The Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus; LEPC) is an iconic North American prairie... more The Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus; LEPC) is an iconic North American prairie grouse, renowned for ornate and spectacular breeding season displays. Unfortunately, the species has disappeared across much of its historical range, with corresponding precipitous declines in contemporary population abundance, largely due to climatic and anthropogenic factors. These declines led to a 2022 US Fish and Wildlife decision to identify and list two distinct population segments (DPSs; i.e., northern and southern DPSs) as threatened or endangered under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Herein, we describe an annotated reference genome that was generated from a LEPC sample collected from the southern DPS. We chose a representative from the southern DPS because of the potential for introgression in the northern DPS, where some populations hybridize with the Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido). This new LEPC reference assembly consists of 206 scaffolds, an N50 of 45 Mb, a...
Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a species of conservation concern and is highl... more Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a species of conservation concern and is highly susceptible to mortality from West Nile virus (WNV). Culex tarsalis, a mosquito species, is the suspected primary vector for transmitting WNV to sage-grouse. We captured, radio-tagged, and monitored female sage-grouse to estimate breeding season (April 15 to September 15) survival, 2016–2017. Deceased sage-grouse were tested for active WNV; live-captured and hunter-harvested sage-grouse were tested for WNV antibody titers. Additionally, we trapped mosquitoes with CO2-baited traps 4 nights per week (542 trap nights) to estimate WNV minimum infection rate (MIR). Eight sage-grouse mortalities occurred during the WNV seasons of 2016 and 2017, 5 had recoverable tissue, and 1 of 5 tested positive for WNV infection. Survival varied temporally with sage-grouse biological seasons, not WNV seasonality. Survival was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.56–0.78; n = 74) during the reproductive season (April 1 to Septe...
Conservation of wildlife depends on an understanding of the interactions between animal movements... more Conservation of wildlife depends on an understanding of the interactions between animal movements and key landscape factors. Habitat requirements of wide‐ranging species often vary spatially, but quantitative assessment of variation among replicated studies at multiple sites is rare. We investigated patterns of space use for 10 populations of two closely related species of prairie grouse: Greater Prairie‐Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) and Lesser Prairie‐Chickens (T. pallidicinctus). Prairie chickens require large, intact tracts of native grasslands, and are umbrella species for conservation of prairie ecosystems in North America. We used resource utilization functions to investigate space use by female prairie chickens during the 6‐month breeding season from March through August in relation to lek sites, habitat conditions, and anthropogenic development. Our analysis included data from 382 radio‐marked individuals across a major portion of the extant range. Our project is a unique op...
Mnomen or wild rice of the genus Zizania is an important part of Native American culture, especia... more Mnomen or wild rice of the genus Zizania is an important part of Native American culture, especially in Michigan for the Ojibwe nation. An oil spill in 2010 along the Kalamazoo River and the subsequent clean-up lead to renewed interest in management of Mnomen within the Kalamazoo watershed. The affected water bodies were surveyed for Zizania species to map existing populations, determine the existing genetic diversity and species present, and to identify potential hybridization. Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge of rice beds and opportunistic sampling of encountered plants, 28 rice beds were sampled. Two species of Zizania were identified Z. palustris and Z. aquatica. Genetic diversity was measured using 11 microsatellite loci and was moderately high for both species (Z. aquatica HE = 0.669, H0 = 0.672, n = 26 and Z. palustris HE = 0.697, H0 = 0.636, n = 57). No evidence of population bottle-necking was found. Z. palustris was found to have k = 3 populations on the landscape, w...
One of the major threats to tropical forests throughout the world is the frequency and intensity ... more One of the major threats to tropical forests throughout the world is the frequency and intensity with which local people use forests for subsistence. Kakamega Forest in Kenya is one such forest, in which fuelwood harvest is a primary use. The Kenya Forest Service and Kenya Wildlife Service have tried to regulate subsistence harvesting in this forest. However, high human population density (c. 542 people per km2) and extreme poverty leave local people little choice but to use forest resources to survive. We investigated patterns of wood use by people across Kakamega Forest. Our results indicate that wood harvesters prefer indigenous as opposed to non-indigenous wood, as the former sells for a premium price. Harungana madagascariensis and Psidium guajava were the most harvested indigenous and non-indigenous woods, respectively. Our data suggest that because market economies seem to drive forest use, perhaps they can be used to incentivize forest conservation. Proper integration of eco...
