Publications

I simulated the annual population cycles of Great Egrets (Ardea alba) at Lake Okeechobee, Florida, to provide a framework for evaluating the local population dynamics of nesting and foraging wading birds. The external forcing functions were solar energy, minimum air temperature, water depth, surface-water drying rate, and season. Solar input controlled the production of prey at moderate to high la

Based on the composition of nestling regurgitations collected during 3 breeding seasons, fish were the most important prey group for Great Egrets (Ardea alba: N = 200 nest-day samples; aggregate percent biomass [APB] = 73.4%), Snowy Egrets (Egretta thula: N = 115; APB = 91.4%), and Tricolored Herons (E. tricolor: N = 68; APB = 97.3%). For Little Blue Herons (E. caerulea: N = 57), grass shrimp (Pal

Ernpidonax trailIll extirnus is one of several recognized subspecies of the Willow Flycatcher (Unitt 1987, Browning 1993), a neotropical migrant that breeds across much of North America. This southwestern race is a riparian obligate, nesting in dense patches of willow (Salix sp.), willow-cottonwood (Populus sp.), or other similarly structured habitats. In some areas of the Southwest, it nests in d

The timing of song development in suboscines, in which song appears not to be learned from other adults is poorly known. The Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii) is a suboscine with a primary song typically referred to as fitz-bew. I report here an instance of very early singing by a 6-8-wk-old Willow Flycatcher, which sang in an aggressive context in response to a recording of adult flycatc

Mid- to late-Holocene vegetation change from a remote high-desert site was reconstructed using plant macrofossils and pollen from 9 packrat middens ranging from 0 to 5400 yr in age. Presettlement middens consistently contained abundant macrofossils of plant species palatable to large herbivores that are now absent or reduced, such as winterfat (Ceratoides lanatd) and ricegrass (Stipa hymenoides).

Coastal wetlands that are diked and managed may supplement declining natural habitat for migrating shorebirds (Charadriiformes). However, data on shorebird diet in these diked wetlands are scarce. We examined shorebird diet and prey size selection in brackish diked wetlands at the Yawkey Center on South Island, South Carolina, USA. Gut contents of seven Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) and seve

A physical model was developed to explain threshold friction velocities u*t for particles of the size 60a??120 I?m lying on a rough surface in loose soils for semiarid and arid parts of the United States. The model corrected for the effect of momentum absorption by the nonerodible roughness. For loose or disturbed soils the most important parameter that controls u*t is the aerodynamic roughness he

White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) eggs collected in 1996 at Carson Lake, Nevada, showed no decrease in p,p′-DDE (DDE) concentrations from levels in 1985 and 1986 which is contrary to DDE patterns shown for most avian species. An estimated 40-45% of the population was adversely affected by DDE in 1985, 1986, and 1996 with a probable net loss of about 20% of the expected productivity. One segment of

Biotic soil crusts are a worldwide phenomenon in arid and semi-arid landscapes. Metabolic activity of the poikilohydric organisms found in these crusts is dominated by quick and drastic changes in moisture availability and long periods of drought. Under controlled conditions, we studied the role of water content on photosynthetic and respiratory CO2 exchange of three green algal soil crust lichens

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, first documented in 1993, is caused by Sin Nombre virus (SNV), which is carried by the Peromyscus species. In 1994, high SNV antibody prevalence was identified in deer mice from two California Channel Islands. We sampled two locations on three islands to estimate mouse population density and SNV prevalence. Population flux and SNV prevalence appear to vary independen

Long-term limnological data from the four largest lakes in Yellowstone National Park (Yellowstone, Lewis, Shoshone, Heart) are used to characterize their limnology and patterns of temporal and spatial variability. Heart Lake has distinctively high concentrations of dissolved materials, apparently reflecting high thermal inputs. Shoshone and Lewis lakes have the highest total SiO2 concentrations (a

The majority of lacustrine fish populations in the western USA are located far from the nearest road. Although mark-recapture techniques are widely accepted for estimating population abundance, these techniques have been broadly ignored for fisheries surveys in remote mountain lakes because of restricted access and associated logistical constraints. In this study, mark recapture experiments wer