Behavioral State-Specific Northern Bobwhite Chick Resource Selection,
2022
University of Georgia
Behavioral State-Specific Northern Bobwhite Chick Resource Selection, Justin N. Hill, Theron M. Terhune Ii, James A. Martin
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
Determining resource selection rates for all life stages of a species is critical to enable a holistic management approach that focuses on bolstering populations across all life stages. Moreover, tying these selection rates to specific life history needs (e.g., foraging, roosting, and loafing) can provide valuable information to guide management practices. Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite), a gallinaceous species of North America, has experienced steady population declines throughout much of its range over the last 50 years. Although the species has been well studied, chick ecology is still relatively unknown. We studied bobwhite chick resource selection on …
Measuring Multiple Demographic Rates In Two Populations Of Northern Bobwhite,
2022
Tall Timbers Research Station
Measuring Multiple Demographic Rates In Two Populations Of Northern Bobwhite, Alexander L. Jackson, D. Clay Sisson, Justin A. Rectenwald
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
Demographic rates of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) may vary spatially and temporally, and understanding the significance of these individual rates to population performance is critically important to bobwhite management. We present descriptive evidence from 2 populations that were simultaneously monitored from 2015–2020 that suggests different demographic rates can be more important to population performance than other demographic rates within the same region. Our objective was to understand the relative importance of various demographic rates to population performance in separate and seemingly stable populations. We monitored bobwhite seasonal survival and reproductive demographics on 2,475 bobwhites via radio-telemetry …
Diurnal Occurrence Of Great-Horned Owls On Northern Bobwhite Hunting Properties In Southwest Georgia,
2022
Tall Timbers Research Station
Diurnal Occurrence Of Great-Horned Owls On Northern Bobwhite Hunting Properties In Southwest Georgia, Justin A. Rectenwald, Philip M. Coppola, Theron M. Terhune Ii, D. Clay Sisson, James A. Martin
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
Understanding interactions between prey species and their predators is essential to discerning the ecology and management fundamentals of a species. Great-horned owls (Bubo virginianus) have long been considered an opportunistic predator of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) and recent studies have demonstrated that bobwhite survival is reduced at higher great-horned owl densities (Rectenwald et al. 2021). Managers on quail properties often mechanically remove live oak (Quercus virginiana) hammocks as part of larger predation management plans to reduce the amount of suitable predator habitat. While scattered live oaks are typically left for aesthetic purposes, …
Home Range And Space Use Of Northern Bobwhite Under Two Different Management Models In Southwestern Missouri,
2022
Missouri Department of Conservation
Home Range And Space Use Of Northern Bobwhite Under Two Different Management Models In Southwestern Missouri, Thomas R. Thompson, Frank L. Loncarich, R. Kyle Hedges
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) management in Missouri, USA has traditionally been focused on providing an interspersion of grass, crop, old field, and woody cover juxtaposed to disked idle areas and food plots to maintain bobwhite populations. This traditional model is implemented with the goal of providing all essential habitat components within 40-acre blocks throughout a larger area used by a population. While this model can produce usable bobwhite space in agriculture-dominated landscapes, it may not be the most effective or efficient approach to producing and maintaining bobwhite in grassland-dominated landscapes. In southwestern Missouri native tallgrass prairie …
Results From Kentucky’S 10-Year Bobwhite Recovery Plan,
2022
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
Results From Kentucky’S 10-Year Bobwhite Recovery Plan, Cody M. Rhoden, John J. Morgan, Ben A. Robinson, Gary Sprandel
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
The northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) has experienced a precipitous population decline through almost all its historical range over the last 6 decades. We initiated a 10-year restoration plan in Kentucky, USA in 2008 and reported on it through 3 published “Road to Recovery” reports along with 30 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts, 2 technical documents, 7 theses or dissertations, and 11 popular literature pieces. Seven Quail Focus Areas were selected across the state based on site personnel, geographic position (east to west), and land ownership (e.g., private, public, state, federal) for monitoring and habitat management. The focus …
Landowner Cooperative Key To Success In The Bee Ridge Quail Focus Area,
2022
Missouri Department of Conservation
Landowner Cooperative Key To Success In The Bee Ridge Quail Focus Area, John A. Pinkowski, Beth A. Emmerich, William T. White
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) began establishing Quail Focus Areas (QFAs) on private lands in 2004. The goal of QFAs is to increase and expand quail habitat management efforts around a core area. Because most (93%) of the landscape of Missouri, USA is in private ownership, habitat improvement programs on private lands have greater potential to impact quail populations than on public lands alone. A motivated group of landowners led the charge to begin habitat improvement efforts in the Bee Ridge QFA. This group was instrumental in starting earlier monitoring efforts to determine whether habitat improvements were leading to …
Habitat Works: How Partnerships And Habitat Improvement Have Restored Quail Populations In The 2c Quail Focus Area,
2022
Missouri Department of Conservation