P opulations, communities, and ecosystem functions all rise and fall through time in accordance w... more P opulations, communities, and ecosystem functions all rise and fall through time in accordance with seasonal patterns, year-to-year changes in weather, and regulation through internal processes like predator-prey cycles (Levin 1992). These patterns, which we refer to as temporal variability, may also be influenced by human activities. Temporal variability that becomes exaggerated (ie higher peaks and lower lows) increases the risk for local extinction of animal and plant populations (Heino et al. 1997; Schindler et al. 2010), as well as outbreaks of pests and disease vectors (Bolker and Grenfell 1996; Sabo 2005). Similarly, socioeconomic systems can be impacted by unexpected temporal variability, particularly when these fluctuations occur at large spatial scales. For example, a particularly bad year for fisheries production can reduce food security and result in unsustainable harvests (Badjeck et al. 2010; Moore and Schindler 2010). Likewise, greater unreliability of pollinator services can heighten the risk of crop failure in bad years (Slingo et al. 2005; Ray et al. 2015). Understanding the drivers of temporal variability in spatially structured ecosystems is therefore critically important for both conservation planning and sustaining human livelihoods and economies. Improving knowledge about temporal variability requires consideration of how drivers interact directly and indirectly with one another across spatial scales. The emerging subdiscipline of macrosystems ecology explicitly focuses on the study of ecological dynamics at large scales, with patterns being driven by multiple factors that interact across scales (Heffernan et al. 2014). Empirical evidence suggests that temporal variability can be influenced by local and regional factors (Tilman and Downing 1994; Schindler et al. 2010), and there is growing consensus that cross-scale interactions are also important for understanding variability (Wang and Loreau 2014; Wilcox et al. 2017). For example, the Moran theorem suggests that largescale synchronous environmental fluctuations lead to largescale synchronous fluctuations in population abundance (Moran 1953). Synchronized subpopulations in a connected system may be more vulnerable to punctuated natural or anthropogenic disturbances (Wang and Loreau 2014). Here, we review the literature on drivers of temporal variability at multiple scales, identify testable hypotheses (Table 1), and provide new evidence from our own analyses. Our purpose is to illustrate how progress can be made to understand the drivers
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are increasingly used for spatiotemporal monitoring of invasive pl... more Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are increasingly used for spatiotemporal monitoring of invasive plants in coastal wetlands. Early identification of invasive species is necessary in planning, restoring, and managing wetlands. This study assessed the effectiveness of UAV technology to identify invasive Phragmites australis in the Old Woman Creek (OWC) estuary using machine learning (ML) algorithms: Neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM), and k-nearest neighbor (kNN). The ML algorithms were compared with the parametric maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) using pixel- and object-based methods. Pixel-based NN was identified as the best classifier with an overall accuracy of 94.80% and the lowest error of omission of 1.59%, the outcome desirable for effective eradication of Phragmites. The results were reached combining Sequoia multispectral imagery (green, red, red edge, and near-infrared bands) combined with the canopy height model (CHM) acquired in the mid-growing season and ...
SDRP Journal of Earth Sciences & Environmental Studies, 2019
, The influence on annual variation and seasonal turnover of plant communities in hybrid ecosyste... more , The influence on annual variation and seasonal turnover of plant communities in hybrid ecosystems on metrics of biodiversity: implications for herbaceous vegetation sampling design(2019) SDRP Journal of Earth Sciences & Environmental Studies 4(2) ABSTRACT Background: Most researchers recognize and account for annual and seasonal turnover of herbaceous vegetation in sampling protocols, but few have evaluated and quantified these effects and even fewer have evaluated these effects in hybrid ecosystems. We analyzed annual and seasonal turnover in herbaceous vegetation diversity in grassland reserves, ditches, and field margins in northwest, Ohio. Methods: We sampled 33 sites in 2016 and 61 sites in 2017 with 21 sites sampled in both years. The pointintercept method was used to identify species presence along either side of two 10 meter transects. Site similarity was characterized using the Jaccard similarity index. Annual variation was analyzed via a z-test, to test the difference of similarity from complete similarity. Seasonal variation was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Results: We identified 139 species in 2016 (54% native and 46% nonnative) and 154 species in 2017 (57% native and 43% nonnative). We identified 93 species (52% native and 48% nonnative) both in 2016 and in 2017. We found a significant difference in annual site similarity (P < 0.01), and a significant difference in seasonal turnover in 2016 and 2017 between all sampling periods (P < 0.01), except Spring to Summer versus Summer to Fall in 2016 (P ≥ 0.19). Conclusion: Because there is annual and seasonal turnover in species composition, sampling herbaceous vegetation should occur across multi-years and during multi-seasonal sampling bouts to characterize diversity in an ecosystem. Highest diversity levels occurred during the summer (June to July) and could be used to maximize sampling efficiency.
BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access t... more BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.
Land use for energy development is a necessary component of human land use that is prevalent on m... more Land use for energy development is a necessary component of human land use that is prevalent on many landscapes globally. To date, energy demands have primarily been met through the burning of fossil fuels and biofuels in both first and third world countries. Recently new forms of energy development such as wind, solar and geothermal have increased prevalence to meet the ever growing energy demands. In the U.S., energy demands are still primarily met through coal, oil, and gas extraction as well as wind energy in the Midwest and Intermountain West regions. Oil, gas, and wind energy infrastructure is often built at high densities within the Midwest and Intermountain west; and has been attributed to population declines of local wildlife. Due to the considerable overlap in species distribution with oil, gas, and wind energy development, grouse species of the Tympanuchus and Centrocercus genera have particularly impacted. Impacts include disruption to the acoustic environment that they ...
Fragmentation and degraded habitat conditions can result in increased competition for critical re... more Fragmentation and degraded habitat conditions can result in increased competition for critical resources, altered mating systems, and can eventually result in population declines or extinction. We investigated the degree to which habitat degradation and habitat loss impacted the breeding ecology of Greater Prairie-Chickens at 3 study sites across relatively intact grasslands in Kansas, USA. Across all 3 study systems, we found similar rates of multiple mating by females at 14-20% of broods. In addition, we found evidence for facultative nest parasitism of conspecific females. Prairie-chicken females inhabiting more intact and less fragmented landscapes with a higher probability of survival did not engage in parasitic egg laying, whereas~17% of females inhabiting a more fragmented and isolated landscape engaged in parasitic egg laying. Parasitic egg layers tended to be older females that parasitized nests of yearling females. Parasitic egg layers only laid parasitically after an initial nesting attempt failed. Parasitic laying females all renested and hatched their own clutches. When counting parasitically laid eggs, parasitic egg-laying females laid significantly more eggs than nonparasitic egg layers and, as a result, had 25% greater fecundity. This case study across the relatively intact grasslands of Kansas highlights how land use and management can influence adaptive life history traits and population stability. Consequently, understanding these relationships will be essential to developing effective future conservation and management plans for prairie-grouse.
Conservation corridors are a promising intervention to preserve biodiversity, yet most research h... more Conservation corridors are a promising intervention to preserve biodiversity, yet most research has explored corridors in a landscape context different from their intended purpose. This Community Page asks readers to help identify landscapes that will help answer the question: Do corridors work?
1. The potential effects of wind energy development on wildlife have received increased attention... more 1. The potential effects of wind energy development on wildlife have received increased attention over the past decade. In Kansas, optimal sites for wind energy development often overlap with preferred habitats of greater prairie-chickens Tympanuchus cupido. Our goal was to determine whether wind energy development affected survival of female prairie-chickens in a grassland ecosystem, assessing one potential impact of wind on an upland gamebird of conservation concern. We focused primarily on the response of female prairie-chickens to wind energy development because population dynamics of prairie-chickens are primarily determined by female demography. 2. We monitored prairie-chickens at a wind facility in Kansas during a 2-year pre-construction (2007-2008) and a 3-year post-construction period (2009-2011). We used data from 220 radio-marked females to calculate weekly survival and hazard rates. We used cause of death for 81 mortality events to test for changes in the proportion of mortalities attributed to mammalian predators, avian predators and collisions. 3. We observed an unexpected increase in annual survival during the post-construction period (0Á57) compared with the pre-construction period (0Á32). Distance from home range centroid to the nearest wind turbine site had no effect on weekly survival of females. Collision mortality events were rare, and most were associated with fences or transmission lines and not turbine blades. 4. Most female mortality was due to predation (c. 90%). Differences in annual survival were driven by a higher risk of mortality during lekking activity in March and April during the preconstruction period (weekly hazard rate = 0Á050-0Á062) compared with the post-construction period (hazard rate = 0Á012-0Á021). We observed no change in the proportion of mortalities attributed to different causes between the two treatment periods. 5. Synthesis and applications. Development of a wind energy facility had no negative effect on survival of female prairie-chickens. The results of our field study indicate that greater prairie-chickens are less sensitive to wind energy development than lesser prairie-chickens Tympanuchus pallidicinctus and greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus are to oil and gas development. We have strong evidence that survival increased after wind energy development, and hypothesize that energy development affected the local predator community, resulting in an indirect effect of decreased predation risk during the post-construction period.
