Treesearch

Freshwater mussels have disappeared from many U.S. streams since the 1960s. These declines are enigmatic: there are no clear causes and other components of aquatic communities appear unaffected. I review the characteristics, spatial occurrence, timing, and potential causes of enigmatic mussel declines. They share some or all of the following characteristics: (1) fauna-wide collapse, affecting all species; (2) recruitment failure, leading to a senescent fauna; (3) no well-documented impact sufficient to affect all species rapidly; (4) specific to mussels; (5) recent occurrence, since the...

Purpose of Review: The objectives of this paper are to briefly review basic risk-management and analytics concepts, describe their nexus in relation to wildfire response, demonstrate real-world application of analytics to support response decisions and organizational learning, and outline an analytics strategy for the future. -- Recent Findings: Analytics can improve decision-making and organizational performance across a variety of areas from sports to business to real-time emergency response. A lack of robust descriptive analytics on wildfire incident response effectiveness is a bottlenec...

Fuel treatments are used in overstocked, fire-prone forests to alter wildfire behavior and reduce fire risk. Some of the benefits they provide are not captured in markets, and therefore represent unaccounted environmental externalities that can lead to inefficient decision making. This study uses a replicable method to integrate market and nonmarket economic values into a comprehensive economic evaluation of fuel treatment and bioenergy production using a case study of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests in Colorado's wildland-urban interface. Treatment costs and people's willingness...

The introduction of Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) into North American waterways has led to widespread alteration of aquatic ecosystems. Control of this invader has proven extremely difficult due to its capacity for rapid population growth. To help understand how Common Carp can potentially be controlled we developed a population dynamics model (Carp-MOD) to explore the efficacy of active and passive control measures that impose mortality on multiple life stages (embryos, juveniles and adults). We applied CarpMOD to Common Carp in Malheur Lake, a large shallow lake in Southeast Oregon, USA....

Captive propagation of fishes to achieve a variety of management goals is commonand is increasingly included in recovery plans for imperiled species. Here, we presenta protocol for the captive propagation of Etheostoma raneyi (Yazoo Darter) and summarizeearly life-history information. From 9 males and 17 females, we collected >1000 larvae,of which >83% survived to the juvenile stage. Water temperature during spawning was15.6–21 °C and larval production peaked at 17.2–20.6 °C. Spawning abruptly ceased whendaily high water temperatures exceeded 21 °C for 3 consecutive days. Newly hatched...

In north-central Georgia, trap height affected catches of some species of bark and woodboring beetles (Coleoptera) in traps baited with lures used in surveillance programs to detect non-native forest insects. Traps were placed within the canopy and understory of mature oak trees (Quercus spp.) with collection cups placed 18–23 m above ground level (AGL), and 0.3–0.5 m AGL, respectively. Traps were baited with ethanol to target ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) in one experiment, ethanol + syn-2,3-hexanediol + racemic 3-hydroxyhexan-2-one + racemic 3-hydroxyoctan-2-one to target...

Background Urban tree death is a major consideration for anyone managing urban forests. Whether conserving canopy cover, planting new groups of trees, or protecting large, mature trees, urban forestry professionals often gauge the success of their projects by evaluating how many trees live or die. Tree death is also relevant in planning and budgeting for tree removal needs. There is a growing body of research on urban tree mortality—studies concerning tree deaths and removals in a given place and time. However, less is understood about tree mortality in built-up urban areas compared to...

We investigated how herpetofauna respond to burning and burn season in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) sandhills by contrasting preburn species richness, diversity, and evenness and captures of six reptile and six amphibian species to the first(Y+1) or second (Y+2) year after burn or between dormant-season burns (DSB) and growing-season burns (GSB). Responses to burning overall or burn season were inconsistent among species; several showed no response, whereas others responded positively or negatively. Most responses were evident only in Y+1. Reptile species richness, diversity, and...

This research note examines possible explanations for declines in use of Chicago's 606 Trail between 2016, its first complete year of operation, and 2018. Hypotheses include population changes near the trail, adverse weather in 2017-2018, and congestion effects. To evaluate these hypotheses, respectively, we use Census data, traffic counts, weather data, and regression modeling; and level-of-service (LOS) grades for peak use periods. We show that population changes were unlikely to have contributed to the use reductions and that, after controlling for weather effects, daily use still was...

Bats are under threat from habitat loss, energy development, and the disease white-nose syndrome; therefore, an efficient and effective means to monitor bat populations is needed. The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) was initiated in 2015 to provide standardized, large-scale monitoring to benefit bat biologists, managers, and policy makers. Given the recency of this program, our first objective was to determine the efficacy of implementing NABat. Further, because the probability of detecting a bat varies among species and survey conditions, our second objective was to determine...