Breeding habitat associations and predicted distribution of an obligate tundra-breeding bird, Smith's Longspur
Teri C. Wild, Steven J. Kendall, Nikki Guldager, Abby N. Powell
2015, The Condor (117) 3-17
Smith's Longspur (Calcarius pictus) is a species of conservation concern which breeds in Arctic habitats that are expected to be especially vulnerable to climate change. We used bird presence and habitat data from point-transect surveys conducted at 12 sites across the Brooks Range, Alaska, 2003–2009, to identify breeding areas, describe...
Dispersal and survival of a polygynandrous passerine
Heather R. Craig, Steve J. Kendall, Teri C. Wild, Abby N. Powell
2015, The Auk (132) 916-925
Although sex biases in survival and dispersal are thought to be linked to avian mating systems, little is known about these demographic patterns in less common mating strategies such as polygynandry. We investigated breeding-site fidelity, natal philopatry, and apparent survival of the polygynandrous Smith's Longspur (Calcarius pictus) over a 7-yr...
Deployment of paired pushnets from jet-propelled kayaks to sample ichthyoplankton
Matthew R. Acre, Timothy B. Grabowski
2015, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (35) 925-929
Accessing and effectively sampling the off-channel habitats that are considered crucial for early life stages of freshwater fishes constitute a difficult challenge when common ichthyoplankton survey methods, such as push nets, are used. We describe a new method of deploying push nets from jet-propelled kayaks to enable the sampling of...
Evidence from data storage tags for the presence of lunar and semilunar behavioral cycles in spawning Atlantic cod
Timothy B. Grabowski, Bruce J. McAdam, Vilhjalmur Thorsteinsson, Gudrun Marteinsdottir
2015, Environmental Biology of Fishes (98) 1767-1776
Understanding the environmental processes determining the timing and success of reproduction is of critical importance to developing effective management strategies of marine fishes. Unfortunately it has proven difficult to comprehensively study the reproductive behavior of broadcast-spawning fishes. The use of electronic data storage tags (DSTs) has the potential to provide...
Smartphones reveal angler behavior: A case study of a popular mobile fishing application in Alberta, Canada
Jason T. Papenfuss, Nicholas Phelps, David C. Fulton, Paul A. Venturelli
2015, Fisheries (40) 318-327
Successfully managing fisheries and controlling the spread of invasive species depends on the ability to describe and predict angler behavior. However, finite resources restrict conventional survey approaches and tend to produce retrospective data that are limited in time or space and rely on intentions or attitudes rather than actual behavior....
Assessing tolerance for wildlife: Clarifying relations between concepts and measures
Jeremy T. Bruskotter, Ajay Singh, David C. Fulton, Kristina Slagle
2015, Human Dimensions of Wildlife: An International Journal (20) 255-270
Two parallel lines of inquiry, tolerance for and acceptance of wildlife populations, have arisen in the applied literature on wildlife conservation to assess probability of successfully establishing or increasing populations of controversial species. Neither of these lines is well grounded in social science theory, and diverse measures have been employed...
A replication of a factor analysis of motivations for trapping
Susan Schroeder, David C. Fulton
2015, Human Dimensions of Wildlife (20) 280-283
Using a 2013 sample of Minnesota trappers, we employed confirmatory factor analysis to replicate an exploratory factor analysis of trapping motivations conducted by Daigle, Muth, Zwick, and Glass (1998). We employed the same 25 items used by Daigle et al. and tested the same five-factor structure using a recent sample...
Precision of hard structures used to estimate age of mountain Whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni)
Carson J. Watkins, Tyler J. Ross, Ryan S. Hardy, Michael C. Quist
2015, Western North American Naturalist (75) 1-7
The mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) is a widely distributed salmonid in western North America that has decreased in abundance over portions of its distribution due to anthropogenic disturbances. In this investigation, we examined precision of age estimates derived from scales, pectoral fin rays, and sagittal otoliths from 167 mountain whitefish....
Climate-smart management of biodiversity
Christopher P. Nadeau, Angela K. Fuller, Daniel L. Rosenblatt
2015, Ecosphere (6)
Determining where biodiversity is likely to be most vulnerable to climate change and methods to reduce that vulnerability are necessary first steps to incorporate climate change into biodiversity management plans. Here, we use a spatial climate change vulnerability assessment to (1) map the potential vulnerability of terrestrial biodiversity to climate...
