Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Variation In Host Home Range Size Decreases Rabies Vaccination Effectiveness By Increasing The Spatial Spread Of Rabies Virus, Katherine M. Mcclure, Amy T. Gilbert, Richard B. Chipman, Erin E. Rees, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Animal movement influences the spatial spread of directly transmitted wildlife disease through host-host contact structure. Wildlife disease hosts vary in home range- associated foraging and social behaviours, which may increase the spread and intensity of disease outbreaks. The consequences of variation in host home range movement and space use on wildlife disease dynamics are poorly understood, but could help to predict disease spread and determine more effective disease management strategies.
2. We developed a spatially explicit individual-based model to examine the effect of spatiotemporal variation in host home range size on the spatial spread rate, persistence and incidence of rabies virus …

Influence Of Land Cover And Soil Moisture Based Brown Ocean Effect On An Extreme Rainfall Event From A Louisiana Gulf Coast Tropical System, Udaysankar S. Nair, Eric Rappin, Emily Foshee, Warren Smith, Roger A. Pielke Sr., Rezaul Mamood, Jonathan L. Case, Clay B. Blankenship, Marshall Shepherd, Joseph A. Santanello, Dev Niyogi

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Extreme flooding over southern Louisiana in mid-August of 2016 resulted from an unusual tropical low that formed and intensified over land. We used numerical experiments to highlight the role of the ‘Brown Ocean’ effect (where saturated soils function similar to a warm ocean surface) on intensification and it’s modulation by land cover change. A numerical modeling experiment that successfully captured the flood event (control) was modified to alter moisture availability by converting wetlands to open water, wet croplands, and dry croplands. Storm evolution in the control experiment with wet antecedent soils most resembles tropical lows that form and intensify over …

Changes In Students’ Mental Models From Computational Modeling Of Gene Regulatory Networks, Joseph Dauer, Heather E. Bergan-Roller, Gretchen P. King, Mckenzie Kjose, Nicholas J. Galt, Tomáš Helikar

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Background: Computational modeling is an increasingly common practice for disciplinary experts and therefore necessitates integration into science curricula. Computational models afford an opportunity for students to investigate the dynamics of biological systems, but there is significant gap in our knowledge of how these activities impact student knowledge of the structures, relationships, and dynamics of the system. We investigated how a computational modeling activity affected introductory biology students’ mental models of a prokaryotic gene regulatory system (lac operon) by analyzing conceptual models created before and after the activity.

Results: Students’ pre-lesson conceptual models consisted of provided, system-general structures (e.g., activator, repressor) …

Food Habits Of Coyotes (Canis Latrans) In The Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico, Suzanne J. Gifford, Eric M. Gese, Robert R. Parmenter

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wildlife managers needed to understand coyote (Canis latrans) ecology in order to develop management plans on the nascent Valles Caldera National Preserve in northern New Mexico. Managers concerned about low elk (Cervus elaphus) recruitment had observed an increase in sightings of coyotes and observations of coyote predation on elk calves. Our objective was to identify and quantify coyote diet, and assess the temporal variation in coyote diet on the Valles Caldera National Preserve, particularly as related to elk calf consumption. We examined coyote food habits using 1,385 scats analyzed monthly from May 2005 to November 2008. …

Retrospective Tillage Differentiation Using The Landsat-5 Tm Archive With Discriminant Analysis, Sonisa Sharma, Kundan Dhakal, Pradeep Wagle, Ayse Kilie

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Accurate and site-specific information on tillage practice is vital to understand the impacts of crop management on water quality, soil conservation, and soil carbon sequestration. Remote sensing is a cost-effective technique for surveillance and rapid assessment of tillage practice over large areas. A new empirical approach for accurately predicting tillage class using discriminant analysis (DA) on historical multitemporal Landsat-TM 5 imagery has been developed. Ground truth data were obtained from the USDA-NRCS at 48 locations (20 conventional till [CT] and 28 conservation tillage or no-till [NT]). Classification accuracies were obtained for the DA models using reflectance values of Landsat-5 TM …

Comparison Of Extraction Methods For Recovering Ancient Microbial Dna From Paleofeces, Richard Hagan, Courtney A. Hofman, Alexander Hübner, Karl Reinhard, Stephanie Schnorr, Cecil M. Lewis, Jr., Krithivasan Sankaranarayanan, Christina G. Warinner

