Hanging out at the airport: Unusual upside-down perching behavior by Eurasian Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) in a human-dominated environment
Todd E. Katzner
2016, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (128) 926-930
Animals occupying human-dominated environments show the capacity for behavioral flexibility. Corvids are among the most intelligent synanthropic bird species. During a layover at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, I photographically documented Eurasian Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) perching upside down from a building cornice. In contrast to other reports of hanging birds,...
Evolutionary traps as keys to understanding behavioral maladaptation
Bruce A. Robertson, Anna Chalfoun
2016, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (12) 12-17
Evolutionary traps are severe cases of behavioral maladaptation that occur when, due to human activity, the cues animals use to guide their behavior become uncoupled from their fitness consequences. The result is that animals can prefer the most dangerous resources or behaviors, even when better options are available. Traps are...
Revisiting human-environment interactions in Chaco Canyon and the American Southwest
Julio L. Betancourt, Christopher H. Guiterman
2016, Past Global Changes (24) 64-65
Chaco Canyon was the center of a regionally integrated system. Despite a century of research, questions remain about its rise and fall, and the role of human-environment interactions. The answers may lie in current events and new tools and perspectives....
Accurate recapture identification for genetic mark–recapture studies with error-tolerant likelihood-based match calling and sample clustering
Suresh Sethi, Daniel Linden, John Wenburg, Cara Lewis, Patrick R. Lemons, Angela K. Fuller, Matthew P. Hare
2016, Royal Society Open Science (3) 1-14
Error-tolerant likelihood-based match calling presents a promising technique to accurately identify recapture events in genetic mark–recapture studies by combining probabilities of latent genotypes and probabilities of observed genotypes, which may contain genotyping errors. Combined with clustering algorithms to group samples into sets of recaptures based upon pairwise match calls, these...
Timing of spring wild turkey hunting in relation to nest incubation
Mary Jo Casalena, Rex Everett, Wendy C. Vreeland, Ian D. Gregg, Duane R. Diefenbach
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the National Wild Turkey Symposium
State wildlife agencies are often requested to open spring wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo; hereafter, turkey) hunting seasons earlier to increase hunter satisfaction by hunters hearing more gobbling male turkeys. Timing of spring turkey hunting season in several states, including Pennsylvania, has been established to open, on average, near median date...
Structured decision making as a framework for large-scale wildlife harvest management decisions
Kelly F. Robinson, Angela K. Fuller, Jeremy E. Hurst, Bryan L. Swift, Arthur Kirsch, James F. Farquhar, Daniel J. Decker, William F. Siemer
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Fish and wildlife harvest management at large spatial scales often involves making complex decisions with multiple objectives and difficult tradeoffs, population demographics that vary spatially, competing stakeholder values, and uncertainties that might affect management decisions. Structured decision making (SDM) provides a formal decision analytic framework for evaluating difficult decisions by...
Occurrence of triclocarban and triclosan in an agro-ecosystem following application of biosolids
Jessica J. Sherburne, Amanda M. Anaya, Kimberly J. Fernie, Jennifer S. Forbey, Edward T. Furlong, Dana W. Kolpin, Alfred M. Dufty, Chad A. Kinney
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 13206-13214
Triclocarban (TCC) and triclosan (TCS), two of the most commonly used antimicrobial compounds, can be introduced into ecosystems by applying wastewater treatment plant biosolids to agricultural fields. Concentrations of TCC and TCS were measured in different trophic levels within a terrestrial food web encompassing land-applied biosolids, soil, earthworms (Lumbricus), deer...
Semiautomatic mapping of permafrost in the Yukon Flats, Alaska
Mats Lundh Gulbrandsen, Burke J. Minsley, Lyndsay B. Ball, Thomas Mejer Hansen
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 12131-12137
Thawing of permafrost due to global warming can have major impacts on hydrogeological processes, climate feedback, arctic ecology, and local environments. To understand these effects and processes, it is crucial to know the distribution of permafrost. In this study we exploit the fact that airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data are sensitive...
