Publications
Explore WARC's science publications.
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Predicting barrier island habitats and oyster and seagrass habitat suitability for various restoration measures and future conditions for Dauphin Island, Alabama
Barrier islands, such as Dauphin Island, Alabama, provide numerous invaluable ecosystem services including storm damage reduction and erosion control to the mainland, habitat for fish and wildlife, carbon sequestration in marshes, water catchment and purification, recreation, and tourism. These islands are dynamic environments that are gradually shaped by currents, waves, and tides under quiescent
Effect of stressors on the carrying capacity of spatially distributed metapopulations
Stressors such as antibiotics, herbicides, and pollutants are becoming increasingly common in the environment. The effects of stressors on populations are typically studied in homogeneous, nonspatial settings. However, most populations in nature are spatially distributed over environmentally heterogeneous landscapes with spatially restricted dispersal. Little is known about the effects of stressor
Authors
Bo Zhang, Don DeAngelis, Wei-Ming Ni, Yuanshi Wang, Lu Zhai, Alex Kula, Shuang Xu, J. David Van Dyken
Sea turtle conservation: Priorities for environmental education efforts
All five species of sea turtle that occur in Florida are in danger of extinction. Many of the reasons these turtles are declining are a result of people’s actions on beaches and in shallow waters. Environmental education is needed to increase awareness and appreciation for sea turtles, and to teach about the potential harmful impacts human behaviors can have on these animals. This document descri
Authors
Jessica E. Swindall, Holly K. Ober, Margaret Lamont, Raymond R. Carthy
The first occurrence of the Australian redclaw crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus (von Martens, 1868) in the contiguous United States
The Australian redclaw crayfish, Cherax quadricarinatus, is a popular aquaculture crayfish that has been introduced around the world. Here we report the first occurrence of the species in the United States in Lake Balboa, Los Angeles, California. The impacts of this species are largely unknown, and further research is needed to determine the species’ effects on native ecosystems. Sampling is neede
Authors
Cayla Morningstar, Wesley M. Daniel, Matthew Neilson, Ara K. Yazaryan
Egg counts of Southern Leopard Frog, Lithobates sphenocephalus, egg masses from southern Louisiana, USA
Southern Leopard Frogs, Lithobates sphenocephalus (Cope, 1889), lay eggs year-round in their southern range, including Louisiana, but their peak breeding season is the cooler months from late fall through early spring (Mount, 1975; Caldwell, 1986; Dundee and Rossman, 1989). Double-enveloped eggs in globular masses are typically deposited in shallow water, but deeper waters are used when temperatur
Authors
Brad M. Glorioso, Lindy J. Muse, J. Hardin Waddle
Non-freezing cold event stresses can cause significant damage to mangrove seedlings: Assessing the role of warming and nitrogen enrichment in a mesocosm study
Mangroves are expanding poleward along coastlines globally as a response to rising temperatures and reduced incidence of freezing under climate change. Yet, knowledge of mangrove responses to infrequent cold events in the context of future global and regional environmental changes is limited. We initiated a mesocosm experiment in which the seedlings of two mangrove species were grown either at amb
Authors
Weimin Song, Jianxiang Feng, Ken W. Krauss, Yan Zhao, Zhonglei Wang, Yiqi Luo, Guanghui Lin
Conceptual frameworks
The chapter starts by addressing some of the issues that come from not using a conceptual framework. This point is illustrated using an example with causal factors. The chapter then goes on to explain the mechanics of establishing conceptual frameworks. Lastly, it lays out a step-by-step guide on how to create a framework—generating a set of concepts, specifying the relations between concepts, wri
Authors
Keunhyun Park, James B. Grace, Reid Ewing
Final project memorandum: Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center Project
Low-lying public lands along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast are vulnerable to sea-level rise. Coastal planners and resource managers in the region have requested customized information that can be used to concisely communicate local sea-level rise scenarios and identify potential impacts to the missions of management agencies.In this project, researchers worked with the Northern Gulf of Mexico
Authors
Michael Osland, Renee C. Collini
Editorial: Contributions of behavior and physiology to conservation biology
Conservation biology is a rapidly evolving discipline, with its synthetic, multidisciplinary framework expanding extensively in recent years. Seemingly disparate disciplines, such as behavior and physiology, are being integrated into this discipline's growing portfolio, resulting in diverse tools that can help develop conservation solutions. Behavior and physiology have traditionally been consider
Authors
Caitlin R Gabor, Susan C. Walls
Local sea level rise information sheets for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida
Two Pagers for Federally Managed Lands
The Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative partnered with individuals at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Wetland and Aquatic Research Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to produce customized two-pager information sheets for federal coastal refuges, parks, and reserves across the northern Gulf of Mexico (i.e., sea-level rise sensitive federa
Authors
Bogdan Chivoiu, Michael J. Osland, Renee C. Collini, Sara Martin, John M. Tirpak, Benjamin Wilson
Submarine canyons influence macrofaunal diversity and density patterns in the deep-sea benthos
Submarine canyons are often morphologically complex features in the deep sea contributing to habitat heterogeneity. In addition, they act as major conduits of organic matter from the shallow productive shelf to the food deprived deep-sea, promoting gradients in food resources and areas of sediment resuspension and deposition. This study focuses on the Baltimore and Norfolk canyons, in the western
Authors
Craig M. Robertson, Amanda Demopoulos, Jill Bourque, Furu Mienis, Gerard Duineveld, Mark Lavaleye, R. Koivisto, S. Brooke, S. Ross, M. Rhode, A. Davies
GoMAMN Strategic Bird Monitoring Guidelines: Landbirds
Landbirds in the Gulf of Mexico region include an ecologically diverse group of taxa that depend on a wide range of terrestrial habitats and the airspace above them. For the GoMAMN region of the Gulf of Mexico, the Landbird Working Group identified 19 species from 12 families as priorities for monitoring (Table 3.1). In addition, all species that stopover within the GoMAMN region during migration
Authors
Theodore J. Zenzal, William G. Vermillion, Jacqueline R. Ferrato, Lori A. Randall, Robert Christopher Dobbs, Heather Baldwin