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Paleofeces are valuable to archeologists and evolutionary biologists for their potential to yield health, dietary, and host information. As a rich source of preserved biomolecules from host-associated microorganisms, they can also provide insights into the recent evolution and changing ecology of the gut microbiome. How- ever, there is currently no standard method for DNA extraction from paleofeces, which combine the dual challenges of complex biological composition and degraded DNA. Due to the scarcity and relatively poor preservation of paleofeces when compared with other archeological remains, it is important to use efficient methods that maximize ancient DNA (aDNA) recovery while …

Impact Of The Human Footprint On Anthropogenic Mortality Of North American Reptiles, Jacob E. Hill, Travis L. Devault, Jerrold L. Belant

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Human activities frequently result in reptile mortality, but how direct anthropogenic mortality compares to natural morality has not been thoroughly investigated. There has also been a limited examination of how anthropogenic reptile mortality changes as a function of the human footprint. We conducted a synthesis of causespecific North American reptile mortality studies based on telemetry, documenting 550 mortalities of known cause among 2461 monitored individuals in 57 studies. Overall 78% of mortality was the result of direct natural causes, whereas 22% was directly caused by humans. The single largest source of mortality was predation, accounting for 62% of mortality overall. …

Understanding Factors Related To Undergraduate Student Decision-Making About A Complex Socio-Scientific Issue: Mountain Lion Management, Ashley Alred, Jenny Dauer

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We outline an instructional strategy for supporting students’ science literacy skills using a structured decision-making tool in an interdisciplinary undergraduate course. Instructional tools support basing complex socioscientific issues decisions on a reasoned analysis of tradeoffs among multiple conflicting values rather than heuristics, such as social norms. We explored the factors related to students’ decision-making about mountain lion management by examining if students’ value orientations, identity, or knowledge predicted their management decisions before, during, and after engaging in structured decision-making where they performed a tradeoffs analysis. We found that student decision-making may align more closely to students’ value orientations and identity …

Review Of Great Plains Birds, By Larkin Powell, William E. Jensen

The Prairie Naturalist

Biologists who live in the Great Plains of North America know well the general aspersion cast toward our regional home by those unfamiliar with the region and its natural treasures. Larkin Powell alludes to this all-too-common aspersion and diplomatically dispels it in his ornithological showcase of the Great Plains, simply titled Great Plains Birds. The book is a nice, quick read and a well-composed profile of the region’s avian biogeographical history, its disruptions, conservation remedies, examples of basic bird biology, and tips on how to enjoy the bird life on display in this dynamic region. Having been an ornithologist …

Review Of Birds Of Prey Of The East: A Field Guide By Brian K. Wheeler, Janet W. Ng

The Prairie Naturalist

Brian Wheeler’s new field guide, Birds of Prey of the East, is a well-researched, comprehensive field guide to birds of prey found in eastern Canada and United States. This 13- year labor of love reflects a life spent studying the nuances of North American birds of prey, as well as partnerships with fellow enthusiasts who provided detailed range maps and other valuable inputs. Birds of Prey of the East features 72 color plates of 27 species, including 14 plates for the Redtailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), which can be one of the most challenging species to identify in …

Rabies Surveillance Identifies Potential Risk Corridors And Enables Management Evaluation, Amy J. Davis, Kathleen M. Nelson, Jordana D. Kirby, Ryan M. Wallace, Xiaoyue Ma, Kim M. Pepin, Richard B. Chipman, Amy Gilbert

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Intensive efforts are being made to eliminate the raccoon variant of rabies virus (RABV) from the eastern United States and Canada. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services National Rabies Management Program has implemented enhanced rabies surveillance (ERS) to improve case detection across the extent of the raccoon oral rabies vaccination (ORV) management area. We evaluated ERS and public health surveillance data from 2006 to 2017 in three northeastern USA states using a dynamic occupancy modeling approach. Our objectives were to examine potential risk corridors for RABV incursion from the U.S. into Canada, evaluate the effectiveness of ORV …

Data Of Soil, Vegetation And Bird Species Found On Double-Crested Cormorant Colonies In The Southeastern United States, Leah Moran Veum, Brian S. Dorr, Katie Hanson-Dorr, R. J. Moore, Scott A. Rush

