Flyway (1)
- Cholera (1)
- Climate (1)
- Climate Change (1)
- Climate change (1)
- Coeducation (1)
- Detection probability (1)
- Disk (1)
- Disturbance (1)
- Ecology (1)
- Emissions (1)
- Fire (1)
- Flow reconstruction (1)
- Forest decline (1)
- Forestry (1)
- GIS (1)
- Gas flux (1)
- Glaucomys sabrinus (1)
- Kansas (1)
- Landscape ecology (1)
- Large-wood complex (LWC) (1)
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 28 of 28
Full-Text Articles in Botany
Climatic Range Filling Of North American Trees, Benjamin Seliger
Climatic Range Filling Of North American Trees, Benjamin Seliger
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Understanding the degree to which species distributions are controlled by climate is crucial for forecasting biodiversity responses to climate change. Climatic equilibrium, when species are found in all places which are climatically suitable, is a fundamental assumption of species distribution models, but there is evidence in support of climate disequilibria in species ranges. Long-lived, sessile organisms such as trees may be especially vulnerable to being outpaced by climate change, and thus prone to disequilibrium. In this dissertation, I tested the degree to which North American trees are in equilibrium with their potential climatic ranges using the ‘range filling’ metric, which …
Preparing An Effective Poster Presentation, Christopher N. Jacques
Preparing An Effective Poster Presentation, Christopher N. Jacques
The Prairie Naturalist
Greetings GPNSS members! By the time you read this editorial, many of have been experiencing the fury unleashed by ‘Old Man Winter’ and may find yourself counting the days until warmer spring temperatures return once again to the Great Plains. Until then, just a couple more months of bitter cold temperatures, strong winds, and blowing and drifting snow. But not to worry, winter also provides the cold weather enthusiasts among us a chance to enjoy a range of outdoor recreational opportunities, a chance to reflect on the previous year in review, exciting professional and personal opportunities ushered in by the …
Red-Bellied Snake (Storeria Occipitomaculata) Copulation In South Dakota, Drew R. Davis
Red-Bellied Snake (Storeria Occipitomaculata) Copulation In South Dakota, Drew R. Davis
The Prairie Naturalist
Storeria occipitomaculata is a small, terrestrial species of snake that occurs across much of eastern North America (Ernst and Barbour 1989, Ernst 2002, Ernst and Ernst 2003). Due to this widespread distribution, S. occipitomaculata faces varied climates that likely result in regional differences in reproductive phenology. Much of what is known about the reproductive ecology of S. occipitomaculata has been documented from the southeastern portion of its range in North America (South Carolina: Semlitsch and Moran 1984, North Carolina: Willson and Dorcas 2004), though Blanchard (1937) studied a population from northern Michigan. The exact reproductive timing in this species has …
New Breeding Record And Location For Wilson’S Phalarope (Phalaropus Tricolor) In The Nebraska Great Plains, Usa, Madison O. Sutton, Nico Arcilla
New Breeding Record And Location For Wilson’S Phalarope (Phalaropus Tricolor) In The Nebraska Great Plains, Usa, Madison O. Sutton, Nico Arcilla
The Prairie Naturalist
Wilson’s phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor; Scolopacidae) is a migratory shorebird that relies on interior wetlands for foraging and breeding (Colwell and Jehl 1994, van Gils et al. 2018). Its global population status is unclear (Colwell and Jehl 1994, Lesterhuis and Clay 2010), and is variously listed as declining (Morrison et al. 2006, van Gils et al. 2018), increasing (Andres 2009, BirdLife International 2018), and exhibiting a long-term decline but recent stability (Sauer et al. 2011, Andres et al. 2012). Its global population estimate of 1.5 million birds has not been updated for 30 years, since 1988 (Colwell and Jehl 1994, Lesterhuis …
Edges And Rushes Of Minnesota: The Completeguidetospeciesidentification. Welby R. Smith; Photography By Richard Haug., Edward S. Dekeyser
Edges And Rushes Of Minnesota: The Completeguidetospeciesidentification. Welby R. Smith; Photography By Richard Haug., Edward S. Dekeyser
The Prairie Naturalist
