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Explore WARC's science publications.

Filter Total Items: 3374

Wetlands in a changing climate: Science, policy and management

Part 1 of this review synthesizes recent research on status and climate vulnerability of freshwater and saltwater wetlands, and their contribution to addressing climate change (carbon cycle, adaptation, resilience). Peatlands and vegetated coastal wetlands are among the most carbon rich sinks on the planet sequestering approximately as much carbon as do global forest ecosystems. Estimates of the c
Authors
William R. Moomaw, G.L. Chmura, Gillian T. Davies, Max Finlayson, Beth A. Middleton, Sue M. Natali, James Perry, Nigel Roulet, Ariana Sutton-Grier

Movements and habitat use locations of manatees within Kings Bay Florida during the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge winter season (November 15–March 31)

Kings Bay, Florida, is one of the most important natural winter habitat locations for the federally threatened Trichechus manatus latirostris (Florida manatee). Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1983 specifically to provide protection for manatees and their critical habitat. To aid managers at the refuge and other agencies with this task, spatial analyses of local habitat u
Authors
Daniel H. Slone, Susan M. Butler, James P. Reid

Herbivory and eutrophication mediate grassland plant nutrient responses across a global climatic gradient

Plant stoichiometry, the relative concentration of elements, is a key regulator of ecosystem functioning and is also being altered by human activities. In this paper we sought to understand the global drivers of plant stoichiometry and compare the relative contribution of climatic vs. anthropogenic effects. We addressed this goal by measuring plant elemental (C, N, P and K) responses to eutrophica
Authors
T. Michael Anderson, Daniel M. Griffith, James B. Grace, Eric M. Lind, Peter B. Adler, Lori A. Biederman, Dana M. Blumenthal, Pedro Daleo, Jennifer Firn, Nicole Hagenah, W. Stanley Harpole, Andrew S. MacDougall, Rebecca L. McCulley, Suzanne M. Prober, Anita C. Risch, Mahesh Sankaran, Martin Schütz, Eric W. Seabloom, Carly J. Stevens, Lauren Sullivan, Peter Wragg, Elizabeth T. Borer

Linking animals aloft with the terrestrial landscape

Despite using the aerosphere for many facets of their life, most flying animals (i.e., birds, bats, some insects) are still bound to terrestrial habitats for resting, feeding, and reproduction. Comprehensive broad-scale observations by weather surveillance radars of animals as they leave terrestrial habitats for migration or feeding flights can be used to map their terrestrial distributions either
Authors
Jeffrey J. Buler, Wylie Barrow, Matthew Boone, Deanna K. Dawson, Robert H. Diehl, Frank R. Moore, Lori A. Randall, Timothy Schreckengost, Jaclyn A. Smolinsky

Sperm quality biomarkers complement reproductive and endocrine parameters in investigating environmental contaminants in common carp (Cyprinus carpio) from the Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Lake Mead National Recreational Area (LMNRA) serves as critical habitat for several federally listed species and supplies water for municipal, domestic, and agricultural use in the Southwestern U.S. Contaminant sources and concentrations vary among the sub-basins within LMNRA. To investigate whether exposure to environmental contaminants is associated with alterations in male common carp (Cyprinus
Authors
Jill A. Jenkins, Michael R. Rosen, Rassa O. Dale, Kathy R. Echols, Leticia Torres, Carla M. Wieser, Constance A. Kersten, S. Goodbred

The bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of Louisiana: an updated, annotated checklist

An annotated checklist is provided for 243 species and subspecies of bees collected from or thought to occur in the state of Louisiana, where 163 are confirmed records, 46 are probable records, and 34 are possible records. We also list twelve records considered to be “dubious” because of the absence of supporting collection data and extralimital reported ranges. Data on parish localities, seasonal
Authors
Brittany E. Owens, Larry K. Allain, Eric C. VanGorder, Janice L. Bossart, Christopher E. Carlton

Microspatial ecotone dynamics at a shifting range limit: plant–soil variation across salt marsh–mangrove interfaces

Ecotone dynamics and shifting range limits can be used to advance our understanding of the ecological implications of future range expansions in response to climate change. In the northern Gulf of Mexico, the salt marsh–mangrove ecotone is an area where range limits and ecotone dynamics can be studied in tandem as recent decreases in winter temperature extremes have allowed for mangrove expansion
Authors
Erik S. Yando, Michael J. Osland, Mark H. Hester

Coping with constraints: Achieving effective conservation with limited resources

Conservation resources have become increasingly limited and, along with social, cultural and political complexities, this shortfall frequently challenges effectiveness in conservation. Because conservation can be costly, efforts are often only initiated after a species has declined below a critical threshold and/or when statutory protection is mandated. However, implementing conservation proactive
Authors
Susan C. Walls

Tagging and tracking

The number of stranding response facilities for marine mammals in the United States has increased over the past two decades, resulting in thousands of rehabilitated marine mammals released back into the wild (Geraci and Lounsbury 2005; Moore et al. 2007; Johnson and Mayer 2015; Simeone et al. 2015). All rehabilitated marine mammals released in the United States must be tagged or marked (50 CFR 216
Authors
Michelle E. Lander, Andrew J. Westgate, Brian C. Balmer, James P. Reid, Michael J. Murray, Kristen L. Laidre

Pilot testing and protocol development of giant applesnail suppression at Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana—July–October 2017

This report provides an overview of the pilot study and description of the techniques developed for a future mitigation study of Pomacea maculata (giant applesnail) at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana (MNWR). Egg mass suppression is a potential strategy for the mitigation of the invasive giant applesnail. In previous studies at Langan Municipal Park i
Authors
Jacoby Carter, Sergio Merino

Migratory hummingbirds make their own rules: The decision to resume migration along a barrier

Knowing how naïve migrants respond to intrinsic and extrinsic factors experienced en route will allow a more thorough understanding of the endogenous migratory programme. To understand how inexperienced individuals respond to ecological features, we tracked the migratory departures of juvenile ruby-throated hummingbirds, Archilochus colubris, one of the smallest (∼ 3 g) and least-studied migrants,
Authors
Theodore J. Zenzal, Frank R. Moore, Robert H. Diehl, Michael B. Ward, JIll Deppe

Context-dependent interactions and the regulation of species richness in freshwater fish

Species richness is regulated by a complex network of scale-dependent processes. This complexity can obscure the influence of limiting species interactions, making it difficult to determine if abiotic or biotic drivers are more predominant regulators of richness. Using integrative modeling of freshwater fish richness from 721 lakes along an 11olatitudinal gradient, we find negative interactions to
Authors
Andrew S. MacDougall, Eric Harvey, Jenny L. McCune, Karin A. Nilsson, Joseph Bennett, Jennifer Firn, Timothy Bartley, James B. Grace, Jocelyn Kelly, Tyler D. Tunney, Bailey C. McMeans, Shin-Ichiro S. Matsuzaki, Taku Kadoya, Ellen Esch, Kevin Cazelles, Nigel Lester, Kevin S. McCann