Habitat Works: How Partnerships And Habitat Improvement Have Restored Quail Populations In The 2c Quail Focus Area, E. Lee Metcalf, Beth A. Emmerich, William T. White
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) began establishing Quail Focus Areas (QFAs) on private lands in 2004. The goal of QFAs was to bring groups of landowners together to manage bobwhite habitat on a larger scale in a targeted landscape. Through a variety of state, federal, and other partnership programs, habitat improvement efforts have resulted in large increases in northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) numbers in the 2C QFA. In spring 2013, MDC staff and Quail Forever biologists began monitoring bobwhite and songbirds in a portion of the 2C QFA in Carroll County, Missouri, USA and in …
Adaptive Management Facilitates Increase In Northern Bobwhite Populations,
2022
University of Georgia
Adaptive Management Facilitates Increase In Northern Bobwhite Populations, James A. Martin, Clay Sisson, Justin Rectenwald, Paige Howell
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
Adaptive resource management (ARM) is an approach to managing that allows decision makers to learn about a system and subsequently change management actions based on new information about system processes (i.e., adapt) to better meet fundamental objectives. This is not to be confused with changing management actions when the state of the system changes. For example, changing a harvest regulation when populations decline is not ARM. This dynamic decision making may be fortuitously optimal, but if the effect of harvest is uncertain then changing regulations may be suboptimal—for example, weather may have caused the decline. Adaptive resource management can be …
Adaptive Management And Quail Conservation On Rangelands In The American West,
2022
Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute
Adaptive Management And Quail Conservation On Rangelands In The American West, Leonard A. Brennan, Ashley Tanner, Evan P. Tanner
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
Adaptive management has been and is being practiced with the goal of sustaining populations of wild quails on large areas of rangelands in the American West. Because the current land use practices throughout most of the eastern two-thirds of the United States largely do not promote early-successional vegetation communities, rangelands contain the largest remaining blocks of contiguous (unfragmented) habitat for the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and the other 5 species of quails found in the western states. Many wildlife professionals on both private and public rangelands are practicing a diverse array of quail habitat and population management actions …
Covers,
2022
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Spatio-Temporal Changes In Vegetation In The Last Two Decades (2001–2020) In The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region,
2022
Tianjin University
Spatio-Temporal Changes In Vegetation In The Last Two Decades (2001–2020) In The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region, Yuan Zou, Wei Chen, Siliang Li, Tiejun Wang, Le Yu, Min Xu, Ramesh P. Singh, Cong-Qiang Liu
Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research
In terrestrial ecosystems, vegetation is sensitive to climate change and human activities. Its spatial-temporal changes also affect the ecological and social environment. In this paper, we considered the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region to study the spatio-temporal vegetation patterns. The detailed analysis of a moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data were carried out through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Our results show a slow and tortuous upward trend in the average leaf area index (LAI) in the study region for the periods 2001–2020. Specifically, Beijing had the highest LAI value, with an average of 1.64 over twenty years, followed by Hebei (1.30) and …
Evaluating Non-Invasive Environmental Methods For Detecting Tropical African Pangolin Species To Inform Conservation Actions,
2022
Mississippi State University
Evaluating Non-Invasive Environmental Methods For Detecting Tropical African Pangolin Species To Inform Conservation Actions, Ichu Godwill Ichu
Theses and Dissertations
Tropical African pangolin species are threatened throughout their range due to habitat loss and illegal take. Limited knowledge on distribution has rendered conservation efforts challenging. Methods commonly used for other wildlife species need to be tested for each pangolin species as each has variable ecologies requiring specific detection and monitoring techniques. This thesis evaluates the efficacy of two non-invasive environmental methods for detecting tropical African pangolin species, and consists of two complementary studies; a proof of concept study using soil sourced eDNA from a white-bellied pangolin enclosure in the Columbus Zoo, Ohio, to detect the species, and a field study …
Effects Of Mass Death On Community Structure And Ecosystem Function,
2022
Mississippi State University
Effects Of Mass Death On Community Structure And Ecosystem Function, Abby Kimpton Jones
Theses and Dissertations
Death and decomposition are natural processes that are generally well-understood. However, large events of death, such as mass mortality events (MMEs) are increasing in frequency and their impacts on the ecosystem are largely unknown. These events may have both bottom-up effects from increased nutrient input as well as top-down effects from loss of an ecological functional group by the affected population. Different functional MMEs may result in different top-down effects, creating cascading effects. In Chapter 1, I test the hypothesis that scavenger and herbivore simulated MMEs generate novel bottom-up and top-down effects. Results indicate that MMEs have a significant effect …
Reproductive Ecology And Microbial Communities From Wood Duck Nest Boxes In Georgia And Florida,
2022
Clemson University
Reproductive Ecology And Microbial Communities From Wood Duck Nest Boxes In Georgia And Florida, Jake Shurba
All Theses
