Publications

Introduced avian pox virus and malaria have had devastating impacts on native Hawaiian forest birds, yet little has been published about their prevalence and distribution in forest bird communities outside of windward Hawaii Island. We surveyed native and non-native forest birds for these two diseases at three different elevations on leeward Mauna Loa Volcano at the Kona Forest Unit of...

This chapter is devoted to the diseases of anuran larvae that cause morbidity( illness) and mortality (death). The purpose of this chapter is to describe diseases that may be encountered in free-living tadpoles of the United States and Canada. Much of the information in this chapter comes from unpublished diagnostic examinations of amphibians done at the U.S. Geological Survey, National...

Few diseases are reported in salamanders. Two notable exceptions are infections by Ranavirus and Ichthyophonus. Except for mortality events associated with ranaviruses in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) and spotted salamanders (A. maculatum), dieoffs of salamanders are rarely detected or reported. Diseases presented in this chapter are those encountered in free-living salamanders...

The Point Reyes peninsula in northern California is about 45 km northwest of San Francisco and occasionally receives air masses from the city contributing to haze and lowered visibility. Although gaseous pollutants are not a problem, fine particulates containing carbon and other elements are measurable at the park. In this study, five lichen species were sampled along a 40-km linear...

Kin selection is a powerful tool for understanding cooperation among individuals, yet its role as the sole explanation of cooperative societies has recently been challenged on empirical grounds. These studies suggest that direct benefits of cooperation are often overlooked, and that partner choice may be a widespread mechanism of cooperation. Female eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) may...

No abstract available.

We describe the epizootiology of spirorchiid trematode infections in Hawaiian green turtles (Chelonia mydas) by quantifying tissue egg burdens in turtles submitted for necropsy and by assessing antibody response to crude adult worm and egg antigens among a variety of age groups. Hapalotrema sp. and Laeredius sp. predominated in turtles infected with spirorchiids. Tissue egg burdens...

We studied patterns in avian cholera mortality, the presence of Pasteurella multocida in the water or sediment, and water chemistry characteristics in 10 wetlands at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex (California, USA), an area of recurrent avian cholera epizootics, during the winters of 1997 and 1998. Avian cholera outbreaks (≥50 dead birds) occurred on two wetlands during...

Over 26,100 records of lichens present in 144 U.S. national park units were assembled from various sources into a database and analyzed. Within these 144 park units 2,435 species and 375 genera are reported, representing 63% and 74% of the North American flora, respectively. The park units are located in 41 states and Washington, D.C. The average number of species in a park is 104, but...

The Laysan Teal Anas laysanensis is an endangered anatid of the Hawaiian Islands, currently restricted to an emergent atoll, Laysan Island. Laysan Island lacks terrestrial mammalian predators, which permits the examination of mortality rates and causes without the anthropogenic effects of introduced predators. Mass and morophometrics were measured during the colour-marking of 297 Laysan...

No abstract available.

Fibropapillomatosis (FP) of marine turtles is an emerging neoplastic disease associated with infection by a novel turtle herpesvirus, fibropapilloma-associated turtle herpesvirus (FPTHV). This report presents 23 kb of the genome of an FPTHV infecting a Hawaiian green turtle (Chelonia mydas). By sequence homology, the open reading frames in this contig correspond to herpes simplex virus...