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

This data article provides the methods and procedures followed to collect and analyse soil, vegetation and bird data on three different treatment islands in Guntersville Reservoir, Alabama. Samples were collected from randomly selected plot points from islands that were placed into three different treatment types: Colony (currently occupied by Double-crested Cormorants) (Phalacrocorax auritus; n 1⁄4 5), Historic (historically occupied by cormorants and currently abandoned; n 1⁄4 3) and Reference (never occupied by cormorants; n 1⁄4 4). We compared vegetation and tree metrics such as structure and diversity, as well as soil chemistry and bird diversity and communities among islands within …

Founders Of Plant Ecology: Frederic And Edith Clements, Jon H. Oberg

University of Nebraska State Museum: Staff and Affiliates, Publications

Nineteenth-century students of Charles Bessey at the University of Nebraska, Frederic Clements and Edith Schwartz received doctorates in botany, married, and went on to become founders of the discipline of plant ecology. They tested and taught their theory of plant succession, known as Clementsian ecology, for nearly four decades at their Alpine laboratory in Colorado. Their leadership and influence at the Carnegie Institution was world-wide and attracted followers from several other disciplines. They advocated land use measures to combat the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Clementsian ecology is still recognized as a paradigm against which other theories of nature are …

Robust Observations Of Land-To-Atmosphere Feedbacks Using The Information Flows Of Fluxnet, Tobias Gerken, Benjamin L. Ruddell, Rong Yu, Paul C. Stoy, Darren T. Drewry

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Feedbacks between atmospheric processes like precipitation and land surface fluxes including evapotranspiration are difficult to observe, but critical for understanding the role of the land surface in the Earth System. To quantify global surface-atmosphere feedbacks we use results of a process network (PN) applied to 251 eddy covariance sites from the LaThuile database to train a neural network across the global terrestrial surface. There is a strong land–atmosphere coupling between latent (LE) and sensible heat flux (H) and precipitation (P) during summer months in temperate regions, and between H and P during winter, whereas tropical rainforests show little coupling seasonality. …

Resilience Reconciled, Craig R. Allen, David G. Angeler, Brian C. Chaffin, Dirac Twidwell, Ahjond Garmestani

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Resilience scholarship continues to inspire opaque discourse and competing frameworks often inconsistent with the complexity inherent in social–ecological systems. We contend that competing conceptualizations of resilience are reconcilable, and that the core theory is useful for navigating sustainability challenges.

Resilience as a scientific concept exploded in the early 2000s and is now being adopted by a range of disciplines and by a wide diversity of actors, from city planners to networks of global protectedarea managers. Resilience concepts are now integrated within national and international calls for proposals, research initiatives and centres in both the biophysical and social sciences. However, resilience …

Drought Early Warning And The Timing Of Range Managers’ Drought Response, Tonya R. Haigh, Jason A. Otkin, Anthony Mucia, Michael Hayes, Mark E. Burbach

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

'e connection between drought early warning information and the timing of rangeland managers’ response actions is not well understood. 'is study investigates U.S. Northern Plains range and livestock managers’ decision-making in response to the 2016 flash drought, by means of a postdrought survey of agricultural landowners and using the Protective Action Decision Model theoretical framework. 'e study found that managers acted in response to environmental cues, but that their responses were significantly delayed compared to when drought conditions emerged. External warnings did not influence the timing of their decisions, though on-farm monitoring and assessment of conditions did. 'ough this case …

The Tail Wagging The Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions Of Wolves Or Grizzly Bears, Daniel Kinka, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

While the re-establishment of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and wolves (Canis lupus) in the American West marks a success for conservation, it has been contentious among pastoralists. Coincidentally, livestock guarding dogs (LGDs; Canis familiaris) have been widely adopted by producers of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) in the United States to mitigate livestock depredation by wild carnivores. We surveyed pastoralists to measure how experience with and attitudes towards LGDs related to attitudes towards livestock predators, and found positive responses regarding LGDs and negative responses regarding wolves and grizzly bears. The more respondents agreed that LGDs reduce the need for lethal management …

Avian Taxonomic And Functional Diversity In Early Stage Of Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris) Stands Restored At Agricultural Lands: Variations In Scale Dependency, Myung-Bok Lee, Brian J. Gates, Robert J. Cooper, John P. Carroll

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In agricultural landscapes, the Longleaf Pine Initiative (LLPI) and the Bobwhite Quail Initiative (BQI) aim to restore longleaf pine forests and early successional habitats, respectively. The early stage of longleaf pine stands and grass and forb vegetation produced by a combination of both restoration programs (LLPI-BQI) may form habitat conditions favorable to early successional bird species and other birds, increasing avian diversity. We investigated how the LLPI and BQI programs affected taxonomic and functional diversity of birds and abundance of early successional birds (grassland and scrub/shrub species), and what environmental characteristics were associated with the diversity and abundance of birds. …

