Publications

We studied the population biology and ecology of the island night lizard (Xantusia riversiana) on Santa Barbara Island, California from 1981-1988. We trapped all the major habitats on the island, using pitfall traps and Sherman small mammal traps. In addition to permanently marking individuals by toe-clipping, we used specialized marking techniques on some individuals (fluorescent powder...

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

Recent studies show that generalizations about photosynthetic pathways, derived from terrestrial plant studies, do not apply to aquatic plants. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis is of selective value not only in arid environments, where it enhances water-use efficiency, but also in aquatic plants of oligotrophic waters, where it enhances competitive ability in carbon...

The water balance describes climate as it is sensed by plants, as the interaction of energy and water in the environment. Discriminant analysis showed that the distribution of North American plant formations was more highly correlated with the water balance (actual evapotranspiration and deficit) than with the more traditional measures of climate (such as temperature and precipitation)...

The California sea otter (Enhydra lutris) population, after increasing for more than half a century, stabilized and probably declined from the mid-1970's to the mid-1980's. Estes et al. (1986) suggested that the stabilization and decline were not due to food limitation. Garshelis et al. (1990) challenged this suggestion, although in doing so they misrepresented arguments made by Estes et...

We evaluated 3 techniques (air jet, flat skin, grab sample) to assess molt in dead waterfowl (green- winged teal [Anas crecca] and king eider [Somateria spectabilis]). The air jet technique was fast and required no specimen preparation. The flat skin technique required lengthy preparation time after which molt was assessed quickly. Both techniques underestimated the extent of molt (P 0...

Eleocharis acicularis (L.) R. & S. is a widely distributed submerged aquatic macrophyte. In southern California, it codominates shallow seasonal pools with the aquatic CAM plant Isoetes howellii Engelm. Like the latter species, E. acicularis is apparently restricted to uptake of free-CO2; bicarbonate uptake is negligible, as indicated by poor carbon fixation at pH 7 and higher oxygen...

This study was conducted to determine selenium (Se) concentrations in tissues of birds collected during the 1983-1985 nesting seasons at Kesterson Reservoir (an area receiving high-Se irrigation drainage water), compare them with birds from reference sites within California's Central Valley, and relate them to food-chain Se concentrations at the study sites. Within years, Se in livers of...

Grasslands are distributed throughout California from Oregon to Baja California Norte and from the coast to the desert (Brown 1982) (Figure 1). This review will focus on the dominant formation in cismontane California, a community referred to as Valley Grassland (Munz 1959). Today, Valley Grassland is dominated by non-native annual grasses in genera such as Avena (wild oat), Bromus...

No abstract available.

No abstract available at this time