Habitat use of non-native burbot in a western river
Zachary B. Klein, Michael C. Quist, Darren T. Rhea, Anna C. Senecal
2015, Hydrobiologia (757) 61-71
Burbot, Lota lota (Linnaeus), were illegally introduced into the Green River drainage, Wyoming in the 1990s. Burbot could potentially alter the food web in the Green River, thereby negatively influencing socially, economically, and ecologically important fish species. Therefore, managers of the Green River are interested in implementing a suppression program...
Population characteristics of channel catfish near the northern edge of their distribution: implications for management
K. P. Carter-Lynn, Michael C. Quist
2015, Fisheries Management and Ecology (22) 530-538
Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque), populations in six lakes in northern Idaho, USA, were sampled to describe their population characteristics. During the summers of 2011 and 2012, 4864 channel catfish were sampled. Channel catfish populations had low to moderate catch rates, and length structure was dominated by fish <400 mm. Channel catfish were...
Patterns of fish assemblage structure and habitat use among main- and side-channel environments in the lower Kootenai River, Idaho
Carson J. Watkins, Bryan S. Stevens, Michael C. Quist, Bradley B. Shepard, Susan C. Ireland
2015, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (144) 1340-1355
The lower Kootenai River, Idaho, was sampled during the summers of 2012 and 2013 to evaluate its fish assemblage structure at seven sites within main- and side-channel habitats where large-scale habitat rehabilitation was undertaken. Understanding the current patterns of fish assemblage structure and their relationships with habitat is important for...
Physiological preparedness and performance of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar smolts in relation to behavioural salinity preferences and thresholds
D.S. Stich, G.B. Zydlewski, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2015, Journal of Fish Biology (88) 595-617
This study investigated the relationships between behavioural responses of Atlantic salmon Salmo salarsmolts to saltwater (SW) exposure and physiological characteristics of smolts in laboratory experiments. It concurrently described the behaviour of acoustically tagged smolts with respect to SW and tidal cycles during estuary migration. Salmo salar smolts increased their use of SW relative...
Blood lead exposure concentrations in mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) on the upper Texas coast
Stephen K. McDowell, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos, Jena A. Moon, Christopher E. Comer, I-Kuai Hung
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 221-228
The mottled duck (Anas fulvigula) is a non-migratory waterfowl species dependent upon coastal marsh systems, including those on the Texas Chenier Plain National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex, and considered a regional indicator species of marsh habitat quality. Research from the early 1970s, 1990s, and early-2000s indicated that mottled ducks continued...
Population and genetic outcomes 20 years after reintroducing bobcats (Lynx rufus) to Cumberland Island, Georgia USA
Duane R. Diefenbach, Leslie A. Hansen, Justin H. Bohling, Cassandra Miller-Butterworth
2015, Ecology and Evolution (5) 4885-4895
In 1988–1989, 32 bobcats Lynx rufus were reintroduced to Cumberland Island (CUIS), Georgia, USA, from which they had previously been extirpated. They were monitored intensively for 3 years immediately post-reintroduction, but no estimation of the size or genetic diversity of the population had been conducted in over 20 years since reintroduction. We returned to...
Population density influences dispersal in female white-tailed deer
Clayton L. Lutz, Duane R. Diefenbach, Christopher S. Rosenberry
2015, Journal of Mammalogy (96) 494-501
Dispersal behavior in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) predominantly occurs in 1-year-old males; however, females of the same age also disperse. The timing of female dispersal during fawning season and low dispersal rates suggest that competition for mates and reduced inbreeding are not ultimate causes of female dispersal, as suggested for...
Raccoon spatial requirements and multi-scale habitat selection within an intensively managed central Appalachian forest
Sheldon F. Owen, Jacob L. Berl, John W. Edwards, W. Mark Ford, Petra Bohall Wood
2015, American Midland Naturalist (174) 87-95
We studied a raccoon (Procyon lotor) population within a managed central Appalachian hardwood forest in West Virginia to investigate the effects of intensive forest management on raccoon spatial requirements and habitat selection. Raccoon home-range (95% utilization distribution) and core-area (50% utilization distribution) size differed between sexes with males maintaining larger...