Even the most seasoned individual with a plant identification background can relate to the difficulty of identifying sedges and rushes to the species level. Historically, one has had to rely on dichotomous keys to identify a sedge or rush species in the field. After hours of frustration, a person ends up collecting the plant and, if lucky, bringing the collection back to a herbarium where it can be compared to known specimens. I have been collecting and identifying sedge and rush species for over 25 years, and author Welby Smith along with photographer Richard Haug have published what I believe …
Metabolic Gas Emissions From Prairie Soil Containing Foraging Termites, Charles E. Konemann, B.M. Kard, Tom A. Royer, Mark E. Payton
Metabolic Gas Emissions From Prairie Soil Containing Foraging Termites, Charles E. Konemann, B.M. Kard, Tom A. Royer, Mark E. Payton
The Prairie Naturalist
Differences in subterranean termite metabolic gas emissions are readily observed in laboratory experiments. However, in natural field ecosystems a primary difficulty in measuring subterranean termite gases is non-homogeneous distribution of foraging termites in soil. Our field experiment was designed to aggregate foragers of the 'eastern subterranean termite', Reticulitermes flavipes Kollar (EST), in one of four flux chamber configurations placed on a tallgrass prairie throughout 2014 and 2015. We used differently configured flux chambers to measure metabolic gas emissions from soil with or without foraging termites on The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve (TGPP) in north-central Oklahoma. Foraging termitesaggregated in …
Notes: Two-Headed White-Tailed Deer Fetus, William F. Jensen, Daniel M. Grove, Ryan J. Herigstad, William J. Haase
Notes: Two-Headed White-Tailed Deer Fetus, William F. Jensen, Daniel M. Grove, Ryan J. Herigstad, William J. Haase
The Prairie Naturalist
On 6 April 2018 a female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus dakotensis) was hit and killed by a vehicle along HWY 1806 in rural Morton County, North Dakota, USA (N46o 38.617; W100o 42.901). Based upon dental eruption and wear (Severinghaus 1949), the female was estimated to be a >4.5 years-of-age. A male fetus with parapagus diprosopus (i.e., shared face) apparently was expelled from the adult female, and a domestic canine (Canis lupus familiaris) carried the fetus to a private residence. The resident contacted the North Dakota Game and Fish Department (NDGFD) to turn in the fetus. On 10 April 2018, NDGFD …
Comparison Of Northern Flying And Red Squirrel Phylogenies With Focus On The Insular United States, Alyssa M. Kiesow, Hugh B. Britten
Comparison Of Northern Flying And Red Squirrel Phylogenies With Focus On The Insular United States, Alyssa M. Kiesow, Hugh B. Britten
The Prairie Naturalist
Northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) and red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) populations are endemic to northern North America, including the Black Hills. The Black Hills populations are considered disjunct from other populations within their range. We examined insular populations to determine whether arboreal squirrels in the Black Hills each represent a unique population. We trapped and collected ear samples from northern flying and red squirrels in the Black Hills and in areas of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to infer population phylogenies with special consideration of the Black Hills population. Microsatellite loci and two mtDNA sequences were used for …
Review: Canids Of The World: Wolves, Wild Dogs, Foxes, Jackals, Coyotes, And Their Relatives. José R. Castelló., Jonathan (Jon) Way
Review: Canids Of The World: Wolves, Wild Dogs, Foxes, Jackals, Coyotes, And Their Relatives. José R. Castelló., Jonathan (Jon) Way
The Prairie Naturalist
Canids of the World is one of those reads where just when you think that something cannot be beat, this book comes out. What I mean by that is that I have read many works on wolves and other canids, most recently Nate Blakeslee’s American Wolf (Way 2017), and I have enjoyed and been enthralled with many of them. But Canids of the World may take the cake for being the most impressive book available on canids. For a modest price of just under $30.00, you can own a book that has over 600 amazing high-resolution glossy photographs of every …