Ecological corridors are one of the best, and possibly only viable, management tools to maintain ... more Ecological corridors are one of the best, and possibly only viable, management tools to maintain biodiversity at large scales and to allow species, and ecological processes, to track climate change. This document has been assembled as a summary of the best available information about managing these systems. Our aim with this paper is to provide managers with a convenient guidance document and tool to assist in applying scientific management principles to management of corridors. We do not cover issues related to corridor design or political buy in, but focus on how a corridor should be managed once it has been established. The first part of our paper outlines the history and value of ecological corridors. We next describe our methodologies for developing this guidance document. We then summarize the information about the impacts of linear features on corridors and strategies for dealing with them—specifically, we focus on the effects of roads, canals, security fences, and transmissi...
Spatial statistics and experimental design are among the most important topics students in the en... more Spatial statistics and experimental design are among the most important topics students in the environmental and ecological sciences learn and utilize throughout their careers. These topics are also among the most difficult for students to learn, often due to the use of contrived data sets that present simplified and unrealistic scenarios that fail to engage students in higher level thinking. One way to engage students in higher level thinking is to use an inquiry-based pedagogical framework. The use of inquiry as a pedagogical approach should be instinctive for most scientists, as it mimics how science is conducted, yet most instructors continue to use lecture-based, textbook-driven instructional formats. This type of approach is efficient in covering material, but it suffers in its ability to engage students or enhance learning. Using a Bigfoot data set in an inquiry-based framework, students in a cross-listed graduate/undergraduate statistics class learned ordinary least squares ...
The Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus; LEPC) is an iconic North American prairie... more The Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus; LEPC) is an iconic North American prairie grouse, renowned for ornate and spectacular breeding season displays. Unfortunately, the species has disappeared across much of its historical range, with corresponding precipitous declines in contemporary population abundance, largely due to climatic and anthropogenic factors. These declines led to a 2022 US Fish and Wildlife decision to identify and list two distinct population segments (DPSs; i.e., northern and southern DPSs) as threatened or endangered under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Herein, we describe an annotated reference genome that was generated from a LEPC sample collected from the southern DPS. We chose a representative from the southern DPS because of the potential for introgression in the northern DPS, where some populations hybridize with the Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido). This new LEPC reference assembly consists of 206 scaffolds, an N50 of 45 Mb, a...
Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a species of conservation concern and is highl... more Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a species of conservation concern and is highly susceptible to mortality from West Nile virus (WNV). Culex tarsalis, a mosquito species, is the suspected primary vector for transmitting WNV to sage-grouse. We captured, radio-tagged, and monitored female sage-grouse to estimate breeding season (April 15 to September 15) survival, 2016–2017. Deceased sage-grouse were tested for active WNV; live-captured and hunter-harvested sage-grouse were tested for WNV antibody titers. Additionally, we trapped mosquitoes with CO2-baited traps 4 nights per week (542 trap nights) to estimate WNV minimum infection rate (MIR). Eight sage-grouse mortalities occurred during the WNV seasons of 2016 and 2017, 5 had recoverable tissue, and 1 of 5 tested positive for WNV infection. Survival varied temporally with sage-grouse biological seasons, not WNV seasonality. Survival was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.56–0.78; n = 74) during the reproductive season (April 1 to Septe...
Conservation of wildlife depends on an understanding of the interactions between animal movements... more Conservation of wildlife depends on an understanding of the interactions between animal movements and key landscape factors. Habitat requirements of wide‐ranging species often vary spatially, but quantitative assessment of variation among replicated studies at multiple sites is rare. We investigated patterns of space use for 10 populations of two closely related species of prairie grouse: Greater Prairie‐Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) and Lesser Prairie‐Chickens (T. pallidicinctus). Prairie chickens require large, intact tracts of native grasslands, and are umbrella species for conservation of prairie ecosystems in North America. We used resource utilization functions to investigate space use by female prairie chickens during the 6‐month breeding season from March through August in relation to lek sites, habitat conditions, and anthropogenic development. Our analysis included data from 382 radio‐marked individuals across a major portion of the extant range. Our project is a unique op...
