Stories from the Field Active

Snapshot USA

As natural areas continue to be developed and fragmented, the need for baseline data regarding the abundance and distribution of wildlife populations continues to grow. Snapshot USA is a project that is facilitating the collaboration of cooperators to contribute to a national database of public wildlife data; scientists from the Arkansas (B. Degregorio) and Oklahoma (R. Lonsinger) CRUs are collaborators.

Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

In 2019, a network of scientists launched Snapshot USA, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife using cameras across the United States. Surveys began in fall of 2019 and date were collected at 1,509 camera sites within 110 camera arrays covering 12 different ecoregions across all 50 states. In 2020, 1485 cameras from 103 arrays resulted in 117,415 detections of 78 species of mammals and 43 species of birds. These data will be used to examine nationwide trends in mammal community assembly rules associated with natural environmental and anthropogenic filters.

Collaborators from all 50 states have contributed camera trap data from a standardized camera trap array at the same time from each site and the Principal Investigators from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and North Carolina State University annually compile and lead efforts to analyze data. Images are processed through the Smithsonian’s eMammal data repository (2019) and Wildlife Insights (2020 – 2022) and include an expert review to ensure taxonomic accuracy. All survey data were made available in a recent data publication. Data collected will be archived at the Smithsonian and made available for local and macroecological research including the examination of community assembly, effects of environmental and anthropogenic landscape variables, effects of fragmentation and extinction debt dynamics, as well as species-specific population dynamics and conservation action plans.

Results will provide information regarding the occupancy of mesopredators, activity patterns of animals nationwide, and relative density of several common species of mammals. This database will be one of the largest repositories for images from camera traps and will provide the raw material for numerous large-scale ecological examinations of mammal populations.

Evaluating and Supporting Citizen Science

Worldwide, scientists are increasingly collaborating with the public. Citizen science, or community science, has emerged as a cost-efficient method to collect data for wildlife and fisheries monitoring. Our scientists are conducting research related to citizen science data quality, attitudes and characteristics of citizens engaged in data collection, and are even training citizens to collect and share data. Projects that citizens are helping with range from detection of birds (Utah Unit) and mammals (New York Unit), bighorn sheep respiratory disease (Iowa Unit), herring passage (Massachusetts Unit), jaguar and ocelots (Arizona Unit), to abundance of sea turtles (Minnesota Unit), standardized surveys of endangered mussels (Massachusetts Unit), and habitat characters of bumblebees (Utah Unit). Citizen science data are being used in many instances to build predictive models of species detection, distribution, and abundance to inform population and habitat management decisions for cooperators.

Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) Framework

As once familiar ecological conditions disappear, traditional management approaches that assume the future will reflect the past are becoming increasingly untenable. The resist-accept-direct (RAD) framework encompasses the decision space managers consider when addressing climate in local systems; to decide among strategies, managers must understand how specific systems are influenced by climate change.

Several CRU scientists (Missouri, (C. Paukert), New York (S. Sethi) and Wisconsin (D. Isermann and J. Homala) have been involved with development, delivery, and publication (Bioscience and Fisheries Management and Ecology) of decision-support systems using the RAD framework in collaboration with dozens of Federal, Tribal Nations, State, University and NGO collaborators, the USGS Climate Science Center and multiple USGS Science Centers.

The collective work was diverse and included: placing adaptive management within RAD framework to assist informed risk taking for transforming ecosystems; development of a decision-support tool for fishery management of walleye; presenting RAD strategies to address ecological goals for aquatic ecosystems and social goals for fisheries; and a case study of diverse inland fisheries to review management strategies for recreational and subsistence fisheries in response to climate change within the RAD framework. The collective work delivered decision-making tools and procedures from moving past resist strategies toward direct strategies using the RAD framework combined with other familiar techniques such as adaptive management.

Amphibian Disease Ecology

Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Wyoming

'Infectious diseases pose a serious threat to the health of people, domestic animals, and wildlife alike. A deeper understanding of how organisms respond to disease better equips us to improve human and animal health in the face of infectious onslaughts.

Results of these studies will be used by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and other management agencies working to protect boreal toad populations. Further, by investigating the behavioral and demographic responses of wild animals to disease, this research advances our understanding of host-pathogen relationships and informs conservation efforts geared toward precluding further declines of populations challenged with infectious disease.

Since 2015, the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, in collaboration with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Forest Service, has investigated amphibian responses to a pathogenic fungus. The chytrid fungus, which causes a skin disease in amphibians, is responsible for declines in hundreds of amphibian populations globally.