Review: North American Ducks, Geese & Swans: Identification Guide. Frank S. Todd., Kevin M. Ringelman
Review: North American Ducks, Geese & Swans: Identification Guide. Frank S. Todd., Kevin M. Ringelman
The Prairie Naturalist
The North American Duck, Geese & Swans: Identification Guide, released in 2018, is the culmination of a lifetime of waterfowl photography by the late Frank Todd. Indeed, this book stands apart from other identification guides as being entirely photo-driven, with minimal introductory material, notations of field marks, or descriptions of the various waterfowl species. It is small enough to be carried in the field (6.5” × 9” × 0.5”), but most readers will find it less useful than a standard bird identification book (Sibley 2014), even for waterfowl. As the title suggests, the Todd guide focuses on North American species, …
Review: Behavior Of The Golden Eagle: An Illustrated Ethogram. David H. Ellis (Illustrated By N. John Schmitt)., Jeremy E. Guinn
Review: Behavior Of The Golden Eagle: An Illustrated Ethogram. David H. Ellis (Illustrated By N. John Schmitt)., Jeremy E. Guinn
The Prairie Naturalist
Author David H. Ellis and illustrator N. John Schmitt deliver precisely what is promised in Behavior of the Golden Eagle: An Illustrated Ethogram. This “little volume,” as the author coins it, represents a single source for defining, identifying, and describing behaviors of the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). With the inclusion of Schmitt’s exceptional drawings, the book is a piece of art, as well as the most useful manual describing Golden Eagle behaviors. Nearly four decades earlier, Ellis (1979) authored the very first Golden Eagle ethogram—the set of repeated standard behaviors for a species called action patterns—and in his new book, …
The Prairie Naturalist: The Journal Of The Great Plains Natural Science Society Volume 50 No. 2
The Prairie Naturalist: The Journal Of The Great Plains Natural Science Society Volume 50 No. 2
The Prairie Naturalist
TABLE OF CONTENTS
43 EDITOR’S NOTE
RESEARCH ARTICLES
46 Metabolic Gas Emissions from Prairie Soil Containing Foraging Termites Charles E. Konemann, B. M. Kard, Tom A. Royer, and Mark. E. Payton
59 Comparison of northern flying and red squirrel phylogenies with focus on the insular United States Alyssa M. Kiesow, and Hugh B. Britten
NOTES
70 Two-Headed White-Tailed Deer Fetus
72 Red-Bellied Snake (Storeria occipitomacilata) Copulation in South Dakota
74 New Breeding Record and Location for Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) in the Nebraska Great Plains, USA
BOOK REVIEWS
76 Sedges and Rushes of Minnesota: The Complete Guide to Species Identification. …
A Catalog Of Orchid Species And Their Distribution In Mazumbai Forest Reserve, Tanga Region, Tanzania, Sierra Loomis
A Catalog Of Orchid Species And Their Distribution In Mazumbai Forest Reserve, Tanga Region, Tanzania, Sierra Loomis
Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection
Although orchids are common in Mazumbai Forest Reserve (MFR), there are limited resources on where they grow and how to identify them. The primary objective of this study is to create an updated catalog of orchids in MFR, using species abundance, richness and diversity of the orchids as indicators of where orchids prefer to grow in MFR. Orchid species vary greatly as altitude changes, making it important to survey orchids across different altitudes. Therefore, Mazumbai Forest was split into five different altitudinal bands spanning 1400 – 1900m and six 100 x 20m plots in each band were surveyed for both …
Quantifying The Environmental Performance Of A Stream Habitat Improvement Project, Cody Morse
Quantifying The Environmental Performance Of A Stream Habitat Improvement Project, Cody Morse
Master's Theses
River restoration projects are being installed worldwide to rehabilitate degraded river habitat. Many of these projects focus on stream habitat improvement (SHI), and an estimated 60%of the 37,000 projects listed in the National River Restoration Science Synthesis Program focus on SHI for salmon and trout species. These projects frequently lack a sufficient monitoring program or account for the environmental costs associated with SHI. The present study used life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques and topographic effectiveness monitoring to quantify environmental costs on the basis of geomorphic change. This methodology was a novel approach to assessing the cost-benefit relationship of SHI. To …