Untapped Capacity For Resilience In Environmental Law, Ahjond Garmestani, J. B. Ruhl, Brian C. Chaffin, Robin K. Craig, Helena F.M.W. Van Rijswick, David G. Angeler, Carl Folke, Lance Gunderson, Dirac Twidwell, Craig R. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Over the past several decades, environmental governance has made substantial progress in addressing environmental change, but emerging environmental problems require new innovations in law, policy, and governance. While expansive legal reform is unlikely to occur soon, there is untapped potential in existing laws to address environmental change, both by leveraging adaptive and transformative capacities within the law itself to enhance socialecological resilience and by using those laws to allow socialecological systems to adapt and transform. Legal and policy research to date has largely overlooked this potential, even though it offers a more expedient approach to addressing environmental change than waiting …

Art And The Environment, Ellen Dexter, Lydia Dexter

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

After school club that teaches the importance of sustainable practices and conversation activities through art projects and imagination.

The Changing Role Of Rodenticides And Their Alternatives In The Management Of Commensal Rodents, Gary Witmer

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rodents cause substantial damage and losses of foodstuffs around the world. They also transmit many diseases to humans and livestock. While various methods are used to reduce damage caused by rodents, rodenticides remain an important tool in the toolbox. However, like all tools, rodenticides have advantages and disadvantages. Several considerations are shaping the future of rodenticide use, including manufacturing and registration costs, concern about toxicity levels and nontarget animal hazards, potential hazards to children, reduced effectiveness of some formulations, and humaneness to the targeted rodents. Many of these disadvantages apply to anticoagulant rodenticides, and their use is being more restricted …

Rangeland Management During Drought: Assessing Social–Ecological And Cognitive Indicators Of Ranchers’ Adaptive Capacity, Tonya Haigh

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

Rangeland managers face challenges to adapt to climate extremes, and research is needed on how to support their adaptive capacity for managing climate risk. This study evaluates adaptive capacity using an integrated vulnerability and resilience conceptual model and three cognitive behavioral models. Overarching research questions focus on the relationship between protective action and impacts and the best predictors of taking action in response to drought. Three studies address these questions, using quantitative data collected from two post-drought surveys of rangeland-based livestock managers in the Northern Great Plains of the U.S. The studies find evidence of the roles of social-ecological sources …

Tracking Canada Geese Near Airports: Using Spatial Data To Better Inform Management, Ryan Askren, Brett E. Dorak, Heath M. Hagy, Michael W. Eichholz, Brian E. Washburn, Michael P. Ward

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The adaptation of birds to urban environments has created direct hazards to air transportation with the potential for catastrophic incidents. Bird–aircraft collisions involving Canada geese (Branta canadensis; goose) pose greater risks to aircraft than many bird species due to their size and flocking behavior. However, information on factors driving movements of geese near airports and within aircraft arrival/departure areas for application to management are limited. To address this need, we deployed 31 neck collar-mounted global positioning system transmitters on Canada geese near Midway International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, USA during November 2015 to February 2016. We used the movement data …

Effectiveness Of Snap And A24-Automated Traps And Broadcast Anticoagulant Bait In Suppressing Commensal Rodents In Hawaii, Aaron B. Shiels, Tyler Bogardus, Jobriath Rohrer, Kapua Kawelo

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Commensal rodents (invasive rats, Rattus spp.; house mice, Mus musculus) are well established globally. They threaten human health by disease transfer and impact economies by causing agricultural damage. On island landscapes, they are frequent predators of native species and affect biodiversity. To provide managers with better information regarding methods to suppress commensal rodent populations in remote island forests, in 2016 we evaluated the effectiveness of continuous rat trapping using snap-traps, Goodnature® A24 self-resetting rat traps, and a 1-time (2-application) hand-broadcast of anticoagulant rodenticide bait pellets (Diphacinone-50) applied at 13.8 kg/ha per application in a 5-ha forest on Oahu, Hawaii, USA. …

Application Strategy For An Anthraquinonebased Repellent And The Protection Of Soybeans From Canada Goose Depredation, Scott J. Werner, Matthew Gottlob, Charles D. Dieter, Joshua D. Stafford