Mnomen or wild rice of the genus Zizania is an important part of Native American culture, especia... more Mnomen or wild rice of the genus Zizania is an important part of Native American culture, especially in Michigan for the Ojibwe nation. An oil spill in 2010 along the Kalamazoo River and the subsequent clean-up lead to renewed interest in management of Mnomen within the Kalamazoo watershed. The affected water bodies were surveyed for Zizania species to map existing populations, determine the existing genetic diversity and species present, and to identify potential hybridization. Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge of rice beds and opportunistic sampling of encountered plants, 28 rice beds were sampled. Two species of Zizania were identified Z. palustris and Z. aquatica. Genetic diversity was measured using 11 microsatellite loci and was moderately high for both species (Z. aquatica HE = 0.669, H0 = 0.672, n = 26 and Z. palustris HE = 0.697, H0 = 0.636, n = 57). No evidence of population bottle-necking was found. Z. palustris was found to have k = 3 populations on the landscape, w...
One of the major threats to tropical forests throughout the world is the frequency and intensity ... more One of the major threats to tropical forests throughout the world is the frequency and intensity with which local people use forests for subsistence. Kakamega Forest in Kenya is one such forest, in which fuelwood harvest is a primary use. The Kenya Forest Service and Kenya Wildlife Service have tried to regulate subsistence harvesting in this forest. However, high human population density (c. 542 people per km2) and extreme poverty leave local people little choice but to use forest resources to survive. We investigated patterns of wood use by people across Kakamega Forest. Our results indicate that wood harvesters prefer indigenous as opposed to non-indigenous wood, as the former sells for a premium price. Harungana madagascariensis and Psidium guajava were the most harvested indigenous and non-indigenous woods, respectively. Our data suggest that because market economies seem to drive forest use, perhaps they can be used to incentivize forest conservation. Proper integration of eco...
P opulations, communities, and ecosystem functions all rise and fall through time in accordance w... more P opulations, communities, and ecosystem functions all rise and fall through time in accordance with seasonal patterns, year-to-year changes in weather, and regulation through internal processes like predator-prey cycles (Levin 1992). These patterns, which we refer to as temporal variability, may also be influenced by human activities. Temporal variability that becomes exaggerated (ie higher peaks and lower lows) increases the risk for local extinction of animal and plant populations (Heino et al. 1997; Schindler et al. 2010), as well as outbreaks of pests and disease vectors (Bolker and Grenfell 1996; Sabo 2005). Similarly, socioeconomic systems can be impacted by unexpected temporal variability, particularly when these fluctuations occur at large spatial scales. For example, a particularly bad year for fisheries production can reduce food security and result in unsustainable harvests (Badjeck et al. 2010; Moore and Schindler 2010). Likewise, greater unreliability of pollinator services can heighten the risk of crop failure in bad years (Slingo et al. 2005; Ray et al. 2015). Understanding the drivers of temporal variability in spatially structured ecosystems is therefore critically important for both conservation planning and sustaining human livelihoods and economies. Improving knowledge about temporal variability requires consideration of how drivers interact directly and indirectly with one another across spatial scales. The emerging subdiscipline of macrosystems ecology explicitly focuses on the study of ecological dynamics at large scales, with patterns being driven by multiple factors that interact across scales (Heffernan et al. 2014). Empirical evidence suggests that temporal variability can be influenced by local and regional factors (Tilman and Downing 1994; Schindler et al. 2010), and there is growing consensus that cross-scale interactions are also important for understanding variability (Wang and Loreau 2014; Wilcox et al. 2017). For example, the Moran theorem suggests that largescale synchronous environmental fluctuations lead to largescale synchronous fluctuations in population abundance (Moran 1953). Synchronized subpopulations in a connected system may be more vulnerable to punctuated natural or anthropogenic disturbances (Wang and Loreau 2014). Here, we review the literature on drivers of temporal variability at multiple scales, identify testable hypotheses (Table 1), and provide new evidence from our own analyses. Our purpose is to illustrate how progress can be made to understand the drivers
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are increasingly used for spatiotemporal monitoring of invasive pl... more Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are increasingly used for spatiotemporal monitoring of invasive plants in coastal wetlands. Early identification of invasive species is necessary in planning, restoring, and managing wetlands. This study assessed the effectiveness of UAV technology to identify invasive Phragmites australis in the Old Woman Creek (OWC) estuary using machine learning (ML) algorithms: Neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM), and k-nearest neighbor (kNN). The ML algorithms were compared with the parametric maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) using pixel- and object-based methods. Pixel-based NN was identified as the best classifier with an overall accuracy of 94.80% and the lowest error of omission of 1.59%, the outcome desirable for effective eradication of Phragmites. The results were reached combining Sequoia multispectral imagery (green, red, red edge, and near-infrared bands) combined with the canopy height model (CHM) acquired in the mid-growing season and ...
