Conservation Ecology and Planning
Conservation Ecology and Planning
Filter Total Items: 13
Aquatic Vegetation Monitoring
The Mississippi River is of global importance to persons and to the wildlife that live on and migrate along the river corridor. Data collected and processed by the Long-Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program serves to help us understand, restore, and protect this remarkable ecosystem. The LTRM has collected aquatic and floodplain...
Constraints on Aquatic Vegetation and Restoration Potential of Aquatic Vegetation
Aquatic vegetation is a foundational element of life in aquatic systems, providing food and habitat for several species, and aquatic vegetation restoration is a high priority for Mississippi River managers. Understanding why plants grow in certain places, but not others is important for successful restoration efforts. This study evaluated the constraints on aquatic vegetation growth by using...
Shallow lake management enhanced habitat and attracted waterbirds during fall migration
Shallow lakes are a key resource for waterfowl species, so protecting and restoring these areas is of great importance to managing their populations. This study evaluated the effectiveness of management practices on shallow lakes and their influence on waterbird populations that depend on them. Researchers found that lake management actions increased the abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation...
Wetland Loss: Modeling Consequences for Waterfowl Production, Recreation Use, and Economic Opportunities
Amendments to the Clean Water Act in 1972 established federal jurisdiction over “navigable waters,” defined in the Act as the “waters of the United States.” A revised definition of the Waters of the U.S. rule took effect on 20 March 2023. However, various legal challenges precluded implementation of the new definition. On 25 May 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Sackett et ux. v...
Decision-support tool for managing endangered species in the face of uncertainty
Along the Santa Clara River in California, populations of the federally and state-listed Least Bell's Vireo ( Vireo bellii pusillus ) are recovering from near extirpation. Habitat protection and restoration, as well as reducing brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds ( Molothrus ater ), are thought to be the primary drivers of this recovery. The challenge going forward is to find the right...
Wildlife Toxicology
The team's long term goal is: Examine the causes, fates, exposures, biological accumulation, and adverse effects (including sublethal effects) of environmental contaminants on animal (largely bird) populations.
Decision Support Systems
A Decision Support System (DSS) can be defined in many ways. The working definition the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) uses is, "A spatially based computer application or data that assists a researcher or manager in making decisions ." This is quite a broad definition and it needs to be, as the possibilities for types of DSS are limited only by the user group and the developer...
LINK: ArcGIS Tools for Conservation Planning
Allows managers and planners to rapidly assess landscape attributes and link these attributes with species/habitat information Provides resource managers a means to compare the conservation potential of local management units with that of the surrounding county, state, or region Can be applied to any taxa or suite of taxa and any landscape, given that spatial data layers representing habitats are...
River Productivity
Biological production represents the total amount of living material (biomass) that was produced during a defined period of time. This production is important because some of it is used for food and some is valued for recreation, it is a direct measure of total ecosystem processes, and it sustains biological diversity. Production is a measure of energy flow, and is therefore a natural currency for...
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Comprehensive Conservation Plan
The Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been entrusted to manage our nation’s critical wetland resources. Due to conversion in industrial, residential, and agricultural uses, these wetlands have been disappearing at an alarming rate over the last one-hundred years. In order to better care for these resources, all of the refuges are developing long-term Comprehensive Conservation Plans (CCP).
Boater Compliance with Established Voluntary Waterfowl Avoidance Areas on the Upper Mississippi River
Disturbance to resting and feeding waterfowl on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge (Refuge) is of utmost concern to refuge managers. Voluntary Waterfowl Avoidance Areas (VWAA) have been established to reduce boating disturbance to migratory waterfowl on Navigation Pools 7 and 8 of the Upper Mississippi River. Ongoing boater compliance with the VWAA programs has been...
Species Distributional Modeling and Spatial Patterns in Genetic Introgression: the Case of Golden-winged Warblers and Blue-winged Warblers
The Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) is a species of considerable conservation concern in North America, primarily due to widespread population declines attributable to habitat loss (Confer et al. 1992, Buehler et al. ) and displacement by the Blue-winged Warbler (V. pinus) in areas of sympatry (Gill 1980, 2004; Will 1986). Recent research highlighted an important mechanism in the...