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Agricultural crops can sustain extensive damage caused by Canada geese (Branta canadensis) when these crops are planted near wetlands or brood-rearing sites. From 2000 to 2015, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks spent >$5.6 million to manage damages caused by Canada geese to agricultural crops (primarily soybeans) in South Dakota, USA. For the purpose of developing a repellent application strategy for nonlethal goose damage management, we comparatively evaluated the width of anthraquinone applications (i.e., 9.4 L Flight Control® Plus goose repellent/ha [active ingredient: 50% 9,10-anthraquinone] at 0–36 m versus 0–73 m perpendicular to the edge of wetlands in 2014), the …

A Review Of Rat Lungworm Infection And Recent Data On Its Definitive Hosts In Hawaii, Chris Niebuhr, Susan I. Jarvi, Shane R. Siers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rat lungworm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) is a zoonotic nematode that causes rat lungworm disease (angiostrongyliasis), a potentially debilitating form of meningitis, in humans worldwide. The definitive hosts for rat lungworm are primarily members of the genus Rattus, with gastropods as intermediate hosts. This parasite has emerged as an important public health concern in the United States, especially in Hawaii, where the number of human cases has increased in the last decade. Here we discuss the current knowledge of the rat lungworm, including information on the life cycle and host species, as well as updates on known infection levels. Three species of …

Estimating Waterbird Abundance On Catfish Aquaculture Ponds Using An Unmanned Aerial System, Paul C. Burr, Sathishkumar Samiappan, Lee A. Hathcock, Robert J. Moorhead, Brian S. Dorr

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In this study, we examined the use of an unmanned aerial system (UAS) to monitor fish-eating birds on catfish (Ictalurus spp.) aquaculture facilities in Mississippi, USA. We tested 2 automated computer algorithms to identify bird species using mosaicked imagery taken from a UAS platform. One algorithm identified birds based on color alone (color segmentation), and the other algorithm used shape recognition (template matching), and the results of each algorithm were compared directly to manual counts of the same imagery. We captured digital imagery of great egrets (Ardea alba), great blue herons (A. herodias), and doublecrested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) on aquaculture …

Mortality, Perception, And Scale: Understanding How Predation Shapes Space Use In A Wild Prey Population, Lindsey N. Messinger, Erica F. Stuber, Christopher J. Chizinski, Joseph J. Fontaine

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Attempts to assess behavioral responses of prey to predation risk are often confounded by depredation of prey. Moreover, the scale at which the response of prey is assessed has important implications for discovering how predation risk alters prey behavior. Herein, we assessed space use of wild Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in response to spatial and temporal variation in recreational hunting. We radio-marked pheasants and monitored space use at two spatial scales: short-term seasonal home range, and nightly resting locations. Additionally, we considered temporal variation in predation risk by monitoring space use prior to and during the pheasant hunting season. Although …

Economic And Livestock Health Impacts Of Birds On Dairies: Evidence From A Survey Of Washington Dairy Operators, Julie L. Elser, Amber L. Adams Progar, Karen M.M. Steensma, Tyler P. Caskin, Susan R. Kerr, Stephanie A. Shwiff

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The survey described in this research paper aimed to investigate the economic and health impacts of birds on dairies. Birds are common pests on dairies, consuming and contaminating feed intended for cattle. As a result, dairy operators experience increased feed costs and increased pathogen and disease risk. We surveyed dairy operators attending the 2017 Washington Dairy Conference to examine the impact of birds on dairies in Washington State. Dairy operators reported feed losses valued at $55 per cow resulting in annual losses totaling $5.5 million in the Western region of the state and $9.2 million in the Eastern region of …

Double-Crested Cormorant Colony Effects On Soil Chemistry, Vegetation Structure And Avian Diversity, Leah Moran Veum, Brian S. Dorr, Katie C. Hanson-Dorr, R.J. Moore, Scott A. Rush

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Effects of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) on vegetation, soil chemistry and tree health have been documented from their breeding colonies in the northern breeding grounds of Canada and the United States (U.S.) but not for areas within the southeastern United States where breeding activity is relatively novel. We compared vegetation and tree metrics such as structure diversity, and soil chemistry among colony islands, uninhabited islands, and abandoned colony islands within Guntersville Reservoir, a temperate forest ecosystem. Avian diversity and community structure were also quantified on these islands. Concentrations of potassium (K), phosphorus (P) and nitrate (NO3 −) in soil were …