SDRP Journal of Earth Sciences & Environmental Studies, 2019
, The influence on annual variation and seasonal turnover of plant communities in hybrid ecosyste... more , The influence on annual variation and seasonal turnover of plant communities in hybrid ecosystems on metrics of biodiversity: implications for herbaceous vegetation sampling design(2019) SDRP Journal of Earth Sciences & Environmental Studies 4(2) ABSTRACT Background: Most researchers recognize and account for annual and seasonal turnover of herbaceous vegetation in sampling protocols, but few have evaluated and quantified these effects and even fewer have evaluated these effects in hybrid ecosystems. We analyzed annual and seasonal turnover in herbaceous vegetation diversity in grassland reserves, ditches, and field margins in northwest, Ohio. Methods: We sampled 33 sites in 2016 and 61 sites in 2017 with 21 sites sampled in both years. The pointintercept method was used to identify species presence along either side of two 10 meter transects. Site similarity was characterized using the Jaccard similarity index. Annual variation was analyzed via a z-test, to test the difference of similarity from complete similarity. Seasonal variation was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Results: We identified 139 species in 2016 (54% native and 46% nonnative) and 154 species in 2017 (57% native and 43% nonnative). We identified 93 species (52% native and 48% nonnative) both in 2016 and in 2017. We found a significant difference in annual site similarity (P < 0.01), and a significant difference in seasonal turnover in 2016 and 2017 between all sampling periods (P < 0.01), except Spring to Summer versus Summer to Fall in 2016 (P ≥ 0.19). Conclusion: Because there is annual and seasonal turnover in species composition, sampling herbaceous vegetation should occur across multi-years and during multi-seasonal sampling bouts to characterize diversity in an ecosystem. Highest diversity levels occurred during the summer (June to July) and could be used to maximize sampling efficiency.
BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access t... more BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.
Land use for energy development is a necessary component of human land use that is prevalent on m... more Land use for energy development is a necessary component of human land use that is prevalent on many landscapes globally. To date, energy demands have primarily been met through the burning of fossil fuels and biofuels in both first and third world countries. Recently new forms of energy development such as wind, solar and geothermal have increased prevalence to meet the ever growing energy demands. In the U.S., energy demands are still primarily met through coal, oil, and gas extraction as well as wind energy in the Midwest and Intermountain West regions. Oil, gas, and wind energy infrastructure is often built at high densities within the Midwest and Intermountain west; and has been attributed to population declines of local wildlife. Due to the considerable overlap in species distribution with oil, gas, and wind energy development, grouse species of the Tympanuchus and Centrocercus genera have particularly impacted. Impacts include disruption to the acoustic environment that they ...
Fragmentation and degraded habitat conditions can result in increased competition for critical re... more Fragmentation and degraded habitat conditions can result in increased competition for critical resources, altered mating systems, and can eventually result in population declines or extinction. We investigated the degree to which habitat degradation and habitat loss impacted the breeding ecology of Greater Prairie-Chickens at 3 study sites across relatively intact grasslands in Kansas, USA. Across all 3 study systems, we found similar rates of multiple mating by females at 14-20% of broods. In addition, we found evidence for facultative nest parasitism of conspecific females. Prairie-chicken females inhabiting more intact and less fragmented landscapes with a higher probability of survival did not engage in parasitic egg laying, whereas~17% of females inhabiting a more fragmented and isolated landscape engaged in parasitic egg laying. Parasitic egg layers tended to be older females that parasitized nests of yearling females. Parasitic egg layers only laid parasitically after an initial nesting attempt failed. Parasitic laying females all renested and hatched their own clutches. When counting parasitically laid eggs, parasitic egg-laying females laid significantly more eggs than nonparasitic egg layers and, as a result, had 25% greater fecundity. This case study across the relatively intact grasslands of Kansas highlights how land use and management can influence adaptive life history traits and population stability. Consequently, understanding these relationships will be essential to developing effective future conservation and management plans for prairie-grouse.
