Publications
Explore WARC's science publications.
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Harvest assessment for Taiga bean geese in the Central Management Unit: 2019
In 2016 the European Goose Management International Working Group (EGM IWG) began development of an Adaptive Harvest Management (AHM) program for Taiga Bean Geese. In 2017, the IWG adopted an Interim Harvest Strategy consisting of a constant harvest rate (on adults) of 3% for the Central Management Unit (MU) of Taiga Bean Geese. The interim strategy is intended to provide limited hunting opportuni
Authors
Fred Johnson, Henning Heldbjerg, Mikko Alhainen, Jesper Madsen
Spatial conservation planning under uncertainty: Adapting to climate change risks using modern portfolio theory
Climate change and urban growth impact habitats, species, and ecosystem services. To buffer against global change, an established adaptation strategy is designing protected areas to increase representation and complementarity of biodiversity features. Uncertainty regarding the scale and magnitude of landscape change complicates reserve planning and exposes decision makers to risk of failing to mee
Authors
Mitchell J. Eaton, Simeon Yurek, Zulqarnain Haider, Julien Martin, Fred Johnson, Bradley Udell, Hadi Charkhgard, Changhyun Kwon
Integrating behavior and physiology into strategies for amphibian conservation
The amphibian decline crisis has been challenging to address because of the complexity of factors—and their multitude of interactive effects—that drive this global issue. Dissecting such complexity could benefit from strategies that integrate multiple disciplines and address the mechanistic underpinnings of population declines and extirpations. We examine how the disciplines of behavior and physio
Authors
Susan Walls, Caitlin R Gabor
Establishing genome sizes of focal fishery and aquaculture species along Baja California, Mexico
Genome size—the total haploid content of nuclear DNA— is constant in all cells in individuals within a species, but differs among species. Consequently, the genome size is a quantifiable genetic signature that not only characterizes a species, but it can reflect chromatin modifications, which play fundamental roles in most biological processes that are involved in the manipulation and expression o
Authors
Constanza del Mar Ochoa-Saloma, Jill A. Jenkins, Manuel A. Segovia, Miguel A. Del Rio-Portilla, Carmen G. Paniagua-Chavez
Carbon dioxide emissions and methane flux from forested wetland soils of the Great Dismal Swamp, USA
The Great Dismal Swamp, a freshwater forested peatland, has accumulated massive amounts of soil carbon since the postglacial period. Logging and draining have severely altered the hydrology and forest composition, leading to drier soils, accelerated oxidation, and vulnerability to disturbance. The once dominant Atlantic white cedar, cypress, and pocosin forest types are now fragmented, resulting i
Authors
Laurel Gutenberg, K. W. Krauss, John Qu, Changwoo Ahn, Dianna M. Hogan, Zhiliang Zhu, Chenyang Xu
Limpkin, Aramus guarauna (L., 1766) (Gruiformes, Aramidae), extralimital breeding in Louisiana is associated with availability of the invasive Giant Apple Snail, Pomacea maculata Perry, 1810 (Caenogastropoda, Ampullariidae)
We document the first breeding record of Limpkin, Aramus guarauna (Linnaeus, 1766) (Gruiformes, Aramidae), for Louisiana, describe an additional unpublished breeding record from Georgia, as well as a possible record from Alabama, and associate these patterns with the concurrent establishment of the invasive Giant Apple Snail, Pomacea maculata Perry, 1810 (Caenogastropoda, Ampullariidae). We predic
Authors
Robert C. Dobbs, Jacoby Carter, Jessica L. Schulz
Adaptive harvest management for the Svalbard population of pink‐footed geese: 2019 progress summary
This report describes an Adaptive Harvest Management (AHM) program designed to maintain the Svalbard population of Pink-footed Geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) near their target level (60,000) by providing sustainable harvests in Norway and Denmark. Specifically, this report provides recent monitoring and assessment results and their implications for the 2019 hunting season.
In this report we provide
Authors
Fred Johnson, Henning Heldbjerg, Kevin K. Clausen, Jesper Madsen
Seeking shelter from the storm: Conservation and management of imperiled species in a changing climate
Climate change is anticipated to exacerbate the extinction risk of species whose persistence is already compromised by habitat loss, invasive species, disease, or other stressors. In coastal areas of the southeastern United States (USA), many imperiled vertebrates are vulnerable to hurricanes, which climate models predict to become more severe in the 21st century. Despite this escalating threat, e
Authors
Susan Walls, William Barichivich, Jonathan Chandler, Ashley M. Meade, Marysa Milinichik, Katherine O'Donnell, Megan E. Owens, Terry Peacock, Joseph Reinman, Rebecca C. Watling, Olivia E. Wetsch
Impacts of saltwater intrusion on wetland prey production and composition in a historically freshwater marsh
Sea level rise is a fundamental driver of ecosystem change and has the potential to shift the spatial distributions of habitats more rapidly than species can adapt. Rapid sea level rise and associated saltwater intrusion have negative impacts on coastal environments, including loss of habitat for species such as sea turtles and shorebirds. In Florida’s largest wetland, the Everglades, the availabi
Authors
Stephanie Romanach, James M. Beerens, Brett Patton, Julia P. Chapman, Matt Hanson
Negative frequency-dependent foraging behaviour in a generalist herbivore (Alces alces) and its stabilizing influence on food-web dynamics
1. Resource selection is widely appreciated to be context‐dependent and shaped by both biological and abiotic factors. However, few studies have empirically assessed the extent to which selective foraging behaviour is dynamic and varies in response to environmental conditions for free‐ranging animal populations.
2. Here, we assessed the extent that forage selection fluctuated in response to diffe
Authors
Sarah R. Hoy, John A. Vucetich, Rongsong Liu, Don DeAngelis, Rolf O. Peterson, Leah M. Vucetich, John J. Henderson
Linking management planning for coastal wetlands to potential future wave attenuation under a range of relative sea-level rise scenarios
Understanding changes in wave attenuation by emergent vegetation as wetlands degrade or accrete over time is crucial for incorporation of wetlands into holistic coastal risk management. Linked SLAMM and XBeach models were used to investigate potential future changes in wave attenuation over a 50-year period in a degrading, subtropical wetland and a prograding, temperate wetland. These contrasting
Authors
Ann Hijuelos, Jasper Dijkstra, Tim J. B. Carruthers, Karel Heynert, Denise Reed, Bregje van Wesenbeeck
Monitoring live vegetation in semiarid and arid rangeland environments with satellite remote sensing in northern Kenya
As part of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) commitment to provide technical assistance to the Kenyan Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the DOI International Technical Assistance Program and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s regional mission in East Africa, created a high spatial and time-sensitive live vegetation monitoring
Authors
Amina Rangoonwala, Elijah W. Ramsey III