Boreal toads, once common in high-elevation habitats across the Rocky Mountain West, have suffered severe declines as a result of chytrid fungus in recent decades. By evaluating the movement and infection status of boreal toads through time, Gabriel Barrile (Ph.D. candidate) and faculty advisors Anna Chalfoun and Annika Walters (assistant unit leaders) revealed a defensive strategy whereby individuals used moist, sheltered habitats when disease-free but moved to warmer, more open habitats when infected. Switching habitats in response to infection appeared to be advantageous, as increased warmth in open habitats was associated with the clearing of infection. These findings suggest that small-scale microhabitat manipulation to create warm patches may be an effective mitigation action against the chytrid fungus and possibly other amphibian diseases.

The Wyoming Unit is also conducting an extensive mark-recapture project to examine how the chytrid fungus influences population dynamics of boreal toads, such as annual survival and recruitment rates."

Wendy Estes-Zumpf Herpetological Coordinator Wyoming Game and Fish Department

Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

State-Threatened, Riparian-Obligate Raptors in the Trans-Pecos Region

Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Texas Tech University

"Desert riparian systems are distinct narrow drainages that provide environmental conditions for vegetation dependent on permanent or ephemeral surface and subsurface water. Desert riparian zones associated with these systems provide important nesting and foraging habitat in an otherwise highly arid land-scape.

These riparian systems have been identified as a priority for conservation throughout the southwestern United States. Within these riparian zones in the Chihuahua Desert Ecoregion of Texas are three State-threatened birds of prey—the common black hawk, the gray hawk, and the zone-tailed hawk. Only the most basic observed presence information has been available for these species in the region; thus, species assessments and management has been hampered by a lack of quantitative data.

The Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit has partnered with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Big Bend Ranch State and National Parks, and private conservation entities to assess the abundance, habitat characteristics, productivity, and community structure of these species in riparian zones of the Trans-Pecos region of Texas.

Researchers anticipate that the results will provide the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department with data to make informed decisions for status assessment updates and identification of priority areas for conservation and restoration of these State-threatened species."

Russell Martin Wildlife Diversity Biologist Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Tracking Seabirds

South Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Clemson University

"Conservation efforts are challenging for species of wildlife that are highly transboundary in their movements. Seabirds epitomize this transboundary challenge, regularly occupying terrestrial and marine ecosystems and often traversing State, regional, and international boundaries on a regular basis while foraging.

During the past 10+ years, the South Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit has been collaborating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as with other State, Federal, and international agencies, to enhance understanding of the daily and annual movement patterns of seabirds.

The South Carolina Unit has undertaken two extensive projects focused on the spatial ecology of brown pelicans. In the Gulf of Mexico, Juliet Lamb (a former Ph.D. student; now a Marie Curie Fellow) used satellite tags to assess risk exposure of brown pelicans throughout their annual cycle, identifying temporal and spatial “hot-times and hot-spots.”

In the South Atlantic Bight region, Ph.D. candidate Brad Wilkinson is using satellite tags to explore brown pelican daily movement patterns and to model how their migration patterns may be affected by climate change.

The South Carolina Unit has also undertaken several efforts to track seabirds that breed in the Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico, but perhaps none is more important than their work on the endangered Black-capped Petrel. This research continues to substantially increase knowledge of this endemic and enigmatic seabird, thereby identifying threats that the species faces in United States waters as well as in international waters. Information learned from these studies is being used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other resource management decision makers to inform actions, such as management of marine and terrestrial systems, to provide key science information in species status assessments and to underpin science critical to oil spill planning and response."

William B. Uihlein, III Assistant Regional Director, Science Applications and Migratory Birds, South Atlantic-Gulf and Mississippi Basin U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Standardizing Sampling of North American Fish Populations

Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Arizona

"Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit M.S. students Joshua Grant and Steven Ingram, in collabora­tion with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD), are calibrating gear and testing new fish sampling techniques (hydroacoustics and electrofishing boat operation) in western canyon-bound reservoirs.

This research compares current AZGFD sampling protocols with American Fisheries Society (AFS) standard methods; facilitates AZGFD’s adoption of AFS standard sampling techniques they are not already using; and will help inform the next edition of the AFS’ “Standard Methods for Sampling North American Freshwater Fishes” (AFS Standard Methods), a sampling guide used by fisheries biologists across North America.