Conservation corridors are a promising intervention to preserve biodiversity, yet most research h... more Conservation corridors are a promising intervention to preserve biodiversity, yet most research has explored corridors in a landscape context different from their intended purpose. This Community Page asks readers to help identify landscapes that will help answer the question: Do corridors work?
1. The potential effects of wind energy development on wildlife have received increased attention... more 1. The potential effects of wind energy development on wildlife have received increased attention over the past decade. In Kansas, optimal sites for wind energy development often overlap with preferred habitats of greater prairie-chickens Tympanuchus cupido. Our goal was to determine whether wind energy development affected survival of female prairie-chickens in a grassland ecosystem, assessing one potential impact of wind on an upland gamebird of conservation concern. We focused primarily on the response of female prairie-chickens to wind energy development because population dynamics of prairie-chickens are primarily determined by female demography. 2. We monitored prairie-chickens at a wind facility in Kansas during a 2-year pre-construction (2007-2008) and a 3-year post-construction period (2009-2011). We used data from 220 radio-marked females to calculate weekly survival and hazard rates. We used cause of death for 81 mortality events to test for changes in the proportion of mortalities attributed to mammalian predators, avian predators and collisions. 3. We observed an unexpected increase in annual survival during the post-construction period (0Á57) compared with the pre-construction period (0Á32). Distance from home range centroid to the nearest wind turbine site had no effect on weekly survival of females. Collision mortality events were rare, and most were associated with fences or transmission lines and not turbine blades. 4. Most female mortality was due to predation (c. 90%). Differences in annual survival were driven by a higher risk of mortality during lekking activity in March and April during the preconstruction period (weekly hazard rate = 0Á050-0Á062) compared with the post-construction period (hazard rate = 0Á012-0Á021). We observed no change in the proportion of mortalities attributed to different causes between the two treatment periods. 5. Synthesis and applications. Development of a wind energy facility had no negative effect on survival of female prairie-chickens. The results of our field study indicate that greater prairie-chickens are less sensitive to wind energy development than lesser prairie-chickens Tympanuchus pallidicinctus and greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus are to oil and gas development. We have strong evidence that survival increased after wind energy development, and hypothesize that energy development affected the local predator community, resulting in an indirect effect of decreased predation risk during the post-construction period.
Ecological corridors are one of the best, and possibly only viable, management tools to maintain ... more Ecological corridors are one of the best, and possibly only viable, management tools to maintain biodiversity at large scales and to allow species, and ecological processes, to track climate change. This document has been assembled as a summary of the best available information about managing these systems. Our aim with this paper is to provide managers with a convenient guidance document and tool to assist in applying scientific management principles to management of corridors. We do not cover issues related to corridor design or political buy in, but focus on how a corridor should be managed once it has been established. The first part of our paper outlines the history and value of ecological corridors. We next describe our methodologies for developing this guidance document. We then summarize the information about the impacts of linear features on corridors and strategies for dealing with them—specifically, we focus on the effects of roads, canals, security fences, and transmissi...
Spatial statistics and experimental design are among the most important topics students in the en... more Spatial statistics and experimental design are among the most important topics students in the environmental and ecological sciences learn and utilize throughout their careers. These topics are also among the most difficult for students to learn, often due to the use of contrived data sets that present simplified and unrealistic scenarios that fail to engage students in higher level thinking. One way to engage students in higher level thinking is to use an inquiry-based pedagogical framework. The use of inquiry as a pedagogical approach should be instinctive for most scientists, as it mimics how science is conducted, yet most instructors continue to use lecture-based, textbook-driven instructional formats. This type of approach is efficient in covering material, but it suffers in its ability to engage students or enhance learning. Using a Bigfoot data set in an inquiry-based framework, students in a cross-listed graduate/undergraduate statistics class learned ordinary least squares ...
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Papers by Andrew Gregory