87Sr/86Sr isotope ratio analysis by laser ablation MC-ICP-MS in scales, spines, and fin rays as a nonlethal alternative to otoliths for reconstructing fish life history
Malte Willmes, Justin J. G. Glessner, Scott A. Carleton, Paul C. Gerrity, James A. Hobbs
2016, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (73) 1852-1860
Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) in otoliths are a well-established tool to determine origins and movement patterns of fish. However, otolith extraction requires sacrificing fish, and when working with protected or endangered species, the use of nonlethal samples such as scales, spines, and fin rays is preferred. Unlike otoliths that are...
Dog days of summer: Influences on decision of wolves to move pups
David E. Ausband, Michael S. Mitchell, Sarah B. Bassing, Matthew Nordhagen, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler
2016, Journal of Mammalogy (97) 1282-1287
For animals that forage widely, protecting young from predation can span relatively long time periods due to the inability of young to travel with and be protected by their parents. Moving relatively immobile young to improve access to important resources, limit detection of concentrated scent by predators, and decrease infestations...
The Chuar Petroleum System, Arizona and Utah
Paul G. Lillis
2016, Book chapter, Hydrocarbon source rocks in unconventional plays, Rocky Mountain Region
The Neoproterozoic Chuar Group consists of marine mudstone, sandstone and dolomitic strata divided into the Galeros and Kwagunt Formations, and is exposed only in the eastern Grand Canyon, Arizona. Research by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in the late 1980s identified strata within the group to be possible petroleum source...
Susceptibility of ocean- and stream-type Chinook salmon to isolates of the L, U, and M genogroups of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV)
Daniel Hernandez, Maureen K. Purcell, Carolyn S. Friedman, Gael Kurath
2016, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (121) 15-28
This study examined the susceptibility of Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha to viral strains from the L, U, and M genogroups of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) present in western North America. The goal of this investigation was to establish a baseline understanding of the susceptibility of ocean- and stream-type Chinook...
Historical reconstructions of California wildfires vary by data source
Alexandra D. Syphard, Jon E. Keeley
2016, International Journal of Wildland Fire (25) 1221-1227
Historical data are essential for understanding how fire activity responds to different drivers. It is important that the source of data is commensurate with the spatial and temporal scale of the question addressed, but fire history databases are derived from different sources with different restrictions. In California, a frequently used...
Application of ground penetrating radar for identification of washover deposits and other stratigraphic features: Assateague Island, MD
Nicholas Zaremba, Christopher G. Smith, Julie Bernier, Arnell S. Forde
2016, Journal of Environmental & Engineering Geophysics (21) 173-186
A combination of ground penetrating radar (GPR) data, core data, and aerial photographs were analyzed to better understand the evolution of two portions of Assateague Island, Maryland. The focus of the study was to investigate the applicability of using GPR data to image washover deposits in the stratigraphic record. High...
Evolution of the Lower Tertiary Elko Lake Basin, a potential hydrocarbon source rock in Northeast Nevada
Ronald C. Johnson, Justin E. Birdwell
Michael P. Dolan, Debra K. Higley, Paul G. Lillis, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Hydrocarbon Source Rocks in Unconventional Plays, Rocky Mountain Region
No abstract available....
Latent spatial models and sampling design for landscape genetics
Ephraim M. Hanks, Mevin Hooten, Steven T. Knick, Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Jennifer A. Fike, Todd B. Cross, Michael K. Schwartz
2016, Annals of Applied Statistics (10) 1041-1062
We propose a spatially-explicit approach for modeling genetic variation across space and illustrate how this approach can be used to optimize spatial prediction and sampling design for landscape genetic data. We propose a multinomial data model for categorical microsatellite allele data commonly used in landscape genetic studies, and introduce a...
Reinforcement and validation of the analyses and conclusions related to fishway evaluation data from Bunt et al.: ‘Performance of fish passage structures at upstream barriers to migration’
C.M. Bunt, Theodore R. Castro-Santos, Alexander Haro
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 2125-2137
Detailed re-examination of the datasets that were used for a meta-analysis of fishway attraction and passage revealed a number of errors that we addressed and corrected. We subsequently re-analysed the revised dataset, and results showed no significant changes in the primary conclusions of the original study; for most species, effective...
