Annual recapture and survival rates of two non-breeding adult populations of Roseate Terns Stema dougallii captured on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and estimates of their population sizes
P. O’Neill, C.D.T. Minton, I.C.T. Nisbet, J.E. Hines
2008, Waterbirds (31) 338-345
Capture-recapture data from two disparate breeding populations of Roseate Terns (Sterna dougallii) captured together as non-breeding individuals from 2002 to 2007 in the southern Great Barrier Reef. Australia were analyzed for both survival rate and recapture rate. The average annual survival rate for the birds from the Asian...
Movement of reservoir-stocked riverine fish between tailwaters and rivers
J.A. Spoelstra, R.A. Stein, J. Andrew Royle, E.A. Marschall
2008, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (137) 1530-1542
The movement of fish from onstream impoundments into connected streams and rivers has traditionally been overlooked in fish stocking decisions but is critical to the ultimate impact of stocking riverine species into reservoirs. Hybrid saugeyes (female walleye Sander vitreus x male sauger S. canadensis) stocked into Deer Creek Reservoir,...
A new species of Percina (Perciformes: Percidae) from the Apalachicola River drainage, southeastern United States
Mary C. Freeman, B. J. Freeman, N.M. Burkhead, C.A. Straight
2008, Zootaxa (1963) 25-42
Percina crypta, the Halloween Darter, is described as a new species endemic to the Chattahoochee and Flint River systems in Georgia and Alabama. Percina crypta differs from sympatric Percina nigrofasciata in having narrowly separated dorsal saddles (inter-saddle spaces typically less than or equal to saddle width, compared to frequently wider...
Prevalence of the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in stream and wetland amphibians in Maryland, USA
Evan H. Campbell Grant, Larissa L. Bailey, Joy L. Ware, Karen L. Duncan
2008, Applied Herpetology (5) 233-241
The amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, responsible for the potentially fatal amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, is known to occur in a large and ever increasing number of amphibian populations around the world. However, sampling has been biased towards stream- and wetland-breeding anurans, with little attention paid to stream-associated salamanders. We sampled...
Tidal marshes as disequilibrium landscapes? Lags between morphology and Holocene sea level change
M. L. Kirwan, A.B. Murray
2008, Geophysical Research Letters (35) 1-5
Historical acceleration in the rate of global sea level rise and recent observations of marsh degradation highlight the importance of understanding how marshes respond to sea level change. Here, we use an existing numerical model to demonstrate that marsh morphology, and its effect on biological productivity and vertical accretion,...
Presence-nonpresence surveys of golden-cheeked warblers: detection, occupancy and survey effort
C.A. Watson, F.W. Weckerly, Jeff S. Hatfield, C.C. Farquhar, P.S. Williamson
2008, Animal Conservation (11) 484-492
Surveys to detect the presence or absence of endangered species may not consistently cover an area, account for imperfect detection or consider that detection and species presence at sample units may change within a survey season. We evaluated a detection?nondetection survey method for the federally endangered golden-cheeked warbler (GCWA)...
Field Marks of a Celebration: Roger Tory Peterson's Centennial Birthday
J. Dunlap, C.S. Robbins
2008, Audubon Naturalist News (34) 4-6
A red letter day in my life was April 27, 1934, the day I first met Roger. A birding friend, Elisha Atkins, had invited Clinton Reynolds and me to dinner to meet a famous ornithologist. We would all be going on a field trip to Newburyport on the...
Conserving waste rice for wintering waterfowl in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
J.P. Kross, R.M. Kaminski, K. J. Reinecke, A.T. Pearse
2008, Journal of Wildlife Management (72) 1383-1387
Rice lost before or during harvest operations (hereafter waste rice) provides important food for waterfowl in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA, but >70% of waste rice is lost during autumn. We conducted experiments in 19 production rice fields in Arkansas and Mississippi during autumns 2003 and 2004 to evaluate...
