Publications
Explore WARC's science publications.
Filter Total Items: 3374
Red imported fire ants reduce invertebrate abundance, richness, and diversity in Gopher Tortoise burrows
Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows support diverse commensal invertebrate communities that may be of special conservation interest. We investigated the impact of red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) on the invertebrate burrow community at 10 study sites in southern Mississippi, sampling burrows (1998–2000) before and after bait treatments to reduce fire ant populations. We sample
Authors
Deborah Mardeane Epperson, Craig R. Allen, Katharine F.E. Hogan
Identifying information gaps in predicting winter foraging habitat for juvenile Gulf Sturgeon
The Gulf Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi is an anadromous species that inhabits Gulf of Mexico coastal waters from Louisiana to Florida and is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Seasonal cues (e.g., freshwater discharge) determine the timing of spawning and migration and may influence the availability of critical habitat during winter months in six estuaries. Large i
Authors
Leah L Dale, James P. Cronin, Virginia Brink, Blair Tirpak, John M. Tirpak, William E. Pine
Strategic habitat conservation for beach mice: Estimating management scenario efficiencies
The Perdido Key beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus trissyllepsis), Choctawhatchee beach mouse (P. p. allophrys), and St. Andrew beach mouse (P. p. peninsularis) are 3 federally endangered subspecies that inhabit coastal dunes of Alabama and Florida, USA. Conservation opportunities for these subspecies are limited and costly. Consequently, well‐targeted efforts are required to achieve their downlis
Authors
James P. Cronin, Blair Tirpak, Leah L Dale, Virginia E Robenski, John M. Tirpak, Bruce G. Marcot
Effective population size remains a suitable, pragmatic indicator of genetic diversity for all species, including forest trees
Fady & Bozzano highlight some challenges to a proposed Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) indicator of genetic diversity based on effective population size, Ne (Fady and Bozzano, 2020; Hoban et al., 2020). We appreciate the thoughtful debate and concur that genetic diversity indicators must be reliable and scalable. We fully agree that “genetic diversity should be better considered in the CB
Authors
Sean M. Hoban, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Sally Aitken, Laura D. Bertola, Martin F Breed, Michael W. Bruford, W. Chris Funk, Catherine E. Grueber, Myriam Heuertz, Paul A. Hohenlohe, Margaret Hunter, Rodolfo Jaffé, Margarida Lopes Fernandes, Joachim Mergeay, Farideh Moharrek, David O’Brien, Gernot Segelbacher, Cristiano Vernesi, Lisette Waits, Linda Laikre
Council Monitoring and Assessment Program (CMAP): User guide for the Gulf Coast Monitoring and Assessment Portal
The Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (RESTORE Act Final Rule at 31 C.F.R. Part 34) was signed into law on July 6, 2012. The RESTORE Act calls for a regional approach to restoring the long-term health of the valuable natural ecosystem and economy of the Gulf Coast region. The RESTORE Act dedicates 80 percent of civil
Authors
Kevin Suir, Hana R. Thurman, Anthony Kuczynski, Philip Quibodeaux, Sumani Chimmula, Jake Howell, Heidi Burkart, Nicholas Enwright, Kari Cretini, Mark McKelvy
Small mammal responses to wetland restoration in the Greater Everglades ecosystem
Wetlands have experienced dramatic losses in extent around the world, disrupting ecosystem function, habitat, and biodiversity. In Florida’s Greater Everglades, a massive restoration effort costing billions of dollars and spanning multiple decades is underway. As Everglades restoration is implemented in incremental projects, scientists and planners monitor the outcomes of projects. In this study,
Authors
Stephanie Romanach, Laura D'Acunto, Julia Chapman, Matthew R Hanson
A comparison of plant communities in restored, old field, and remnant coastal prairies
Temperate grasslands are experiencing worldwide declines due to habitat conversion. Grassland restoration efforts are employed to compensate for these losses. However, there is a need to better understand the ecological effects of grassland restoration and management practices. We investigated the effects of three different grassland management regimes on plant communities of coastal prairie ecosy
Authors
Laura Feher, Larry Allain, Michael Osland, Elisabeth Pigott, Christopher Reid, Nicholas Latiolais
Stable isotope dynamics of herbivorous reef fishes and their ectoparasites
Acanthurids (surgeonfishes) are an abundant and diverse group of herbivorous fishes on coral reefs. While their contribution to trophic linkages and dynamics in coral reef systems has received considerable attention, the role of linkages involving their parasites has not. As both consumers of fish tissue and prey to microcarnivores, external parasites may play a significant role in trophic transfe
Authors
William Jenkins, Amanda Demopoulos, Matthew C. Nicholson, Paul C. Sikkel
Stress gradients interact with disturbance to reveal alternative states in salt marsh: Multivariate resilience at the landscape scale
Stress gradients influence many ecosystem processes and properties, including ecosystem recovery from and resistance to disturbance. While recent analytical approaches have advanced multivariate metrics of ecosystem resilience that allow quantification of conceptual resilience models and identification of thresholds of state change, these approaches are not often translated to landscape scales.Usi
Authors
Scott Jones, Camille Stagg, Erik S. Yando, W. Ryan James, Kevin J. Buffington, Mark W. Hester
Germination potential of baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) swamp soil seed bank along geographical gradients
Changing environments of temperature, precipitation and moisture availability can affect vegetation in ecosystems, by affecting regeneration from the seed bank. Our objective was to explore the responses of soil seed bank germination to climate-related environments along geographic gradients. We collected seed banks in baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) swamps along the Mississippi River and the Gul
Authors
Ting Lei, Beth Middleton
Council monitoring and assessment program (CMAP): A framework for using the monitoring program inventory to conduct gap assessments for the Gulf of Mexico Region
Executive Summary Under the Resources and Ecosystem Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012 (RESTORE Act), the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (RESTORE Council or Council) is required to report on the progress of funded projects and programs. Systematic monitoring of restoration at the project-specific and programmatic-levels (wate
Authors
Julie Bosch, Heidi B Burkart, Bogdan Chivoiu, Randy Clark, Chris Clement, Nicholas Enwright, Steve Giordano, Chris Jeffrey, Ed Johnson, Rheannon Hart, Sarah D Hile, Jacob S Howell, Claudia Laurenzano, Michael Lee, Terrance McCloskey, Terry McTigue, Michelle B Meyers, Katie E Miller, Scott Mize, Mark E. Monaco, Kevin Owen, Richard Rebich, Samuel H. Rendon, Ali Robertson, Thomas Sample, Kelly Marie Sanks, Gregory Steyer, Kevin Suir, Christopher M. Swarzenski, Hana Rose Thurman
Carrying capacity of spatially distributed metapopulations
Carrying capacity is a key concept in ecology. A body of theory, based on the logistic equation, has extended predictions of carrying capacity to spatially distributed, dispersing populations. However, this theory has only recently been tested empirically. The experimental results disagree with some theoretical predictions of when they are extended to a population dispersing randomly in a two-patc
Authors
Bo Zhang, Don DeAngelis, Wei-Ming Ni