Standardization of fisheries sampling across North America has many positive benefits. These include the ability to measure large-scale effects of climate change and increasing water demand; larger sample sizes to test effects of regulations, habitat improvements or other management techniques; reliable means to check for species presence; easier communication among fisheries profession­als and the public; and simpler data sharing across State and Provincial boundaries.

With these and other needs increasing, reasons for wide-scale standardization are more compelling than ever. The AZGFD has consistently supported this multiagency effort from the beginning. The AZGFD, along with nine other sponsors, helped support development of the first edition of AFS Standard Methods, released in 2009, which is widely used in the United States and elsewhere. Since then, State agencies and others have aggressively requested an update to include new methods, gears, data, and expanded web-based tools to support data analysis and comparison.

Additionally, the AZGFD, as part of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, strongly supported the development of a second edition of AFS Standard Methods. To date, more than 400 biologists from the United States, Canada, and Mexico have been involved in this project, along with many Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units. This collaboration is resulting in advances in fisheries management that extend far beyond the boundaries of Ari­zona."

Julie Meka Carter, Aquatic Wildlife Branch Chief, and Andy Clark, Statewide Sportfish Program Supervisor, Arizona Game and Fish Department

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.

Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Missouri

"The outcomes of these col­laborative research projects contributed toward a decision by MDC to phase out use of neonicotinoid seed treatments on all lands owned or managed by the MDC.

Neonicotinoids are systemic, chemical insecticides widely used as preplanting treatments on crop seeds to control insect agricultural pests. Neonicotinoids are a controversial class of insecticides given their ability to be acutely toxic to nontarget insects as well as insect pests.

Across the midwest­ern United States, thousands of hectares of public land are cultivated annually for production of agricultural crops, food plots, and cover for wildlife. Many of these public lands have historically used neonicotinoid seed treatments on crops such as corn, soybean, and sunflowers. Because of their relatively long half-lives in soil, high water solubility, and the potential for exposure to nontarget insects, a priority information need of the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) was determining if these chemicals persisted in concentrations detrimental to insect communities on public conservation areas.

During 2016–2020, the Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, in collaboration with the MDC, quan­tified neonicotinoid concentrations in soils (fields and mar­gins), vegetation (field crop and margin flowers), and wetlands on public lands to evaluate the effects of annual neonicotinoid seed-treatment use on native bees and aquatic macroinverte­brate communities.

Anson Main (postdoctoral research associ­ate at the Missouri Unit) and advisors Lisa Webb (Missouri Unit) and Keith Goyne (professor, University of Missouri) found widespread and persistent presence of neonicotinoids in soils of agricultural fields and field margins on public lands, with some measured concentrations exceeding those known to have sublethal effects on ground-nesting bees. The experi­mental study provides evidence over two seasons that annual use of neonicotinoid seed treatments can result in reduced abundance and richness of ground-nesting bees living in or near agricultural fields.

In a concurrent project, Kyle Kuechle (M.S. student) found widespread and persistent presence of neonicotinoids in water and sediments of public wetlands across Missouri. Mean aquatic neonicotinoid concentrations met or exceeded the chronic exposure threshold for aquatic life established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 75 percent of sampling events."

Joel Porath, Wildlife Section Chief, Missouri Department of Conservation

Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Fisheries Management in Lake Ontario

New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University

"This stock assessment is generat­ing information for joint United States–Canada management of this hallmark Great Lakes fishery.

Chi­nook salmon is the most popular recreational fishery in Lake Ontario and contributes to the $2 billion recreational fishing industry in New York; however, the continued success of this fishery is dependent on the availability of a key prey fish population, alewife. Great Lakes fisheries generate substantial revenues and livelihoods and contribute to the cultural identity of lake communities. However, the long-term sustainability of these fisheries requires that managers regularly evaluate stock­ing and harvest strategies in response to shifting ecologi­cal, environmental, and social factors.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit are collaborating to develop cutting-edge quantitative tools to help inform fisheries management in Lake Ontario.

In collaboration with NYSDEC and other United States and Canadian regional partners, Kimberly Fitz­patrick (Ph.D. student) and Dr. Suresh Sethi (Assistant Unit Leader) designed a multispecies stock assessment model to jointly estimate the population dynamics of Chinook salmon and alewife in Lake Ontario. By including both predator and prey dynamics, this novel modeling framework provides an assessment of both the status of the fishery and the risk of future population instability."

Chris Legard, Lake Ontario Unit Leader, New York State Department of Envi­ronmental Conservation

Sources/Usage: Public Domain.