Bayesian analysis of Jolly-Seber type models
Eleni Matechou, Geoff K. Nicholls, Byron J. T. Morgan, Jaime A. Collazo, James E. Lyons
2016, Environmental and Ecological Statistics (23) 531-547
We propose the use of finite mixtures of continuous distributions in modelling the process by which new individuals, that arrive in groups, become part of a wildlife population. We demonstrate this approach using a data set of migrating semipalmated sandpipers (Calidris pussila) for which we extend existing stopover...
Climate change and the Delta
Michael D. Dettinger, Jamie Anderson, Michael L. Anderson, Larry R. Brown, Daniel Cayan, Edwin P. Maurer
2016, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (14) 1-26
Anthropogenic climate change amounts to a rapidly approaching, “new” stressor in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta system. In response to California’s extreme natural hydroclimatic variability, complex water-management systems have been developed, even as the Delta’s natural ecosystems have been largely devastated. Climate change is projected to challenge these management and ecological...
White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) subsidize gray wolves (Canis lupus) during a moose (Alces americanus) decline: A case of apparent competition?
Shannon Barber-Meyer, L. David Mech
2016, Canadian Field-Naturalist (130) 308-314
Moose (Alces americanus) in northeastern Minnesota have declined by 55% since 2006. Although the cause is unresolved, some studies have suggested that Gray Wolves (Canis lupus) contributed to the decline. After the Moose decline, wolves could either decline or switch prey. To determine which occurred in our study area, we...
Increased prevalence of antibiotic-resistant E. coli in gulls sampled in southcentral Alaska is associated with urban environments
Clara Atterby, Andrew M. Ramey, Gabriel Gustafsson Hall, Josef Jarhult, Stefan Borjesson, Jonas Bonnedahl
2016, Infection Ecology and Epidemiology (6) 1-7
BackgroundAntibiotic-resistant bacteria pose challenges to healthcare delivery systems globally; however, limited information is available regarding the prevalence and spread of such bacteria in the environment. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in large-bodied gulls (Larus spp.) at urban...
Survival and metamorphosis of larval sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) residing in Lakes Michigan and Huron near river mouths
Nicholas S. Johnson, Travis O. Brenden, William D. Swink, Mathew A. Lipps
2016, Journal of Great Lakes Research (42) 1461-1469
Although population demographics of larval lampreys in streams have been studied extensively, demographics in lake environments have not. Here, we estimated survival and rates of metamorphosis for larval sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) populations residing in the Great Lakes near river mouths (hereafter termed lentic areas). Tagged larvae were stocked and...
Trace elements at the intersection of marine biological and geochemical evolution
Leslie J. Robbins, Stefan V. Lalonde, Noah J. Planavsky, Camille A. Partin, Christopher T. Reinhard, Brian Kendall, Clint Scott, Dalton S. Hardisty, Benjamin C. Gill, Daniel S. Alessi, Christopher L. Dupont, Mak A. Saito, Sean A. Crowe, Simon W. Poulton, Andrey Bekker, Timothy W. Lyons, Kurt O. Konhauser
2016, Earth-Science Reviews (163) 323-348
Life requires a wide variety of bioessential trace elements to act as structural components and reactive centers in metalloenzymes. These requirements differ between organisms and have evolved over geological time, likely guided in some part by environmental conditions. Until recently, most of what was understood regarding trace element concentrations in...
Complete genome sequence of a novel aquareovirus that infects the endangered fountain darter, Etheostoma fonticola
Luke R. Iwanowicz, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Cynthia R. Adams, Teresa D. Lewis, Thomas M. Brandt, Robert S. Cornman, Lakyn R. Sanders
2016, Genome Announcements (4)
Here, we report the complete genome of a novel aquareovirus isolated from clinically normal fountain darters, Etheostoma fonticola, inhabiting the San Marcos River, Texas, USA. The complete genome consists of 23,958 bp consisting of 11 segments that range from 783 bp (S11) to 3,866 bp (S1)....
A biographical memoir of Donald Edward White
L.J. Patrick Muffler
2016, Article
Donald E. White was a leading scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey, where his career was devoted almost entirely to the study of hydrothermal processes in the Earth’s crust, from the dual perspectives of active geothermal systems and of extinct hydrothermal systems now represented only by ore deposits and alteration...
