Publications

Fish inhabiting marine coastal and Great Lakes waters of the United States forage, migrate, and reproduce without regard to human-made boundaries. In the mid-20th century, the 32 states along the U.S. coasts and Great Lakes recognized the growing need for coordinated, interjurisdictional fisheries management and formed four interstate or international fisheries commissions through...

The U.S. Geological Survey monitors a suite of intertidal black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii) sites at San Nicolas Island, California, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, which owns the island. The nine rocky intertidal sites were established in 1980 to study the potential effect of translocated sea otters on the intertidal black abalone population at the island. The sites were monitored...

The grasslands in the North Central region are managed by a diverse group of Federal, State, and Tribal agencies; nongovernmental organizations; partnerships; and private landowners. This chapter highlights these various grassland management entities, provides background information on their mission and organizational structure, and describes some of their key grassland management...

Trends in wildlife mortality can be particularly challenging to identify in low-density species where mortalities are less likely to be detected or documented. The Pueo, or Hawaiian Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus sandwichensis), is the only native raptor that breeds on all the main Hawaiian Islands. The Pueo is state-listed as endangered on the island of Oʻahu, but drivers of population...

The microbes found in the rhizosphere, roots, leaves and stem surfaces and within the internal tissues of mangrove vegetation and their environment constitute the microbiome of the ecosystem. The organisms in the microbiome include bacteria, protozoa, fungi, algae, amoebas, and slime molds, which assist in maintaining and restoring mangrove ecosystems. This review explores the role of...

Species bounty programs, much like bounty hunters charged to bring fugitives to justice, enlist the public to locate and remove unwanted species through financial incentives. With the goal of reducing population sizes, these programs address perceived ecological and economic damage caused by target species. In this study, we provide the first global assessment of species bounty programs...

We investigated factors driving flowering and flower maturation and their effects on acorn production at both the annual and individual trees levels in a population of valley oak (Quercus lobata) in central coastal California, USA. Among years, female flower production was negatively correlated with rainfall, while warm spring temperatures and a large acorn crop the previous year...

Background

Knowledge of growth patterns and physical properties of animals helps researchers assess population characteristics and health in the field. Information on age-specific body measurements and growth patterns is rare in ungulates because examining a large portion of a population is time-, budget-, and personnel-intensive in the wild. We collected age- and sex-specific body measurements...

Context

Fall bottom trawl (fall BT) and lakewide acoustic (AC) surveys are conducted annually to generate indices of pelagic and benthic prey fish densities in Lake Michigan. The fall BT survey has been conducted each fall since 1973 using 12-m trawls at depths ranging from 9 to 110 m at fixed locations distributed across seven transects; this survey estimates densities of seven prey fish...

Understanding how invasive species populations respond to perturbations can give insight into effective management. However, opportunities to test theoretical population responses are rare, as experimental perturbations often run counter to management goals (e.g., suppression). On the island of Guam, a 5-ha outdoor enclosure (with no immigration or emigration) constructed in 2003 serves...