Wood ducks (Aix sponsa) are an important game species throughout the Atlantic Flyway that was nearly extirpated by the early 20th century due to overhunting and the loss of habitat. Wood ducks are secondary cavity-nesters that utilize artificial nest boxes and natural cavities. It is reported that the use of nest boxes is likely what led to re-establishment of the species in North America. Where boxes are numerous, overuse of boxes by multiple hens throughout a nesting season can occur and result in a buildup of bacteria, parasites and other potentially detrimental pathogens that can impact egg …
Regional-Scale Climate-Induced Variation In Ant Physiology And Morphology,
2022
State University of New York College at Buffalo
Regional-Scale Climate-Induced Variation In Ant Physiology And Morphology, Daniel E. Murphy
Biology Theses
The biology of ectotherms such as insects is influenced by ambient thermal conditions. Ants are a ubiquitous and ecologically important group of insects and are well-established as bioindicators of thermal conditions. Ants are sensitive to the thermal extremes that vary with latitude, elevation, and land use, and these thermal gradients influence their spatial and temporal distributions. As a result, ants have evolved physiological and morphological thermal adaptations in response to the thermal environment of their habitats. These adaptations include increased physiological and morphological tolerance for temperature extremes. In Western New York (WNY), temperatures are temporally and spatially heterogeneous, changing with …
Chromosome Number Evolution, Phylogeography, And The Effects Of Climate Change On Species Distributions In Polyploid Plant Systems,
2022
University of New Orleans
Chromosome Number Evolution, Phylogeography, And The Effects Of Climate Change On Species Distributions In Polyploid Plant Systems, Courtney H. Babin
LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
Polyploidy, a term used to describe organisms with cells having more than two paired sets of chromosomes, is a significant driver of diversification among land plants. Over a century of research has advanced our understanding of polyploidization in some taxa, but polyploid organisms remain understudied. In this dissertation, I investigate chromosome number evolution, phylogeographic structure, genetic differentiation, and the effects of climate change on ploidy level distribution using polyploid plant systems. In the first chapter, I inferred a molecular phylogeny of Allium, an economically important genus that includes cultivated crops and ornamentals, to investigate evolutionary transitions in chromosome number …
The Paleoecology Of High-Elevation Bison In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem And Implications For Modern Bison Conservation,
2022
East Tennessee State University
The Paleoecology Of High-Elevation Bison In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem And Implications For Modern Bison Conservation, Darian Bouvier
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The national mammal of the United States, the American Bison (Bison bison) was once nearly extinct. Populations have recovered to the degree that thousands roam the Great Plains today. Due to their large numbers and body size, this species has an oversized impact on the ecological communities where it lives and is considered a keystone herbivore in modern North American grasslands. This study explores the detailed, seasonally resolved, paleoecology of seven bison from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem during the Late Holocene through stable isotope analyses and species niche modeling. Isotopic analyses of δ13C, δ15N, …
Spring Gobbling Chronology And Turkey Habitat Use In Upstate South Carolina,
2022
Clemson University
Spring Gobbling Chronology And Turkey Habitat Use In Upstate South Carolina, Janelle Grehan
All Theses
Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a highly popular game species harvested primarily during the reproductive season, which has driven substantial efforts to understand patterns of springtime habitat use and gobbling activity. Autonomous recording units (ARUs) have enabled researchers to collect unprecedented amounts of gobbling data, yet post hoc processing of audio data has been time-intensive due to false detection rates. Gobbling activity has been studied in the South Carolina Coastal Plain, but data for the Upstate are lacking. My objectives were to assess seasonal and weekly gobbling activity and turkey habitat use in Upstate South Carolina relative to …
The Role Of Nest Location On The Reproductive Success Of Piping Plovers Breeding At Rockaway Beach, New York,
2022
CUNY Hunter College
The Role Of Nest Location On The Reproductive Success Of Piping Plovers Breeding At Rockaway Beach, New York, Clara I.D. Arndtsen
Theses and Dissertations
The study’s goal was to learn what aspects of the piping plover experience affect reproductive outcomes at Rockaway Beach Endangered Species Nesting Area. Nest location was found to help predict reproductive success. Nests further from American oystercatcher nests were likely to fledge more chicks. Reproductive success was low in 2021.
Chemical And Biological Stressors Threaten Native Fish Diversity In The Spring River Subbasin Of Kansas,
2022
Pittsburg State University
Chemical And Biological Stressors Threaten Native Fish Diversity In The Spring River Subbasin Of Kansas, Alexandra King
Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Chemical pollution and nonnative species are two of the major threats facing freshwater fishes. As such, understanding how freshwater fish communities respond to pollution remediation efforts and nonnative fish introductions are primary goals of native fish conservation. Within the Spring River subbasin (SRS) of southeastern Kansas, this study examined the long-term response of riffle fish communities to decreases in heavy metal concentrations, as well as the effects of introduced Blackspotted Topminnow (Fundulus olivaceus) on native Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus). The objectives of our research in Chapter 01 of this thesis were to quantify changes in riffle …
