The value of information for woodland management: Updating a state–transition model
William K. Morris, Michael C. Runge, Peter A. Vesk
2017, Ecosphere (8) 1-12
Value of information (VOI) analyses reveal the expected benefit of reducing uncertainty to a decision maker. Most ecological VOI analyses have focused on population models rarely addressing more complex community models. We performed a VOI analysis for a complex state–transition model of Box-Ironbark Forest and Woodland management. With three management...
Vaccine effects on heterogeneity in susceptibility and implications for population health management
Kate E. Langwig, Andrew R. Wargo, Darbi R. Jones, Jessie R. Viss, Barbara J. Rutan, Nicholas A. Egan, Pedro Sa-Guimaraes, Min Sun Kim, Gael Kurath, M. Gabriela M. Gomes, Marc Lipsitch
Shweta Bansal, Melinda M. Pettigrew, editor(s)
2017, mBio (8) 1-13
Heterogeneity in host susceptibility is a key determinant of infectious disease dynamics but is rarely accounted for in assessment of disease control measures. Understanding how susceptibility is distributed in populations, and how control measures change this distribution, is integral to predicting the course of epidemics with and without interventions. Using...
An expert elicitation process to project the frequency and magnitude of Florida manatee mortality events caused by red tide (Karenia brevis)
Julien Martin, Michael C. Runge, Leanne J. Flewelling, Charles J. Deutsch, Jan H. Landsberg
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1132
Red tides (blooms of the harmful alga Karenia brevis) are one of the major sources of mortality for the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris), especially in southwest Florida. It has been hypothesized that the frequency and severity of red tides may increase in the future because of global climate...
Suitability of river delta sediment as proppant, Missouri and Niobrara Rivers, Nebraska and South Dakota, 2015
Ronald B. Zelt, Christopher M. Hobza, Bethany L. Burton, Nathaniel J. Schaepe, Nadine M. Piatak
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5105
Sediment management is a challenge faced by reservoir managers who have several potential options, including dredging, for mitigation of storage capacity lost to sedimentation. As sediment is removed from reservoir storage, potential use of the sediment for socioeconomic or ecological benefit could potentially defray some costs of its removal. Rivers...
Geoelectric monitoring at the Boulder magnetic observatory
Cletus Blum, Tim White, Edward A. Sauter, Duff Stewart, Paul A. Bedrosian, Jeffrey J. Love
2017, Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems (6) 447-452
Despite its importance to a range of applied and fundamental studies, and obvious parallels to a robust network of magnetic-field observatories, long-term geoelectric field monitoring is rarely performed. The installation of a new geoelectric monitoring system at the Boulder magnetic observatory of the US Geological Survey is summarized. Data from...
Grooming behaviors of black-tailed prairie dogs are influenced by flea parasitism, conspecifics, and proximity to refuge
David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins, Samantha L. Eads
2017, Ethology (123) 924-932
Grooming is a common animal behavior that aids in ectoparasite defense. Ectoparasites can stimulate grooming, and natural selection can also favor endogenous mechanisms that evoke periodic bouts of “programmed” grooming to dislodge or kill ectoparasites before they bite or feed. Moreover, grooming can function as a displacement or communication behavior....
No evidence of critical slowing down in two endangered Hawaiian honeycreepers
Jessica C. Rozek, Richard J. Camp, J. Michael Reed
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-18
There is debate about the current population trends and predicted short-term fates of the endangered forest birds, Hawai`i Creeper (Loxops mana) and Hawai`i `Ākepa (L. coccineus). Using long-term population size estimates, some studies report forest bird populations as stable or increasing, while other studies report signs of population decline or impending...
Safari Science: Assessing the reliability of citizen science data for wildlife surveys
Cara Steger, Bilal Butt, Mevin Hooten
2017, Journal of Applied Ecology (54) 2053-2062
Protected areas are the cornerstone of global conservation, yet financial support for basic monitoring infrastructure is lacking in 60% of them. Citizen science holds potential to address these shortcomings in wildlife monitoring, particularly for resource-limited conservation initiatives in developing countries – if we can account for the...
Sediment deposition and sources into a Mississippi River floodplain lake; Catahoula Lake, Louisiana
Karen D. Latuso, Richard F. Keim, Sammy L. King, David C. Weindorf, Ronald D. DeLaune
2017, Catena (156) 290-297
Floodplain lakes are important wetlands on many lowland floodplains of the world but depressional floodplain lakes are rare in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley. One of the largest is Catahoula Lake, which has existed with seasonally fluctuating water levels for several thousand years but is now in an increasingly hydrologically...
