Publications

Coastal wetlands are under a great deal of pressure from the dual forces of rising sea level and the intervention of human populations both along the estuary and in the river catchment. Direct impacts include the destruction or degradation of wetlands from land reclamation and infrastructures. Indirect impacts derive from the discharge of pollutants, changes in river flows and sediment...

A substantial proportion, perhaps 30%, of the North American breeding population of Long-tailed Ducks (Clangula hyemalis) winter in the vicinity of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. These birds spend the night on Nantucket Sound and commute during daylight hours to the Nantucket Shoals, which extend about 65 km offshore from the southeastern corner of Nantucket. Strip transects done from...

No abstract available.

Laysan ducks (Anas laysanensis) are restricted to approximately 9 km2 in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, USA. To evaluate the importance of density dependence for Laysan ducks, we conducted a Bayesian analysis to estimate the parameters of a Gompertz model and the magnitude of process variation and observation error based on the fluctuations in Laysan duck abundance on Laysan Island...

Culex species were monitored at three proximate sites with historically different West Nile virus (WNV) activities. The site with human WNV transmission (epidemic) had the lowest abundance of the putative bridge vectors, Culex pipiens and Cx. salinarius. The site with horse cases but not human cases (epizootic) had the highest percent composition of Cx. salinarius, whereas the site with...

Surveys of dragonfly exuviae have been used to assess rare species' habitats, lake water quality status, and wetland restoration programs. Knowledge of the persistence of exuviae on various substrates is necessary to accurately interpret exuvial surveys. In 2006, we recorded exuvial persistence at defined areas in a variety of small freshwater wetlands in Rhode Island. Exuviae were field

The freshwater oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus is tank cultured to provide organisms for aquatic habitat assessments and regeneration research and to produce a clean source of live food for aquarium fishes. Shredded paper is the typical substrate in small-scale culture of L variegants, however, the effort needed to separate large numbers of individuals from decomposing paper can be...

Reliable information on demography is necessary for conservation of albatrosses, the most threatened family of pelagic birds. Albatross survival has been estimated using mark-recapture data and the Cormack-Jolly-Seber (CJS) model. However, albatross exhibit skipped breeding, violating assumptions of the CJS model. Multistate modeling integrating unobservable states is a promising tool...

Many fields of science begin with a phase of exploration and description, followed by investigations of the processes that account for observed patterns. The science of ecology is no exception, and recent decades have seen a focus on understanding key processes underlying the dynamics of ecological systems. In population ecology, emphasis has shifted from the state variable of population...

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

Vegetation data collected at Rock Creek Park every 4 years during 1991-2007 were analyzed for differences among 3 regions within the park and among years. The variables measured and analyzed were percentage of twigs browsed, percentage of canopy cover, species richness of herbaceous plants, number of tree seedlings in each of 7 height classes, tree seedling stocking rate for low deer...