Treesearch

Stated preference methods such as contingent valuation and choice modeling are subject to various biases that may lead to differences between actual and hypothetical willingness to pay. Cheap talk, follow-up certainty scales, and dissonance minimization are three techniques for reducing this hypothetical bias. Cheap talk and certainty scales have received considerable attention in the literature, but dissonance minimization has not previously been experimentally tested. Using a four-way split sample design involving over 600 subjects, results from an actual referendum on provision of a...

Increased wildland fire activity and associated suppression costs over the last decade have significantly challenged federal agencies' ability to manage the nation's lands and meet public expectations. Three common factors have typically been identified to explain this increasing cost trend: 1) increased development within the wildland urban interface increasing the complexity, and therefore the cost of suppression activities (WUI), 2) climatic factors - both natural shifts and global climate change that increase wildland fire season length and intensity, and 3) increased fuels associated...

The ecological state of US Drylands is unknown. This research is developing procedures to determine the impact of the ecological footprint of grazing livestock on the productive capacity of US Drylands. A pilot geodatabase was developed for the state of Texas that includes 2002 data for county boundaries, net primary productivity (NPP) derived from the Moderate Resolution Infrared Spectroradiometer (MODIS), USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service's (NASS) county-level data on livestock type inventories, the 2001 National Land Cover, and 50-year gridded mean annual precipitation...

Urine deposition has been observed as an important scent-marking behaviour among wolverines (Gulo gulo, Mustelinae, Mustelidae). Solid phase microextraction (SPME) of headspace volatiles of the urine from free ranging wolverines were examined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Urine samples were collected directly from the bladder of live-trapped animals or from frozen samples deposited in snow. Nineteen potential semiochemicals were identified in the headspace from 22 urine samples. The composition of these volatile compounds varied by type and amount with each sample, but a...

In reading this book, you have observed that the spatial data used in landscape ecology come from many sources and in many forms. For many organisms, these data take the form of presence or absence at a location, or numbers of individuals at that same location. For species such as trees, where huge size differences exist between individuals, indices such as basal area, metric tons per hectare, or canopy cover are more useful than counts. For any measured species that is handled (or sampled noninvasively; Taberlet et al. 1999; Kendall and McKelvey 2008; Schwartz and Monfort 2008), an...

Genetic diversity is the foundation for all biological diversity; the persistence and evolutionary potential of species depend on it. World leaders have agreed on the conservation of genetic diversity as an explicit goal of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Nevertheless, actions to protect genetic diversity are largely lacking. With only months left to the 2010-biodiversity target, when the 191 parties to the CBD have agreed on achieving a significant reduction of the rate of biodiversity loss, gene-level diversity is still not being monitored, and indicators and thresholds...

Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) were delisted from threatened or endangered status in 2007 in the conterminous states because of their encouraging comeback throughout most of North America. However the recent court decision on 1 May 2008 forced USFWS to issue a rule to amend the regulations for the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife by designating bald eagles in the Sonoran Desert of central Arizona (also called the 'southwest population') as threatened under the authority of Endangered Species Act of 1973. The southwest population is believed to exist in an ecologica...

This presentation will describe the current status of the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) and explore lessons learned from this 23-yearold project about the application of science to fire management issues. FEIS contains literature reviews covering biology and fire ecology for approximately 1,100 species in North America: plants and animals, native and nonnative. Established in 1985 and continually updated, the system has served managers, researchers, students, and the general public for >20 years. Species reviews in FEIS provide information that can help managers plan a prescribed...

Scientific knowledge is essential for sound wildland management, but this knowledge is a complex, ever-expanding resource. Managers often request syntheses or reviews of available knowledge, and scientists have responded with an increasing number of syntheses for managers. Unfortunately, little guidance is available for this kind of writing. While most scientists have experience writing literature reviews for other scientists, a synthesis for managers must address land management professionals working in diverse ecosystems. These managers, sometimes trained in science and sometimes not,...

A new monitoring tool called FFI (FEAT/FIREMON Integrated) has been developed to assist managers with collection, storage and analysis of ecological information. The tool was developed through the complementary integration of two fire effects monitoring systems commonly used in the United States: FIREMON and the Fire Ecology Assessment Tool (FEAT). FFI provides software components for: data entry, data storage, summary reports, analysis tools, data queries, geographic information systems, and personal digital assistant use. In addition to a large set of standard FFI protocols, the Protocol...