Composition And Dispersal Dynamics Of Vegetation Communities In Urban Riparian Forests, Christa Von Behren
Composition And Dispersal Dynamics Of Vegetation Communities In Urban Riparian Forests, Christa Von Behren
Dissertations and Theses
In urban riparian areas, vegetation composition may be affected by urban land use changes at both the stream reach and the watershed scale. Moreover, the mechanisms by which seeds disperse may be affected both by reduction in seed sources due to vegetation removal and by the urban stream syndrome that produces flashier hydrographs and incised channels. I hypothesized that vegetation communities with high cover of native and hydrophilic species would be found in watersheds with high forest cover, while more limited cover of these species would be found in highly developed watersheds. Additionally, to examine the dispersal mechanisms contributing to …
Lekking Behavior Of A Sharp-Tailed Grouse In South-Central Nebraska, Kelsey C. King, Andrew J. Caven, Keith Geluso
Lekking Behavior Of A Sharp-Tailed Grouse In South-Central Nebraska, Kelsey C. King, Andrew J. Caven, Keith Geluso
The Prairie Naturalist
Sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus; STGR) occur throughout much of the northern Great Plains, and historically were suspected to have ranged as far south as Kansas (Connelly et al. 1998). Sharp-tailed grouse were the dominant grouse in Nebraska 200 years ago, but early settlers and their associated agricultural practices extirpated STGR from much of their former range, including Kansas and southern Nebraska (Sisson 1976, Johnsgard 2016). During the period of initial land conversion, the greater prairie-chicken (T. cupido; GRPC) filled the void, benefiting from small plots of cropland providing winter forage, and outcompeting the STGR (Johnsgard and Wood 1968, Svedarsky et …
Age And Growth Of Cottonwood Trees Along The Missouri River, North Dakota, Jonathan M. Friedman, Fisher R. Ankney, J. Marshall Wolf
Age And Growth Of Cottonwood Trees Along The Missouri River, North Dakota, Jonathan M. Friedman, Fisher R. Ankney, J. Marshall Wolf
The Prairie Naturalist
The relict plains cottonwood (Populus deltoides subsp. monilifera) forest along the Missouri River between Lakes Sakakawea and Oahe includes trees as large as two meters in diameter. We cored 24 of these trees to determine their age and suitability for flow reconstruction. Because most of the trees were rotten in the center, we developed a method to estimate the date of the center ring that accounts for the increase in ring width toward the center. Estimated center ring dates were as early as 1806. Cottonwood growth at a dry site was correlated with April–August flow prior to construction of Lake …
A Short Narrative For Writing For The Prairie Naturalist, Christopher N. Jacques
A Short Narrative For Writing For The Prairie Naturalist, Christopher N. Jacques
The Prairie Naturalist
The abstract should be written upon completion of the paper. A well-written abstract is a single short (≤1 line/page of text), concise, and includes 1) an introductory sentence justifying why the study was conducted, 2) a statement of the principal objectives or hypotheses tested during the study, 3) a brief description of pertinent methods, 4) a summary of significant results, 5) a punchy conclusion, and 6) management implications (i.e., utility of results explaining how, when, where, and by whom data or interpretations can be applied; Krausman and Cox 2017). Keep in mind that abstracts are read more than authors than …
Spatiotemporal Distribution Of Waterfowl Disease Outbreaks In Kansas, Usa, Thomas A. Becker, Adam A. Ahlers, Shane Hesting, David A. Haukos
Spatiotemporal Distribution Of Waterfowl Disease Outbreaks In Kansas, Usa, Thomas A. Becker, Adam A. Ahlers, Shane Hesting, David A. Haukos
The Prairie Naturalist