Raccoon (Procyon lotor) diurnal den use within an intensively managed forest in central West Virginia
Sheldon F. Owen, Jacob L. Berl, John W. Edwards, W. Mark Ford, Petra Bohall Wood
2015, Northeastern Naturalist (22) 41-52
Intensive forest management may influence the availability of suitable den sites for large den-seeking species, such as Procyon lotor (Raccoon). As part of a Raccoon ecology study on an industrial forest in the Allegheny Mountains of central West Virginia, we radio-tracked 32 Raccoons to 175 diurnal den sites to determine relative use...
Representativeness of soil samples collected to assess mining-related contamination of flood plains in southeast Kansas
Kyle E. Juracek
2015, Conference Paper, 2015 Joint Federal Interagency Conference on Sedimentation and Hydrologic Modeling (SEDHYD 2015)
Historical lead and zinc mining in the Tri-State Mining District (TSMD), located in parts of southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri, and northeast Oklahoma, has resulted in a substantial ongoing input of lead and zinc to the environment (Juracek, 2006; Juracek and Becker, 2009). In response to concern about the mining-related contamination,...
Movement patterns and dispersal potential of Pecos bluntnose shiner (Notropis simus pecosensis) revealed using otolith microchemistry
Nathan M. Chase, Colleen A. Caldwell, Scott A. Carleton, William R. Gould, James A. Hobbs
2015, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (72) 1575-1583
Natal origin and dispersal potential of the federally threatened Pecos bluntnose shiner (Notropis simus pecosensis) were successfully characterized using otolith microchemistry and swimming performance trials. Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr:86Sr) of otoliths within the resident plains killifish (Fundulus zebrinus) were successfully used as a surrogate for strontium isotope ratios in water...
Jaguar critical habitat designation causes concern for Southwestern ranchers
Colleen Svancara, Aaron M. Lien, Wendy T. Vanasco, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, George B. Ruyle
2015, Rangelands (37) 144-151
The designation of jaguar critical habitat in April 2014 in southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico created concern for livestock ranchers in the region. We interviewed ranchers to understand their concerns with the jaguar critical habitat designation and their attitudes toward jaguars, wildlife conservation, and resource management in general. <p...
Breeding ecology of Wandering Tattlers Tringa incana: a study from south-central Alaska
Robert E. Gill Jr., Pavel S. Tomkovich, Maksim N. Dementyev
2015, Wader Study Group Bulletin (122) 99-114
Montane-nesting shorebirds are arguably the least studied of the Charadriiformes, owing in part to the remoteness of their breeding areas, low nesting densities, and specialized behaviors. We studied a marked population of the Wandering Tattler Tringa incana, during a three-year period (1997–1999) on nesting grounds in south-central Alaska. Two aspects...
Distributional changes in the western Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) in North America from 1967 to 2008
Alberto Macias-Duarte, Courtney J. Conway
2015, Journal of Raptor Research (49) 75-83
The quantification of shifts in bird distributions in response to climate change provides an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the processes that influence species persistence. We used data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) to document changes in the distributional limits of the western Burrowing Owl...
Introduction to watershed ecosystem services: Chapter 1
Jefferson S. Hall, Robert F. Stallard, Vanessa Kirn
2015, Book chapter, Managing watersheds for ecosystem services in the steepland neotropics
Humans derive a great number of goods and services from terrestrial ecosystems (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2003, 2005). Some, like timber, fruits, bush meat, and other forest based food stuffs, are evident but others are not so obvious. Increasingly policy makers have realized the importance of forests and other ecosystems in...
Evaluation of a fine sediment removal tool in spring-fed and snowmelt driven streams
Adam J. Sepulveda, Megan J. Layhee, Zach Sutphin, Juddson D. Sechrist
2015, Ecological Restoration (33) 303-315
The accumulation of fine-grained sediments impairs the structure and function of streams, so removing fine sediments may be required to achieve restoration objectives. There has been little work on methods of removing excess sediment or on the efficacy of the methods. We used a 4-year before-after-control-impact design in southeastern Idaho...
