Articles

Obtaining precise and unbiased estimates of feral burro (Equus asinus) abundance in the western United States is challenging due to their cryptic pelage and the rugged terrain they inhabit. Management agencies employ helicopter-based, simultaneous double-observer sightability surveys (hereafter denoted as DOS) to estimate abundance of burros; but the DOS method routinely produces...

Functional trait approaches are common in ecology, but a lack of clear hypotheses on how traits relate to environmental gradients (i.e., trait–niche relationships) often makes uncovering mechanisms difficult. Furthermore, measures of community functional structure differ in their implications, yet inferences are seldom compared among metrics. Community-weighted mean trait values (CWMs)...

Sustained-yield hunting of introduced ungulates in the Hawaiian Islands often conflicts with the conservation of native species, but there is little reliable data to guide effective management. European mouflon sheep (Ovis musimon; mouflon) and axis deer (Axis axis; deer) were introduced on the island of Lāna‘i to provide additional hunting opportunities. Managers will require better...

Large-scale dam removals provide opportunities to restore river function in the long-term and are massive disturbances to riverine ecosystems in the short-term. The removal of two dams on the Elwha River (WA, USA) between 2011 and 2014 was the largest dam removal project to be completed by that time and has since resulted in major changes to channel dynamics, river substrates, in-stream

The red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii is native to the southeast United States but has successfully invaded nearly every continent around the world. Although physical, biological, and chemical controls are employed to reduce or eliminate populations in open-water systems, terrestrial burrows provide a potential refuge from aquatic control treatments. We conducted burrow trials to...

Probabilistic models to inform landslide early warning systems often rely on rainfall totals observed during past events with landslides. However, these models are generally developed for broad regions using large catalogs, with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of landslide occurrences. This study evaluates strategies for training landslide forecasting models with a scanty record of...

Objective Silver Chub Macrhybopsis storeriana, a predominately riverine species throughout its native range, exists within Lake Erie as the only known lake population. Its population declined in the 1950s and never fully recovered. Canada has listed Silver Chub in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River as endangered and has initiated a recovery plan that recognized the identification of...

Wet deposition monitoring is a critical part of the long-term monitoring of acid deposition, which aims to assess the ecological impact of anthropogenic emissions of SO2 and NOx. In North America, long-term wet deposition has been monitored through two national networks: the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CAPMoN) and the US National Atmospheric Deposition Program...

The isotope values of fossil snail shells can be important archives of climate. Here, we present the first carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope values of snail shells in interior Alaska to explore changes in vegetation and humidity through the late-glacial period. Snail shell δ13C values were relatively consistent through the late glacial. However, late-glacial shell δ13C values are 2...

The Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus) is an invasive constrictor established across southern Florida. These snakes are dietary generalists with large home ranges and broad habitat requirements and their introduction has had severe impacts on native species and ecosystems in the region. We describe the first observation of a Florida kingsnake (Lampropeltis floridana) that...

Arctic coastal environments are eroding and rapidly changing. A lack of pan-Arctic observations limits our ability to understand controls on coastal erosion rates across the entire Arctic region. Here, we capitalize on an abundance of geospatial and remotely sensed data, in addition to model output, from the North Slope of Alaska to identify relationships between historical erosion rates...

The conservation and management of wildlife populations, particularly for threatened and endangered species are greatly aided with abundance, growth rate, and density measures. Traditional methods of estimating abundance and related metrics represent trade-offs in effort and precision of estimates. Pedigree reconstruction is an emerging, attractive alternate approach because its use of...