Visual implant elastomer mark retention through metamorphosis in amphibian larvae
Evan H. Campbell Grant
2008, Journal of Wildlife Management (72) 1247-1252
Questions in population ecology require the study of marked animals, and marks are assumed to be permanent and not overlooked by observers. I evaluated retention through metamorphosis of visual implant elastomer marks in larval salamanders and frogs and assessed error in observer identification of these marks. I found 1) individual...
Element patterns in feathers of nestling Black-Crowned Night-Herons, Nycticorax nycticorax L., from four colonies in Delaware, Maryland, and Minnesota
Thomas W. Custer, Nancy H. Golden, Barnett A. Rattner
2008, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (81) 147-151
The pattern of elements in nestling black-crowned night-heron feathers from a rural Minnesota colony differed from colonies in industrialized regions of Maryland and Delaware. Except for chromium, however, the differences did not reflect the elements associated with waters and sediments of the Maryland and Delaware colonies. Therefore, elements...
Management concerns about known and potential impacts of lead use in shooting and in fishing activities
C.I. Goddard, N.J. Leonard, D.L. Stang, P.J. Wingate, Barnett A. Rattner, J. C. Franson, S.R. Sheffield
2008, Fisheries (33) 228-236
We present a summary of the technical review, jointly requested by the American Fisheries Society and The Wildlife Society, addressing the hazards to wildlife resulting from lead objects or fragments introduced into aquatic and terrestrial environments from the use of ammunition and fishing tackle. Impacts from lead are well documented...
Potential environmental contaminant risks to avian species at important bird areas in the northeastern United States
Barnett A. Rattner, B.K. Ackerson
2008, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (4) 344-357
Environmental contaminants can have profound effects on birds, acting from the molecular through population levels of biological organization. An analysis of potential contaminant threats was undertaken at 52 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) within the northeastern Atlantic coast drainage. Using geographic information system methodology, data layers describing or integrating...
Migration of Florida sub-adult Bald Eagles
E.K. Mojica, J.M. Meyers, B.A. Millsap, K.L. Haley
2008, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (120) 304-310
We used satellite telemetry locations accurate within 1 km to identify migration routes and stopover sites of 54 migratory sub-adult Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) hatched in Florida from 1997 to 2001. We measured number of days traveled during migration, path of migration, stopover time and locations, and distance traveled...
Importance of sampling design and analysis in animal population studies: a comment on Sergio et al
M. Kery, J. Andrew Royle, Hans Schmid
2008, Journal of Applied Ecology (45) 981-986
1. The use of predators as indicators and umbrellas in conservation has been criticized. In the Trentino region, Sergio et al. (2006; hereafter SEA) counted almost twice as many bird species in quadrats located in raptor territories than in controls. However, SEA detected astonishingly few species. We...
Juvenile survival in a tropical population of roseate terns: Interannual variation and effect of tick parasitism
David Monticelli, Jaime A. Ramos, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, Jeffrey A. Spendelow
2008, Marine Ecology Progress Series (365) 277-287
Many demographic studies on long-lived seabirds have focused on the estimation of adult survival, but much less is known about survival during the early years of life, especially in tropical species. We report analyses of a capture–recapture dataset of 685 roseate terns ringed as fledglings and adults between 1998 and...
Forty-ninth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American birds
Richard C. Banks, R. Terry Chesser, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Irby J. Lovette, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J.V. Remsen Jr., James D. Rising, Douglas F. Stotz, Kevin Winker
2008, The Auk (125) 756-766
This is the eighth Supplement since the publication of the 7th edition of the Check-list of North American Birds (American Ornithologists’ Union [AOU] 1998). It summarizes decisions made by the AOU’s Committee on Classification and Nomenclature-North and Middle America between 1 January and 31 December 2007....
Effects of human activity of breeding American Oystercatchers, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia, USA
J. B. Sabine, J.M. Meyers, C. T. Moore, Sara H. Schweitzer
2008, Waterbirds (31) 70-82
Abstract.-Increased human use of coastal areas threatens the United States population of American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus), a species of special concern. Biologists often attribute its low numbers and reproductive success to human disturbance, but the mechanism by which human presence reduces reproductive success is not well understood. During...