Home range, den selection and habitat use of Carolina northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus)
Corinne A. Diggins, Alexander Silvis, Christine A. Kelly, W. Mark Ford
2017, Wildlife Research (44) 427-237
Context: Understanding habitat selection is important for determining conservation and management strategies for endangered species. The Carolina northern flying squirrel (CNFS; Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus) is an endangered subspecies found in the high-elevation montane forests of the southern Appalachians, USA. The primary use of nest boxes to monitor CNFS has provided...
Before and after retrofit behavior and performance of a 55-story tall building inferred from distant earthquake and ambient vibration data
Mehmet Celebi, Toshihide Kashima, S. Farid Ghahari, Shin Koyama, Ertuğrul Taciroğlu, Izuru Okawa
2017, Earthquake Spectra (33) 1599-1626
A sparsely instrumented 55-story building in Osaka, Japan had recorded unprecedented, severe and long-duration long-period resonating responses during the March 11, 2011 M9.0 Tohoku earthquake that occurred at 767 km distance. Thereafter, studies of the records resulted in implementation of a significant retrofit design, comprising dampers and buckling restrained braces...
Before and after retrofit behavior and performance of a 55-story tall building inferred from distant earthquake and ambient vibration data
Mehmet Celebi, Toshihide Kashima, S. F. Ghahari, Shin Koyama, Ertugrul Tacirogle, Izuru Okawa
2017, Earthquake Spectra (33) 1599-1626
A sparsely instrumented 55-story building in Osaka, Japan, had recorded unprecedented, severe, and long-duration, long-period resonating responses during the 11 March 2011 M9.0 Tohoku earthquake that occurred at 767 km distance. Thereafter, studies of the records resulted in the implementation of a significant retrofit design, comprising dampers and buckling restrained...
Characteristics and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of the Erdenet Cu-Mo deposit, Mongolia
Imants Kavalieris, Bat-Erdene Khashgerel, Leah E. Morgan, Alexander Undrakhtamir, Adiya Borohul
2017, Economic Geology (112) 1033-1053
The Early to Middle Triassic Erdenet porphyry Cu-Mo deposit, in northern Mongolia, developed in a continent-continent arc collision zone, within the Central Asian orogenic belt. The porphyry system is related to multiple intrusions of crystal-crowded biotite granodiorite porphyry, which formed a composite stock about 900 m in diameter, with...
Crotalus oreganus lutosus (Great Basin Rattlesnake). Defensive behavior/head hiding and tongue display
Alexander K. Johnson, Phil A. Medica
2017, Herpetological Review (48) 209-210
A variety of snake species employ head hiding as defensive behavior (Greene 1973. J. Herpetol. 7:143–161), but such behavior seems to be rarely observed in rattlesnakes. A recent report (Medica 2009. Herpetol. Rev. 40:95–97) presented observations on Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus and cited cases of similar behavior involving C. atrox, C....
Polar bear attacks on humans: Implications of a changing climate
James Wilder, Dag Vongraven, Todd C. Atwood, Bob Hansen, Amalie Jessen, Anatoly A. Kochnev, Geoff York, Rachel Vallender, Daryll Hedman, Melissa Gibbons
2017, Wildlife Society Bulletin (41) 537-547
Understanding causes of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) attacks on humans is critical to ensuring both human safety and polar bear conservation. Although considerable attention has been focused on understanding black (U. americanus) and grizzly (U. arctos) bear conflicts with humans, there have been few attempts to systematically collect, analyze, and...
Applying citizen-science data and mark-recapture models to estimate numbers of migrant golden eagles in an important bird area in eastern North America
Andrew J. Dennhardt, Adam E. Duerr, David Brandes, Todd E. Katzner
2017, The Condor (119) 817-831
Estimates of population abundance are important to wildlife management and conservation. However, it can be difficult to characterize the numbers of broadly distributed, low-density, and elusive bird species. Although Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) are rare, difficult to detect, and broadly distributed, they are concentrated during their autumn migration at monitoring...
Geographic variation in host fish use and larval metamorphosis for the endangered dwarf wedgemussel
Barbara St. John White, C. Paola Ferreri, William A. Lellis, Barry J. Wicklow, Jeffrey C. Cole
2017, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (27) 909-918
Host fishes play a crucial role in survival and dispersal of freshwater mussels (Unionoida), particularly rare unionids at conservation risk. Intraspecific variation in host use is not well understood for many mussels, including the endangered dwarf wedgemussel (Alasmidonta heterodon) in the USA.Host suitability of 33 fish...
