Publications
Explore WARC's science publications.
Filter Total Items: 3374
Cattle grazing in wetlands
Cattle grazing drives successional change in wetland vegetation by removing tall grasses and other vegetation. As a disturbance, cattle grazing in some ways resembles natural disturbances such as native mammal grazing and lightning-strike fire, which can support higher biodiversity in wetlands. To encourage rare and Red-Listed species, natural land managers sometimes incorporate a variety of techn
Authors
Beth A. Middleton
A pilot study testing a natural and a synthetic Molluscicide for controlling invasive apple snails (Pomacea maculata)
Pomacea maculata (formerly P. insularum), an apple snail native to South America, was discovered in Louisiana in 2008. These snails strip vegetation, reproduce at tremendous rates, and have reduced rice production and caused ecosystem changes in Asia. In this pilot study snails were exposed to two molluscicides, a tea (Camellia sinensis) seed derivative (TSD) or niclosamide monohydrate (Pestanal®,
Authors
Heather M. Olivier, Jill A. Jenkins, Mark Berhow, Jacoby Carter
Adaptive harvest management for the Svalbard population of pink-footed geese: 2015 progress summary
This document describes progress to date on the development of an adaptive harvest management strategy for maintaining the Svalbard population of pink‐footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) near their agreed target level (60,000) by providing for sustainable harvests in Norway and Denmark. This report provides an assessment of the most recent monitoring information (1991-2014) and its implications fo
Authors
Fred A. Johnson, Jesper Madsen
Do geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape functions?
Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs), those surrounded by uplands, exchange materials, energy, and organisms with other elements in hydrological and habitat networks, contributing to landscape functions, such as flow generation, nutrient and sediment retention, and biodiversity support. GIWs constitute most of the wetlands in many North American landscapes, provide a disproportionately large fr
Authors
Matthew J. Cohen, Irena F. Creed, Laurie C. Alexander, Nandita Basu, Aram J.K. Calhoun, Christopher Craft, Ellen D’Amico, Edward S. DeKeyser, Laurie Fowler, Heather E. Golden, James W. Jawitz, Peter Kalla, L. Katherine Kirkman, Charles R. Lane, Megan Lang, Scott G. Leibowitz, David Bruce Lewis, John Marton, Daniel L. McLaughlin, David M. Mushet, Hadas Raanan-Kiperwas, Mark C. Rains, Lora Smith, Susan C. Walls
Vectors of invasions in freshwater invertebrates and fishes
Without human assistance, the terrestrial environment and oceans represent barriers to the dispersal of freshwater aquatic organisms. The ability to overcome such barriers depends on the existence of anthropogenic vectors that can transport live organisms to new areas, and the species’ biology to survive the transportation and transplantation into the new environment (Johnson et al., 2006).
Authors
Pamela L. Fuller
What role do hurricanes play in sediment delivery to subsiding river deltas?
The Mississippi River Delta (MRD) has undergone tremendous land loss over the past century due to natural and anthropogenic influences, a fate shared by many river deltas globally. A globally unprecedented effort to restore and sustain the remaining subaerial portions of the delta is now underway, an endeavor that is expected to cost $50–100B over the next 50 yr. Success of this effort requires a
Authors
James E. Smith, Samuel J. Bentley, Gregg Snedden, Crawford White
Species and tissue type regulate long-term decomposition of brackish marsh plants grown under elevated CO2 conditions
Organic matter accumulation, the net effect of plant production and decomposition, contributes to vertical soil accretion in coastal wetlands, thereby playing a key role in whether they keep pace with sea-level rise. Any factor that affects decomposition may affect wetland accretion, including atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Higher CO2 can influence decomposition rates by altering plant tissue che
Authors
Joshua A Jones, Julia A Cherry, Karen L. McKee
Occupancy estimation for rare species using a spatially-adaptive sampling design
Summary
1. Spatially clustered populations create unique challenges for conservation monitoring programmes. Advances in methodology typically are focused on either the design or the modelling stage of the study but do not involve integration of both.
2. We integrate adaptive cluster sampling and spatial occupancy modelling by developing two models to handle the dependence induced by cluster sampli
Authors
Krishna Pacifici, Brian J. Reich, Robert Dorazio, Michael J. Conroy
Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) Vegetation Volume Index: An assessment tool for marsh habitat focused on the three-dimensional structure at CRMS vegetation monitoring stations
A Vegetation Volume (VV) variable and Vegetation Volume Index (VVI) have been developed for the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS). The VV is a measure of the amount of three-dimensional vegetative structure present at each CRMS site and is based on vegetation data collected annually. The VV uses 10 stations per CRMS site to quantify four vegetation layers: carpet, herbaceous, shrub, and
Authors
William B. Wood, Jenneke M. Visser, Sarai C. Piazza, Leigh A. Sharp, Laura C. Hundy, Tommy E. McGinnis
Impact of Deepwater Horizon Spill on food supply to deep-sea benthos communities
Deep-sea ecosystems encompass unique and often fragile communities that are sensitive to a variety of anthropogenic and natural impacts. After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, sampling efforts documented the acute impact of the spill on some deep-sea coral colonies. To investigate the impact of the DWH spill on quality and quantity of biomass delivered to the deep-sea, a suite of geoche
Authors
Nancy G. Prouty, Pamela Swarzenski, Furu Mienis, Gerald Duineveld, Amanda W.J. Demopoulos, Steve W. Ross, Sandra Brooke
Assessment of environmental DNA for detecting presence of imperiled aquatic amphibian species in isolated wetlands
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging tool that allows low-impact sampling for aquatic species by isolating DNA from water samples and screening for DNA sequences specific to species of interest. However, researchers have not tested this method in naturally acidic wetlands that provide breeding habitat for a number of imperiled species, including the frosted salamander (Ambystoma cingulatum), re
Authors
Anna M. McKee, Daniel L. Calhoun, William J. Barichivich, Stephen F. Spear, Caren S. Goldberg, Travis C Glenn
Characterization of the putatively introduced red alga Acrochaetium secundatum (Acrochaetiales, Rhodophyta) growing epizoically on the pelage of southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis)
Ecological associations between epibionts (organisms that live on the surface of another living organism) and vertebrates have been documented in both marine and terrestrial environments, and may be opportunistic, commensal, or symbiotic (Lewin et al. 1981, Holmes 1985, Allen et al. 1993, Bledsoe et al. 2006, Pfaller et al. 2008, Suutari et al. 2010). Although epibiont proliferation is frequently
Authors
Gena B. Bentall, Barry H. Rosen, Jessica M. Kunz, Melissa A. Miller, Gary W. Saunders, Nicole L. LaRoche