Potential effects of mixed infections in ticks on transmission dynamics of pathogens: comparative analysis of published records
Howard S. Ginsberg
2008, Experimental and Applied Acarology (46) 29-41
Ticks are often infected with more than one pathogen, and several field surveys have documented nonrandom levels of coinfection. Levels of coinfection by pathogens in four tick species were analyzed using published infection data. Coinfection patterns of pathogens in field-collected ticks include numerous cases of higher or lower...
Objectives and metrics for wildlife monitoring
J.R. Sauer, M. G. Knutson
2008, Journal of Wildlife Management (72) 1663-1664
Monitoring surveys allow managers to document system status and provide the quantitative basis for management decision-making, and large amounts of effort and funding are devoted to monitoring. Still, monitoring surveys often fall short of providing required information; inadequacies exist in survey designs, analyses procedures, or in the ability to...
Stream fish occurrence in response to impervious cover, historic land use, and hydrogeomorphic factors
Seth J. Wenger, James T. Peterson, Mary C. Freeman, Byron J. Freeman, D. David Homans
2008, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (65) 1250-1264
We evaluated competing models explaining the occurrence of five stream fishes in an urbanizing watershed to determine the relative importance of (a) impervious surface and other indicators of current land use, (b) historic land use (e.g., agriculture, impoundments), and (c) hydrogeomorphic characteristics (e.g., stream size, elevation, geology). For four of...
Concentrations of metals in blood and feathers of nestling ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) in Chesapeake and Delaware Bays
Barnett A. Rattner, N. H. Golden, P. C. Toschik, P. C. McGowan, T. W. Custer
2008, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (54) 114-122
In 2000, 2001, and 2002, blood and feather samples were collected from 40–45-day-old nestling ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) from Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay and River. Concentrations of 18 metals, metalloids, and other elements were determined in these samples by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy, and Hg concentrations were measured by cold...
Sediment ingestion rates in waterfowl (Anatidae) and their use in environmental risk assessment
W. Nelson Beyer, Matthew C. Perry, Peter C. Osenton
2008, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (4) 246-251
When waterfowl (Anatidae) ingest sediment as they feed, they are exposed to the environmental contaminants in those sediments. The rate of ingestion may be key to assessing environmental risk. Rates of sediment ingestion were estimated as from <2% to 22% in 16 species of waterfowl collected in the northeastern United...
The Overmyer mastodon (Mammut americanum) from Fulton County, Indiana
Neal Woodman, J. W. Branstrator
2008, American Midland Naturalist (159) 125-146
In June 1978 the partial skeleton of an American mastodon, Mammut americanum, was salvaged from a drainage ditch in Fulton County, north-central Indiana. The remains were recovered mostly from ca. 170–260 cm below the current land surface in marl overlain by peat and peaty marl. The stratigraphy of the site...
Effect of climate fluctuations on long-term vegetation dynamics in Carolina bay wetlands
C.L. Stroh, D. De Steven, G.R. Guntenspergen
2008, Wetlands (28) 17-27
Carolina bays and similar depression wetlands of the U.S. Southeastern Coastal Plain have hydrologic regimes that are driven primarily by rainfall. Therefore, climate fluctuations such as drought cycles have the potential to shape long-term vegetation dynamics. Models suggest two potential long-term responses to hydrologic fluctuations, either cyclic change...
Winter bird population studies and project prairie birds for surveying grassland birds
D.J. Twedt, P.B. Hamel, M.S. Woodrey
2008, Southeastern Naturalist (7) 11-18
We compared 2 survey methods for assessing winter bird communities in temperate grasslands: Winter Bird Population Study surveys are area-searches that have long been used in a variety of habitats whereas Project Prairie Bird surveys employ active-flushing techniques on strip-transects and are intended for use in grasslands. We used...