A newly identified role of the deciduous forest floor in the timing of green‐up
Andrei G Lapenis, Gregory B. Lawrence, Alexander Buyantuev, Shiguo Jiang, Timothy J. Sullivan, Todd C. McDonnell, Scott W. Bailey
2017, JGR: Biogeosciences (122) 2876-2891
Plant phenology studies rarely consider controlling factors other than air temperature. We evaluate here the potential significance of physical and chemical properties of soil (edaphic factors) as additional important controls on phenology. More specifically, we investigate causal connections between satellite‐observed green‐up dates of small forest watersheds and soil properties in...
Phylogenetic distribution of a male pheromone that may exploit a nonsexual preference in lampreys
Tyler J. Buchinger, Ugo Bussy, Ke Li, Huiyong Wang, Mar Huertas, Cindy F. Baker, Liang Jia, Michael C. Hayes, Weiming Li, Nicholas S. Johnson
2017, Journal of Evolutionary Biology (30) 2244-2254
Pheromones are among the most important sexual signals used by organisms throughout the animal kingdom. However, few are identified in vertebrates, leaving the evolutionary mechanisms underlying vertebrate pheromones poorly understood. Pre-existing biases in receivers’ perceptual systems shape visual and auditory signaling systems, but studies on how receiver biases influence the...
Evaluating upstream passage and timing of approach by adult bigheaded carps at a gated dam on the Illinois River
Matthew Lubejko, Greg Whitledge, Alison A. Coulter, Marybeth K. Brey, Devon Oliver, James E. Garvey
2017, River Research and Applications (33) 1268-1278
Dams are a conservation threat because they function as barriers to native fish movement; however, they may prevent the spread of invasive species. Invasive bigheaded carps (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) threaten the Great Lakes ecosystem and are advancing towards Lake Michigan via the Illinois River. Navigation dams on the Illinois River may deter...
Viability analysis for multiple populations
Seth J. Wenger, Douglas R. Leasure, Daniel C. Dauwalter, Mary M. Peacock, Jason B. Dunham, Nathan Chelgren, Helen M. Neville
2017, Biological Conservation (216) 69-77
Many species of conservation interest exist solely or largely in isolated populations. Ideally, prioritization of management actions among such populations would be guided by quantitative estimates of extinction risk, but conventional methods of demographic population viability analysis (PVA) model each population separately and require temporally extensive datasets that are rarely...
Spatial early warning signals in a lake manipulation
Vince L. Butitta, Stephen R. Carpenter, Luke C. Loken, Michael L. Pace, Emily H. Stanley
2017, Ecosphere (8) 1-11
Rapid changes in state have been documented for many of Earth's ecosystems. Despite a growing toolbox of methods for detecting declining resilience or early warning indicators (EWIs) of ecosystem transitions, these methods have rarely been evaluated in whole-ecosystem trials using reference ecosystems. In this study, we experimentally tested EWIs of...
Short-term and long-term evapotranspiration rates at ecological restoration sites along a large river receiving rare flow events
Margaret Shanafield, Hugo Gutierrez Jurado, Jesus Eliana Rodriguez Burgueno, Jorge Ramirez Hernandez, Christopher Jarchow, Pamela L. Nagler
2017, Hydrological Processes (31) 4328-4337
Many large rivers around the world no longer flow to their deltas, due to ever greater water withdrawals and diversions for human needs. However, the importance of riparian ecosystems is drawing increasing recognition, leading to the allocation of environmental flows to restore river processes. Accurate estimates of riparian plant evapotranspiration...
Rafinesque's Sicilian whale, Balena gastrytis
Neal Woodman, James G. Mead
2017, Archives of Natural History (44) 229-240
In 1815, the naturalist Constantine S. Rafinesque described a new species of cetacean, Balena gastrytis, from Sicily, based on a whale that stranded on Carini beach near Palermo. In comparing the characteristics of his new whale with known species, Rafinesque also took the opportunity to name a new genus, Cetoptera,...
New insight into the origin of manganese oxide ore deposits in the Appalachian Valley and Ridge of northeastern Tennessee and northern Virginia, USA
Sarah K. Carmichael, Daniel H. Doctor, Crystal G. Wilson, Joshua Feierstein, Ryan J. McAleer
2017, GSA Bulletin (129) 1158-1180
Manganese oxide deposits have long been observed in association with carbonates within the Appalachian Mountains, but their origin has remained enigmatic for well over a century. Ore deposits of Mn oxides from several productive sites located in eastern Tennessee and northern Virginia display morphologies that include botryoidal and branching forms,...