Causes and impacts of disease outbreaks in wild bird populations are rarely studied beyond documentation of large epizootic events. In Kansas, USA, a central disease surveillance and reporting protocol currently does not exist within the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, which has led to a lack of available knowledge of disease occurrences that could be used to predict and manage future outbreaks. We compiled historic records of documented waterbird disease outbreaks in Kansas from 1967–2014 and related the frequency of outbreaks with light geese (Ross’s goose [Anser rossii]; Snow goose [A. caerulescens]) populations from 1970–2014. We found 32 …
Book Reviews: Force Of Nature: George Fell, Founder Of The Natural Areas Movement. Arthur Melville Pearson., James R. Herkert
Book Reviews: Force Of Nature: George Fell, Founder Of The Natural Areas Movement. Arthur Melville Pearson., James R. Herkert
The Prairie Naturalist
Arthur Melville Pearson’s Force of Nature is a book that tells two very interesting and intertwined stories. One is a story of how perseverance and determination can drive an individual to accomplish great things. And the other is a story of how the modern day natural areas movement came to be. Fortunately for those interested in conservation and natural areas protection, those two stories were combined in the life of George Fell (1916-1994). In Fell’s home state of Illinois, where his impact is widely known, his name is synonymous with conservation. In other places where his impact is less well …
The Prairie Naturalist: The Journal Of The Great Plains Natural Science Society Volume 50 No. 1
The Prairie Naturalist: The Journal Of The Great Plains Natural Science Society Volume 50 No. 1
The Prairie Naturalist
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 EDITOR’S NOTE
RESEARCH ARTICLES
3 Spatiotemporal Distribution of Waterfowl Disease Outbreaks in Kansas, USA Thomas A. Becker, Adam A. Ahlers, Shane Hesting, and David A. Haukos
14 Wild Turkey Occupancy in a Prairie Landscape Joshua C. Courlas and R. Scott Lutz
24 Age and Growth of Cottonwood Trees along the Missouri River, North Dakota Jonathan M. Friedman, Fisher R. Ankeny, and Marshall Wolf
NOTES
34 Hoary Bat Impaled on Barbed Wire Fence
37 Lekking Behavior of a Sharp-Tailed Grouse in South-Central Nebraska
BOOK REVIEWS
40 Force of Nature: George Fell, Founder of The Natural Areas Movement. …
Wild Turkey Occupancy In A Prairie Landscape, Joshua C. Courlas, R. Scott Lutz
Wild Turkey Occupancy In A Prairie Landscape, Joshua C. Courlas, R. Scott Lutz
The Prairie Naturalist
We investigated wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) distribution in prairie landscapes in North Dakota using occupancy modeling in two stages. In 2012, we extensively surveyed ecoregions across the state and in 2013, intensively surveyed the ecoregion with the highest probability of occupancy. Occupancy models from the statewide survey indicated wild turkeys were sparse in ecoregions with primarily agricultural landscapes, were found associated with wooded riparian cover, and found most frequently in the Missouri River Plateau ecoregion. In the Missouri River Plateau, our occupancy models identified that an additive model including mean patch area of cropland fields and spatial aggregation of forest …
A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum
A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum
Celebration of Learning
Urban expansion has had devastating impacts on forest ecosystems, especially within the past century. Human attempts to dominate nature have diminished natural disturbance regimes, which have maintained the biodiversity and historic composition of these ecosystems. Fires have been a prominent force in maintaining the structure of oak, hickory and other heliophytic (sun loving and fire-adapted) forest systems. Human induced fire suppression has led to mesophication across North America. Mesophication is the transition from drier conditions with open canopies to wetter conditions with closed canopies. These new conditions decrease the survival rates of these important species and begin to favor mesophytic …
The Tensile Root Strength Of Emergent Coastal Macrophytes, Lauris Olivia Hollis
The Tensile Root Strength Of Emergent Coastal Macrophytes, Lauris Olivia Hollis
