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Publications

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Palila Restoration Research, 1996−2012. Summary and management implications

The Palila Restoration Project was initiated in 1996 by the U.S. Geological Survey to assist government agencies mitigate the effects of realigning Saddle Road (Highway 200) through Palila Critical Habitat (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1998, Federal Highway Administration 1999). Ecological research on the palila (Loxioides bailleui), an endangered Hawaiian forest bird, carried out by the U.S. Ge
Authors
Paul C. Banko, Chris Farmer, Steve Dougill, Luanne Johnson

Palila restoration research, 1996−2012

The Palila Restoration Project was initiated in 1996 by the U.S. Geological Survey to assist government agencies mitigate the effects of realigning Saddle Road (Highway 200) through Palila Critical Habitat (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1998, Federal Highway Administration 1999). Ecological research on the palila (Loxioides bailleui), an endangered Hawaiian forest bird, carried out by the U.S. Ge
Authors
Paul C. Banko, Chris Farmer, Carter T. Atkinson, Kevin W. Brinck, Richad Camp, Colleen Cole, Raymond Canner, Steve Dougill, Daniel Goltz, Elizabeth Gray, Steven C. Hess, Jennifer Higashino, Susan I. Jarvi, Luanne Johnson, Leona Laniawe, Megan Laut, Linda Miller, Christopher J. Murray, Daniel Nelson, David L. Leonard, Peter Oboyshi, Leanne Patch-Highfill, David D. Pollock, Kalei Rapozo, Marla Schwarzfeld, John Slotterback, Robert M. Stephens

Behavior of bats at wind turbines

Wind turbines are causing unprecedented numbers of bat fatalities. Many fatalities involve tree-roosting bats, but reasons for this higher susceptibility remain unknown. To better understand behaviors associated with risk, we monitored bats at three experimentally manipulated wind turbines in Indiana, United States, from July 29 to October 1, 2012, using thermal cameras and other methods. We obser

Authors
Paul M. Cryan, P. Marcos Gorresen, Cris D. Hine, Michael Schirmacher, Robert H. Diehl, Manuela M. Huso, David T.S. Hayman, Paul D. Fricker, Frank J. Bonaccorso, Douglas H. Johnson, Kevin W. Heist, David C. Dalton

Changes in Mauna Kea Dry Forest Structure 2000-2014

Changes in the structure of the subalpine vegetation of Palila Critical Habitat on the southwestern slope of Mauna Kea Volcano, Hawai‘i, were analyzed using 12 metrics of change in māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) and naio (Myoporum sandwicense) trees surveyed on plots in 2000 and 2014. These two dominant species were analyzed separately, and changes in their structure indicated changes in the forest
Authors
Paul C. Banko, Kevin W. Brinck

The economic viability of smallholder timber production under expanding açaí palm production in the Amazon Estuary

Relatively little attention has been paid to the economic potentials and limitations of tropical timber production and management at smallholder scales, with the most relevant research focusing on community forestry efforts. As a rare tropical example of long-lasting small-scale timber production, in this study we explore the economics of smallholder vertically integrated timber use to better unde

Authors
Lucas B. Fortini, Douglas R. Carter

Trends in conservation research and management in Hawai‘i over the past 20 years

Hawaiʻi, an archipelago of the most isolated inhabited islands on the planet, faces unique and extreme challenges to its biodiversity. We examined how the conservation community has responded to these challenges and how the responses have changed over time, using twenty years of abstracts from the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference, a yearly gathering of the majority of scientists, managers and the p
Authors
Daniela Dutra Elliott, Lucas B. Fortini, David Cameron Duffy

Modeling Hawaiian ecosystem degradation due to invasive plants under current and future climates

Occupation of native ecosystems by invasive plant species alters their structure and/or function. In Hawaii, a subset of introduced plants is regarded as extremely harmful due to competitive ability, ecosystem modification, and biogeochemical habitat degradation. By controlling this subset of highly invasive ecosystem modifiers, conservation managers could significantly reduce native ecosystem deg
Authors
Adam E. Vorsino, Lucas B. Fortini, Fred A. Amidon, Stephen E. Miller, James D. Jacobi, Jonathan P. Price, Sam `Ohukani`ohi`a Gon, Gregory A. Koob

Hawaiian forest bird trends: using log-linear models to assess long-term trends is supported by model diagnostics and assumptions (reply to Freed and Cann 2013)

Freed and Cann (2013) criticized our use of linear models to assess trends in the status of Hawaiian forest birds through time (Camp et al. 2009a, 2009b, 2010) by questioning our sampling scheme, whether we met model assumptions, and whether we ignored short-term changes in the population time series. In the present paper, we address these concerns and reiterate that our results do not support the
Authors
Richard J. Camp, Thane K. Pratt, P. Marcos Gorresen, Bethany L. Woodworth, John J. Jeffrey

Competitive impacts of an invasive nectar thief on plant-pollinator mutualisms

Plant–pollinator mutualisms are disrupted by a variety of competitive interactions between introduced and native floral visitors. The invasive western yellowjacket wasp, Vespula pensylvanica, is an aggressive nectar thief of the dominant endemic Hawaiian tree species, Metrosideros polymorpha. We conducted a large-scale, multiyear manipulative experiment to investigate the impacts of V. pensylvanic
Authors
Cause Hanna, David Foote, Claire Kremen

Developing tools to eradicate ecologically destructive ants on Rose Atoll: effectiveness and attractiveness of formicidal baits

A key factor contributing to the decline in the population of Pisonia grandis on Rose Atoll is an infestation of the non-native scale, Pulvinaria urbicola (Homoptera: Coccidae). Ants, in facultative relationships with scale insects, may facilitate scale population growth and increase their effect on plant hosts. Three ant species found on Rose Atoll, Tetramorium bicarinatum, T. simillimum, and Phe
Authors
Robert Peck, Paul Banko, Frank Pendleton

Arthropod community structure on bark of koa (Acacia koa) and ʻōhiʻā (Metrosideros polymorpha) at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaiʻi

The arthropod community associated with tree bark contains a wide variety of taxa but is poorly described, particularly in Hawaiʽi. Our overall goals were to evaluate the abundance of arthropods available to foraging birds and how variation in bark substrates may contribute to arthropod distributions in native forests. Our study aimed to identify this fauna on the dominant canopy-forming trees koa
Authors
Robert W. Peck, Paul C. Banko, Matt Stelmach

El Niño-Southern Oscillation is linked to decreased energetic condition in long-distance migrants

Predicting how migratory animals respond to changing climatic conditions requires knowledge of how climatic events affect each phase of the annual cycle and how those effects carry-over to subsequent phases. We utilized a 17-year migration dataset to examine how El Niño-Southern Oscillation climatic events in geographically different regions of the Western hemisphere carry-over to impact the stopo
Authors
Kristina L. Paxton, Emily B. Cohen, Eben H. Paxton, Zoltan Németh, Frank R. Moore