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Spartina patens is a dominant emergent macrophyte in fresh, intermediate, and brackish marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of United States where its biomechanical properties are a key component of wetland health and resilience. Its root biomass and tensile root strength are essential for anchorage, erosion protection, and are important determinants of soil strength. Nutrients and the herbicide atrazine are suspected of negatively impacting this wetland plant and others. The objectives of this study were to: 1) ascertain the tensile root strength of five emergent coastal macrophytes in coastal estuaries, and 2) test the effects of nutrient addition, atrazine …
Utilizing Gis To Locate Endangered Gravel Hill Prairies Of The Wabash River Valley, Ryan W.R. Schroeder
Utilizing Gis To Locate Endangered Gravel Hill Prairies Of The Wabash River Valley, Ryan W.R. Schroeder
Engagement & Service-Learning Summit
The Gravel Hill Prairies (GHP’s) of the Wabash River Valley are an endangered ecosystem in the state of Indiana and provide optimal growing conditions for a number of state endangered plants. Currently only four remnants are known to exist near Lafayette, IN, found by a previous study conducted in 1980 by Post, Bacone, and Aldrich (Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, 1984, vol. 94: 457-464). These unique ecosystems have been found to occur almost exclusively on soils classified as Rodman Gravelly Loams and Strawn-Rodman complexes which occur predominantly along the outwash terraces of the Wabash River and its tributaries. …
Finding Aid To The Collection Of Louise Helen Coburn Materials, Louise Helen Coburn, Colby College Special Collections
Finding Aid To The Collection Of Louise Helen Coburn Materials, Louise Helen Coburn, Colby College Special Collections
Finding Aids
Louise Helen Coburn was born in Skowhegan, Maine on September 1, 1856, daughter of Stephen Coburn and Helen Sophia Miller. Coburn was Colby's second female graduate (after Mary Low Carver) in 1877, and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors. She also later received an honorary Litt. D. degree from Colby in 1914. Coburn's family was deeply tied to Colby College. Her father Stephen graduated in 1839, and the Coburn family was critical to Colby's early development as benefactors. Coburn was a co-founder, along with Mary Low Carver and others, of the Sigma Kappa Sorority. Coburn also later attended the Harvard …
Assessing Spatio-Temporal Patterns Of Forest Decline Across A Diverse Landscape In The Klamath Mountains Using A 28-Year Landsat Time-Series Analysis, Drew S. Bost
Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects
Rates of tree mortality in California and the Pacific Northwest have greatly increased in recent years, driven largely by pest and pathogen outbreaks as well as the effects of hotter, warmer droughts. While there have been a multitude of regional-scale assessments of mortality and forest decline, landscape-level studies are necessary to better identify forests that are most vulnerable to decline and to anticipate future changes. This need is particularly notable in the remote and little-studied mountains of northwest California, which are renowned for their diverse, heterogeneous vegetation types. A recent observation of elevated levels of Shasta red fir (Abies …
Plant Community Response To Disturbances In Nebraska Sandhills Upland Prairie, Josiah D. Dallmann
Plant Community Response To Disturbances In Nebraska Sandhills Upland Prairie, Josiah D. Dallmann
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Historically, disturbances shaped prairie ecosystems both directly through events like fire and soil moving by animals, as well as indirectly through dynamic rainfall patterns and periodic flux in seed availabilities. We hypothesized that the implementation of several distinct disturbance events in Nebraska Sandhills upland prairie would have measurable effects on plant community composition. We implemented mid-spring fire, soil disturbance in the form of disking, seed addition of native forbs on disked plots, as well as early summer supplemental watering (to mimic minor rainfall events during abnormally dry periods) during 2016 and 2017. Plant community response during the first and second …